Speaker Grill Cloth Request
Barry
only need two squares, about 10" x 10". The smallest size I've found is 36"
x 66" and I just don't need that much. The rest would just be wasted so I
thought I'd ask here.
Thanks,
Barry - N4BUQ
Ken
William Sommerwerck
philo
> Any fabric stores near you?
>
>
was still way more than I needed and saved it for my next project.
I eventually used it up.
OTOH: If I was really pressed for cash:
I'd probably just go to a second hand store and buy an old shirt or bed
sheet. I'm sure I'd find something that worked for $3
Richard Knoppow
"Ken" <wkl...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:0yQUm.72115$%j4.2...@newsfe18.iad...
frequencies. Many kinds of cloth do. Painting cloth would
probably clog up the spaces between threads and make the
absorption worse. The best cloth has hard, smooth threads.
For protective purposes black window screen material works
well but is not best for appearance. Dyeing cloth is a
possibility.
--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dick...@ix.netcom.com
philo
Good point
but the old radios don't have much of a hi-range
and none of us old farts could hear it anyway
Barry
hoping to find a scrap of "real" grill cloth rather than just any cloth.
Thanks,
Barry
"William Sommerwerck" <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:hg0l4b$vok$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
William Sommerwerck
> there, but was hoping to find a scrap of "real" grill cloth
> rather than just any cloth.
I understand wanting to be authentic.
You should look for a synthetic fabric with a loose weave.
Unrevealed Source
"Richard Knoppow" <dick...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:ieqdnTdM0ozkkbnW...@earthlink.com...
>> Try spraying with flat black. Ken
> The problem is that speaker cloth should not absorb high frequencies.
> Many kinds of cloth do. Painting cloth would probably clog up the spaces
> between threads and make the absorption worse. The best cloth has hard,
> smooth threads. For protective purposes black window screen material works
> well but is not best for appearance. Dyeing cloth is a possibility.
>
> Richard Knoppow
I'll buy that in theory, but I would challenge anyone to hear a difference
(in double-blind testing) between lightly painted grill cloth, and
non-painted. Even on a high-end audiophile-grade hifi system. I've painted
grill cloth several times and it works great. The trick is not to put it
on too heavy, so that it doesn't fill the spaces. That ruins the
appearance.
graham
"Unrevealed Source" <unreveal...@nospam.com> wrote in message news:lr%Um.71132$Zu5....@newsfe24.iad...
.... most audiophiles listen with the grills removed, the speaker fronts
are finished like the rest of the speaker cabinet in many cases ...
the difference in sound is very easy to hear. The speaker grills of the
speakers in my 3 systems have never left the original boxes ...
Unrevealed Source
news:hg2rhv$oi9$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> .... most audiophiles listen with the grills removed, the speaker fronts
> are finished like the rest of the speaker cabinet in many cases ...
> the difference in sound is very easy to hear. The speaker grills of the
> speakers in my 3 systems have never left the original boxes ...
Not trying to challenge you personally, but...
Back in the day I sold high-end gear at a place called Absolute Sound, in
Ann Arbor. Michigan people may remember them. Our thing was "only
differences you can actually hear" and we had a reputation for being
debunkers of much of the nonsense surrounding audiophile gear. We'd invite
people to bring their miracle products, be it speaker cables, interconnect
cables, gold this and molecularly-aligned that, for actual controlled
listening tests. It was always sad to see someone that just spent $200 on
speaker cables unable to actually hear the difference from normal 18-gauge
speaker wire, things like that. And we did do plenty of tests with speaker
grills on and off. Many speakers look cooler with the grill clothes
removed, but I never observed anyone able to actually hear a difference when
blindfolded.
One of the more interesting things we discovered involves the old myth of
putting sand in the bottom of a speaker. Turns out that one isn't a myth -
it actually does make a difference, although there were varying opinions on
whether it was an improvement or not, on the speakers we tried it with.
I've never been tempted to put sand in the bottom of a radio though.
Just my 2 cents.
Jeff
William Sommerwerck
> fronts are finished like the rest of the speaker cabinet in many
> grills of the speakers in my 3 systems have never left the boxes ...
This is true for most speakers -- but not all.
When I reviewed for "Stereophile", I commonly removed the grill cloths, for
precisely that reason. But there was one speaker (I won't mention the model)
that didn't sound very good. I was about to give it a poor review, when it
occurred to me to put the grill back on.
Bingo. It sounded fine. The designer had taken the grill into account.
William Sommerwerck
> but I never observed anyone able to actually hear a difference
> when blindfolded.
See my preceding remarks. The grill often does slightly degrade the sound.
> One of the more interesting things we discovered involves the old
> myth of putting sand in the bottom of a speaker. Turns out that one
> isn't a myth -- it actually does make a difference, although there were
> varying opinions on whether it was an improvement or not, on the
> speakers we tried it with. I've never been tempted to put sand in the
> bottom of a radio, though.
Wharfedale used to make speakers with sand-filled cabinet walls. It is at
least theoretically correct -- you want the cabinet to be as acoustically
dead as possible.
graham
"Unrevealed Source" <unreveal...@nospam.com> wrote in message news:IS6Vm.71142$Zu5....@newsfe24.iad...
... no offense taken at all Jeff ... actually, a stereo store is about the worst
place to audition a component as the potential customer has no idea what
it would sound like in his or her room with their ancillary gear...
When I owned my high-end store in the 90's, most of my better sales went
to customers that took the component home to demo it there, many times
it never came back to the store ... as for the speaker grills, 99% of my
customers listened to the speakers with the grills off and I often instructed
them to do so .... it is certainly a cheap & easy way to experiment
RadioHist
In Charlotte, NC there is a chain store called Sam Ash.. They have
all sorts of supplies for music (and stuff that could only loosely be
called "music") production and presentation.
I've bought black speaker fabric by the foot there...
Robert
Barry
> but the old radios don't have much of a hi-range
> and none of us old farts could hear it anyway
I guess I should clarify what I'm building. It is a combination
speaker/power supply for a Grundig Satelit 800. The radio has a single
speaker inside, but also feeds stereo output to external speakers which
generally sounds better, especially for FM stereo. The grill cloth is just
to keep something from accidentally poking a hole the speaker cones.
Thanks again,
Barry - N4BUQ
Pete Bertini
>
> I guess I should clarify what I'm building. It is a combination
> speaker/power supply for a Grundig Satelit 800. The radio has a single
> speaker inside, but also feeds stereo output to external speakers which
> generally sounds better, especially for FM stereo. The grill cloth is
> just to keep something from accidentally poking a hole the speaker cones.
>
> Thanks again,
Radio Shack used to carry black grille cloth. Probably more than you
need, but considering it might a local pickup it might be cheaper in
the end?
Pete k1zjh
Pete Bertini
"Pete Bertini" <radioco...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:GxbVm.3457$Z%1.3...@newsfe02.iad...
>
>
>
> Radio Shack used to carry black grille cloth. >
Disregard. "Used To" is about it :( Not in the catalog.
Unrevealed Source
It was undoubtedly the shape of the frame that made the difference, don't
you think? There were "sculpted" frames, usually rounded and which coupled
the driver to the room better.
Unrevealed Source
>
> ... no offense taken at all Jeff ... actually, a stereo store is about the
> worst
> place to audition a component as the potential customer has no idea
> what
> it would sound like in his or her room with their ancillary gear...
> When I owned my high-end store in the 90's, most of my better sales
> went
> to customers that took the component home to demo it there, many times
> it never came back to the store ... as for the speaker grills, 99% of
> my
> customers listened to the speakers with the grills off and I often
> instructed
> them to do so .... it is certainly a cheap & easy way to experiment
Hey, I hear you. But there are still some good high-end stores out there,
and they too (as did we back in the day) let customers take equipment home
before committing. We usually loaned out our store demos for the really
high-end stuff, and then ordered the customer his own after he fell in love
with it.
Nowadays though, people don't really sit and listen to music in front of
their hifi. It's all about features, and home theater, and multi-roam
setups, all that. Most stereo salesman wouldn't know what imaging is if
they heard it (which they never do in their stores).
Jeff
paul @removeppinyot.removecom Paul_P
> ... no offense taken at all Jeff ... actually, a stereo store is about
> the worst
> place to audition a component as the potential customer has no idea
> what
> it would sound like in his or her room with their ancillary gear...
> When I owned my high-end store in the 90's, most of my better sales
> went
> to customers that took the component home to demo it there, many times
> it never came back to the store ... as for the speaker grills, 99% of
> my
> customers listened to the speakers with the grills off and I often
> instructed
> them to do so .... it is certainly a cheap & easy way to experiment
As a kid I auditioned speakers at Lafayette Radio, Monroeville PA. The
sales person, to his credit, did explain the differences between where we
were standing and my bed room.
Paul P.
William Sommerwerck
>> cloths, for precisely that reason. But there was one speaker
>> (I won't mention the model) that didn't sound very good. I was
>> about to give it a poor review, when it occurred to me to put the
>> grill back on.
>> Bingo. It sounded fine. The designer had taken the grill into
>> account.
> It was undoubtedly the shape of the frame that made the difference,
> don't you think?
Don't know for sure, but this speaker did have an oddly shaped grill frame.
William Sommerwerck
> in front of their hifi.
I do. The really good SACDs are fantastic. Close to "being there".
Stand Freberg did a wonderful spoof 52 years ago: "Your whole house becomes
a giant speaker. /You/ move into the garage."
Heywood Jablowme
any chance someone can supply me with a copy of this Stan Freberg spoof??
PLEASE...........
Thanx in advance Herb Harrison
"William Sommerwerck" <grizzle...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:hg3pbt$7p7$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Barry
>> Radio Shack used to carry black grille cloth. >
>
> Disregard. "Used To" is about it :( Not in the catalog.
Yeah, not much use for speaker grill cloth on a cell-phone, is there? :)
Thanks anyway,
Barry - N4BUQ
William Sommerwerck
It's one of the sketches from his 1957 radio series (which replaced Jack
Benny for the summer). It's called "Herman Horne on Hi-Fi". It used to be on
two LPs of the "The Best of the Stan Freberg Radio Show", long out of print.
http://www.amazon.com/Madison-Ave-Werewolf-Stan-Freberg/dp/B000FODA0S
The other album is "Face the Funnies".
GregS
Somebody mentioned flat paint, and I don't know why.
I usually grab my Krylon fast drying semi-gloss for the job.
Very light coats. I can't see how anybody could fill the holes,
but I always hold the fabric up to the light and select them
that way. You should be able to make
out figures through the fabric, else its too fine.
I would guess painting fabric might make it less absorbtive, because
its making the fabric heavier, but thats frequency dependant.
I also like to buy fabric that has some stretch so its easier
to apply.
greg
GregS
The frame is partly responsibe for changes due to refraction and reflection.
When I am fooling with speakers, fixing or making, I usually listen
to the sound of pink noise and simply move the frame on and off.
Anything placed in front of the drivers will change the sound, be
it your hand, or the frame. Coating the front panel with sound absorbant
stuff, will help reduce effects of things in front of the drivres. Oh those defraction
rings are also similar in effect. Listening in real time with pink
is the way, and anything else is wasting time. You also have to listen
at other angles than just straight on. The combination of crossover networks
driver irreglarities, and refraction, makes things difficult sometimes.
greg
Engineer
> Does anyone know where I can get a small amount of black grill cloth? I
> only need two squares, about 10" x 10". The smallest size I've found is 36"
> x 66" and I just don't need that much. The rest would just be wasted so I
> thought I'd ask here.
>
> Thanks,
> Barry - N4BUQ
There a fabric store in Toronto that my wife goes to; sorry, I forget
the name... Fabricville? ...or something. Anyway, I found a couple of
decent open weave fabrics there for speaker use, inexpensive. One has
a small brocade pattern, brown, goes well with vintage radios; the
other is a thin, black weave that I used to recover my pair of vintage
Ditton 44's, my main Hi-Fi speakers (cat got the original stuff!) -
they look and sound great. So, check the fabric stores.
Cheers,
Roger
Richard Knoppow
"Barry" <n4...@knology.net> wrote in message
news:b0482$4b23ca93$4c49dc18$89...@KNOLOGY.NET...
> Does anyone know where I can get a small amount of black
> grill cloth? I only need two squares, about 10" x 10".
> The smallest size I've found is 36" x 66" and I just don't
> need that much. The rest would just be wasted so I
> thought I'd ask here.
>
> Thanks,
> Barry - N4BUQ
you want. Worth an e-mail anyway.