What is a Speaker Cover?
A speaker cover, also called a speaker grille, is always applied in the home, automotive and professional audio industries. It is typically found in front of industrial loudspeakers, positioned in front of the speaker driver, covering it. Most speaker covers are detachable based on personal preferences.
The primary function of a speaker cover is to protect the driver element and speaker internals such as the cone, tube, and delicate electronics behind them from extraneous items while enabling sound to pass through clearly.
Types of Speaker Cover
As we can see, most speakers have a variety of designs, including the grille, which is important when it covers a large area of the speaker. Generally, there are two types of speaker grille, which are soft and hard. Sound waves are longitudinal, where the particles are parallel to travel from the direction of sound energy. They can pass through air, liquid, and even solid. Therefore, we are still able to hear even if there are speaker grilles on the speaker. However, do the characteristics of the grilles affect the sounds?
Soft Grilles
Hard Grilles
Any suitable cloth, fabric, or other equivalent material can be designed as soft grilles, we can even “DIY” or buy grille cloth online. They provide protection from small, lightweight items and may be water resistant to some extent, but they are prone to being torn or stretched. Aside from longitudinal waves, there are also pressure waves and mechanical waves produced by the sound. Therefore, soft grilles are more flexible when they are soft and more free to vibrate synchronously with the waves, resulting in less rattling of the speaker.
A variety of materials, including metal, wood, and plastic can form hard grilles. In this case, a board or sheet of material with holes drilled or cut to allow sound to travel through – perforated metal sheets is the common speaker grilles. Perforated metal made of carbon steel, galvanised steel, and aluminium, as well as various plastics like PC, PS, and PET, are among the standard for speaker units and home theatre systems.
Unlike soft grilles, the hard material is not free to move with waves produced. Therefore, the speaker’s output level must be considered when designing the grille. A grille with more holes will allow more sound to pass but will offer less protection from small objects. If there is a huge area of hard materials covering the speaker driver, it will most likely create rattling, impairing the experience, sound quality, and ultimately damaging the speaker.
Does Speaker Cover Affect The Sound Quality?
This is a common question that we would ask when it comes to choosing or applying a speaker cover. There are a variety of speaker designs in the market, with or without speaker covers. Hence, there is no absolute answer.
However, sound waves are longitudinal where the particles travel parallelly. Hence, the speaker grille must interact with the sounds when it is sitting in the direct path of the driver. As a result, a reasonable compromise between protection and sound quality must be considered based upon the use of speakers.
In fact, an appropriate balance of protection and sound quality can be achieved by taking careful thought throughout the design and manufacturing processes. Hence, it is critical to seek a professional speaker griller provider in order to enjoy the best sound quality while providing sufficient protection for the speakers.
Ways to Take Care of Your Speaker
Most of the time, a high-quality speaker system will still produce a good, quality sound even years after you bought it. The tip is “ how you take care of it”. If speakers have been treated properly, they can last an extraordinarily long time and still sound their best in the long run. Here are some tips that we can do to take care of the speakers.
#1 Make sure it is dust-free
Indeed, it is impossible to avoid dust on the speaker, yet we can prevent it from getting excessive. Not only unappealing in appearance, dust and dirt can also affect speaker performance as they may attract moisture and build a corrosive layer of material, compromising the sound quality. Therefore, we can keep the speakers while not in use instead of placing it at the corner that can accumulate dust easily.
#2 Clean speakers regularly
First of all, always make sure the connection and switches are turned off before doing the cleaning. To remove any dust, wipe the surface of the speakers with a gentle, wet microfiber cloth. Then, Instead of spraying liquid cleaners directly onto the speaker’s surface, use the cleaner directly on the soft cloth first to wipe away dirt and other particles. Do not use solvents, chemicals, or cleaning solutions containing alcohol, ammonia, or abrasives to clean the speaker.
#3 Prevent it from being too hot
Same to other electronic devices, extended sun exposure can cause speakers to overheat. So, always keep speakers away from windows or outdoors to avoid direct sunlight. In some cases, you can fan your speaker or remove the charging cable when it is in use. Lastly, make sure your speakers have enough ventilation to keep them cool during periods of intensive use or outdoors to prevent heat exposure.
With regular care, your speaker will continue to look great and perform well with good sound quality for many years!
At Grille Tech Sdn Bhd, with the cutting-edge technology we use and supported by our experienced team which consists of multiple professionals, you can rest assured that we provide the best speaker grille in Malaysia.