YOu know...looking at this picture again, I notice that the Dealer has left only 1 speaker cover on the Wilsons...the Tweeter. Is that on purpose? I suspect for some reason it might be. BOTH X2s seem to have the Tweeters covered with the rest of the cones exposed...maybe an experiment to try. Anyone else done this?
Altair2
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YOu know...looking at this picture again, I notice that the Dealer has left only 1 speaker cover on the Wilsons...the Tweeter. Is that on purpose? I suspect for some reason it might be. BOTH X2s seem to have the Tweeters covered with the rest of the cones exposed...maybe an experiment to try. Anyone else done this?
I noticed that to. On my Maxx 3's I could clearly here the grills on...seems to slightly (I mean slightly) knock the tweeter down a hair and make it more diffuse. Honestly I liked it both ways...depending on my mood and music...
In fact, I found that while taking the tweeter grill OFF meant I could hear it more distinctly...ie, more detail...I also found that the diffusion caused by the grill helped in 'blending' the treble back into the overall presentation better...it seemed more coherent this way. The question is whether I would remove all the other grilles and leave the Tweeter grill on.
...only one way to find out I suppose...
By the way, the original X1 grilles (Series 1) were this really really ugly wide mesh...almost like a giant dishwasher mesh sponge...and apparently it was far superior to the better looking, more stable grilles we all see today. In truth, since I have a first generation X1...I can confirm that those original grilles WERE incredibly transparent and worked better than the newer grilles. But I have my limits and those 20-yr old things were literally crumbling and in the living room...they were not gonna fly. I took the bass panels off and left the upper modules for a while, but eventually gave way to the newer form of grilles.
OK...I just did it. Grilles off, Grilles off other than tweeter. With Grilles off, you realize that the trumpet, sax are not quite as present in the room...you lose clarity. However, with Grilles ON, you get a slightly more coherent sense to the music...each cone is less evident. Sure, its because we have lowered the level of detail from each cone, but it is not a tragic loss of detail, and in truth the cones 'glare' a bit on certain recordings when left exposed.
Taking off Tweeter grilled is a bit much even though my tweeter is a much much later generation Focal with the back wave redesign (in fact the tweeter is only a year old...so probably something akin to the Maxx 3 tweeter).
Grilles are back on...and staying there. Plus Generation 1 was ugly without grilles because these grilles are velcro'd on...none of the more elegant drilled holes. Experiment finished.
You aren't joking when you call the X1 Series 1 grilles ugly. I sold my X1s maybe 7 years ago and the buyer didn't even want the original grilles. He took the newer style that I had purchased when I upgraded the speakers to Series 2.
Yep...that was pretty much me after about 9 months...I actually kept the ugly ones on the main upper modules because it was WORSE with them OFF and all that Velcro everywhere...and I removed them from the main bass modules and removed the Velcro as well. Eventually, I broke down and got the Series 2-type grilles on at a friendly price.
Hi Wizard...any luck on finding out how the Altairs sounded? And particular did anyone get a chance to compare with the big Wilsons just behind? Thanks!
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