Sopra No. 3 speaker grilles - on or off?

[greekspec2]

Originally Posted by JetJock

Rumor has it the Sopra was designed/voiced with the tweeter grill on.
Decide for yourself, I plan to try both ways for comparison.

they look sooo much better with the tweeter grill off its a 1.5mm hex key

FACT Sopra 3 was voiced and designed on a Naim NAP 500DR and the Sopra 2 on a NAP 300DR

[mcpaf76]

Originally Posted by greekspec2

they look sooo much better with the tweeter grill off its a 1.5mm hex key

FACT Sopra 3 was voiced and designed on a Naim NAP 500DR and the Sopra 2 on a NAP 300DR

I would say if you need tools to remove a grill, the manufacturer probably wants it on. Mine are definitely not coming off.

[JetJock]

Well, being lazy it’s taken a year to find the correct tool but I finally removed the metal cover from my Walnut Sopra 2 tweeter. First, the speakers look so much better without that shiny distracting tweeter grill. It looks cheap !!! If it was painted flat black, it wouldn’t draw attention to itself like the shiny silver grill. Anodized black would be nice.
Well, paint is cheap so it’s the sound that matters. It improves the dispersion and overall sound airiness. That cover seems to add it’s own slightly metallic sound and surely interferes with dispersion of the high frequency sounds. If you tap on the grill, it rings with a metallic cheap sound I don’t care for. It’s far from inert. Other Focal Speakers I've owned with Be Tweeters did not have the tweeter cover bolted on (1028be in my case).

In this case, I’m not worried about someone putting a finger thru the tweeter so I’ll be leaving the ugly covers off for now. Maybe with white, orange or red some might like the look of the shiny grill covering the tweeter.

[Projectman]

I own the Sopra No. 1s and hear no difference with the grills on or off

[JetJock]

They sure look a lot better though.
Mine are walnut so they have the black front baffle.
In a dark room, it was like a big silver eye staring back at me.
In my room, I’m only using 2 degrees toe-in so it seems to improve dispersion of the tweeter.
They project sound far beyond the speakers yet still maintain a solid holographic center soundstage.
Vocals are awesome and spooky real.

[zonto]

I would hesitate to remove the tweeter grill over any beryllium tweeter due to the toxicity and other safety concerns. See: https://www.focal.com/sites/www.foca...ion-of-use.pdf.

[Formerly YB-2]

Toxicity?!? Are you planning on grinding it up into some sort of dust or other inhaleable/ingestible form? Or are just going to lick it as is?

If you read the link you posted you either have to eat it or inhale it or turn it into an organo-metallic compound to be dangerous. Somewhat like lead (and many other metals).

[sid325]

Without on my Sopra 2’s.

[onehole150]

Or are just going to lick it as is?

That's funny. Made me laugh out loud.

[njcardave]

Removed the grills on my Sopra 2's. Much better looking with the gloss black cabinet finish. 👍 I notice a better high end without the metal grill blocking the driver. Will follow up when I get my McIntosh MC 462 amp next month.