Protecting speakers from kids?

[EdJ]

I have a pair of very nice floorstanders which I bought a long time ago when I was a single man. Obviously, protecting the speakers from little ones' inquisitive hands was the last thing on my mind.

Now I have a baby son who is already trying his best to walk (and begin breaking things!), and a niece who has just started walking and I'm wondering whether I can replace the speaker covers with something a bit more resilient

I thought about custom made metal grills for example, but have no idea how I'd go about getting them. Sound and to some extent looks is a factor as well!

Any thoughts?

[DavidY]

I'd be more concerned about them knocking/pulling one over on top of them rather than the damage!! For this reason none of my sets of speakers are spiked (Tip/wobble, spike raised, small foot underneath, ouch....hospital...)

I had a boisterious 7 year old boy, knock a Quad floorstander over, taking huge chunks out of the polished veneer, unfortunately his parents were next to useless, thinking that an expensive speaker came from Freecycle, I had to chalk that one down to experience.

I've got two other sets of floorstanders and am more worried about the cat that the children!

I've not hidden any of my hifi with young children and taught them how to respect it, yes accidents can happen but the important thing is that no one gets hurt.

Just put the usual grills on, make sure the speaker can't fall over (easily), remove spikes and replace with little speader legs, will make the speaker even more stable. (BTW Metal in front of speaker drivers is not necessarily a good idea as it will resonate at certain frequencies).

davidy

[EdJ]

DavidY said:

I'd be more concerned about them knocking/pulling one over on top of them rather than the damage!! For this reason none of my sets of speakers are spiked (Tip/wobble, spike raised, small foot underneath, ouch....hospital...)

I had a boisterious 7 year old boy, knock a Quad floorstander over, taking huge chunks out of the polished veneer, unfortunately his parents were next to useless, thinking that an expensive speaker came from Freecycle, I had to chalk that one down to experience.

I've got two other sets of floorstanders and am more worried about the cat that the children!

I've not hidden any of my hifi with young children and taught them how to respect it, yes accidents can happen but the important thing is that no one gets hurt.

Just put the usual grills on, make sure the speaker can't fall over (easily), remove spikes and replace with little speader legs, will make the speaker even more stable. (BTW Metal in front of speaker drivers is not necessarily a good idea as it will resonate at certain frequencies).

davidy

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I didn't think about the spikes. They are so damn heavy though I doubt they'd be able to push them over, or even tilt them, but I will give some thought to that. And yes, I agree that metal covers could ruin the sound.

I also emphasise re your Quad floorstander experience - I haven't even told my wife how expensive my ATCs are and suspect she thinks they are easily replaceable (especially as they aren't exactly flash looking...)

[FrankDrebbin]

Ed - I'd use the stock grilles, as I remember most ATC's have em. You _could_ try to make some, but as mentioned resonance would be a potential issue - try "knocking" whatever you've made on a table, if it ring, you'll have a setup that sounds horrible. I also think ATC might use slot ports - either way, a fine mesh (pref. plasic) over the port held with whatever looks athetically pleasing may save some screwdriverr work when the young un gets to "posting things into holes" stage.

[DavidY]

Know what you mean with regard to ATC and plain jane looks. I currently have two pairs of Shahinians in my front room, and the main pair are on castors (as fitted by Shahinian!), glad mine are beyond toddler stage now!!!

davidy

[EdJ]

FrankDrebbin said:

Ed - I'd use the stock grilles, as I remember most ATC's have em. You _could_ try to make some, but as mentioned resonance would be a potential issue - try "knocking" whatever you've made on a table, if it ring, you'll have a setup that sounds horrible. I also think ATC might use slot ports - either way, a fine mesh (pref. plasic) over the port held with whatever looks athetically pleasing may save some screwdriverr work when the young un gets to "posting things into holes" stage.

There aren't actually any ports for the grills to slot into - they just fit snugly in front of the speaker. I'm not practical enough to make my own, so I think I will just go down the "don't touch!" route with the little ones!

[EdJ]

DavidY said:

Know what you mean with regard to ATC and plain jane looks. I currently have two pairs of Shahinians in my front room, and the main pair are on castors (as fitted by Shahinian!), glad mine are beyond toddler stage now!!!

davidy

Part of me quite likes the ATC's plain looks, but they are SO big. And I must admit that since having a baby, I spend more time listening to music on my headphones...

[DavidY]

Use distraction techniques rather than don't touch, they should be more interested in your distraction than some wooden boxes! Toddlers often don't hear 'Don't' so Don't Touch becomes Touch!!!

davidy

[JustinP1]

DavidY said:

Use distraction techniques rather than don't touch, they should be more interested in your distraction than some wooden boxes! Toddlers often don't hear 'Don't' so Don't Touch becomes Touch!!!

davidy

Thats not just toddlers, the legacy of that runs into adulthood too.

Go on, DON'T think of a blue banana....

[CRACKIE]

It may be worth asking these guys if they have some offcuts which could fit your needs.

http://www.bion.co.uk/

They have a huge range tooling with various perforation patterns with an open area which has very little effect on sound 20Hz~20Khz( at least little effect on the frequencies most adults can hear anyway )

They have produced speaker grilles for ceiling speakers etc and know their stuff.

[SJobson]

If it's any consolation, I switched to floorstanders because my cats kept leaping off my old stand-mounts and knocking them over. The centre of gravity of the new ones is much lower so they don't get knocked over, but instead they sharpen their claws on the grilles. Bah.

Fortunately the kids have never tried to poke the speaker cones or dust caps with their fingers. I have always kept the grilles on anyway.

[Mr Heathen]

I find a sharp rap across the ear with a good, solid hickory ruler to be a jolly effective deterrent.