[GerGa]

Anyone done this before? Any ideas for making grills for this speaker?  Or other ways to protect the speaker?  Based on amazing reviews across the board I am ready to buy the Emotiva Airmotivs for my computer desk 2.1 system..but the exposed driver really scares me, someone(or me) could accidentally bump it, or if and when I use them for a party some drunken idiot will poke em or spill beer on them.  The best way I think would be to implement the kind of cloth grill found on many Bookshelf speakers, with the four holes on the front where the pegs on the grill go in.  I could use the peg kit available here: http://www.simplyspeakers.com/speaker-grills.html  But I don't know what kind material or how thick is on the front of the airmotivs.  Or maybe I could get pegs that will fit in the allen key holes that hold the drive on the Airmotiv?
 
Any help is appreciated
 
And if you would like to suggest alternatives to the Airmotivs, active, powered, passive, please do!
 
Airmotiv 5 and examples of speaker grills:

Middle one is a yamaha NS-BP400PN and the grill is shaped right around the driver and tweeter.  The one on the right covers a whole speaker.

 

[StratocasterMan]

You may want to check Parts Express. They sell all kinds of speaker parts including everything you should need to make grills like grill cloth, metal grills, etc.
 
http://www.parts-express.com/

 

[C-WL87]

The airmotivs are great speakers. The faceplate seems to be made of a moulded piece of aluminum; I wouldn't recommend drilling or otherwise poking holes in it if you value the speaker's acoustic properties.
 
My suggestion would be to attach a grill using some kind of 3M or Scotch product: double-sided tape, velcro, fun-tak, mounting squares or fasteners (the removable kind you use to mount picture frames), etc. These types of products would allow you to mount and remove the grill easily without making any permanent changes to the faceplate of the speakers. 
 
I measured my airmotiv 5s and the dimensions given on the Emotivapro website are accurate: W: 7 1/8" H: 10 3/4"

 

[C-WL87]

Also, as you can see from the picture of the emotiva, the corners of the faceplate are rounded, meaning a traditional rectangular grill would leave you with protruding corners...
 
Of more concern may be the fact that any grill you put over the faceplate will cover the volume knob in the lower right corner. This will only be a problem if you don't have a separate preamp to control volume; if you do, you can simply set the speaker's volume to max and leave it there. 

 

[GerGa]

Some good ideas..
So the whole face is really metal?
Do you know what size allen wrench the front screws take? Im thinking I could mount a grill using pegs that insert into the allen wrench holes on the screws.

 

[cel4145]

The speaker grills won't really prevent anyone from pouring beer into them at a party (lol). For parties, your best bet is to put them up in the air

Keep in mind that speaker grills will curb your highs slightly. That's why I have the grills off on my HT setup; sounds better. But the speakers I use with my desktop setup are bright enough that removing the grills opens up the treble a little too much.

Meanwhile, your driver is not that delicate. If you bump it slightly, it's not going to hurt it. It's meant to move

 

[StratocasterMan]

Quote:

Some good ideas..
So the whole face is really metal?
Do you know what size allen wrench the front screws take? Im thinking I could mount a grill using pegs that insert into the allen wrench holes on the screws.

 
Sorry, I don't know what size allen wrench the front screws take. I see where you're headed. I get the Parts Express catalog in the mail, and they have all kinds of tiny parts like mounting pegs, etc. Every month in their mailer, they feature DIY speaker projects about building your own speakers, so they carry almost every part you could need to build custom speakers from scratch. They go waaaayyyyy beyond what you should need if you decide to do a project to make grills for your speakers.
 
This may be a better link than I provided earlier:
http://www.parts-express.com/cat/cabinet-hardware-speaker-grill-cloth/22
 
Hope that helps... 

 

[C-WL87]

On further inspection, I think the faceplate is probably not aluminum, but MDF with some type of hard lacquer or veneer applied. The screws on the front are not allen, but Torx (the star pattern), size T10. 

 

[slantedview]

Post some pictures and/or info if you end up doing this.