new york city audio show 2018

The dust covers, rear damping is there for a reason.  Peter Walker knew what he was doing and I am guessing the man probably forgot more about electrostatic design, theory that most people will ever know.   

The rear damping is to control panel resonances.  Remove it you get a nice high Q whompy sound in the bass.  The tweeter panel will have a nice resonance around middle C you might like it!  I suppose aged way out of spec original Quads may sound 'better' with the damping removed.   The speaker does take a step backwards in performance.    But audiophiles can be prone to doing all kinds of things that are not a step in the right direction even though they think it is.  

Removing the dust covers is a very bad idea and produces little improvement in performance.  I listen to them both ways for testing purposes.  I can assure anyone the extremely minimal increase in performance, if any,  is not worth the long term reliability issues.  One only needs to look at the filth on the dust covers after decades of use to know they are a good idea.  I have seen plenty of 50 year old Quads that work nicely, not to spec any more but nicely, and the reason is those pesky dust covers! 

The grey paint on the front of bass panels is to eliminate glare.   Rarely when serviced are they painted again.  If they don't have grey paint either the dust cover has been replaced or the panel has been replaced. 

Describing the front metal screen as 'horrid' is a bit dramatic don't you think?  They are there to protect the user from LETHAL voltages.  

Can one 'hear' the front screen?  Sure.  I listen to them both ways with and without the front screen and I most certainly 'hear' the screen.  Does it screw everything up?  Not IMO.  A little less HF extension a little less resolution nothing dramatic it adds a somewhat diffuse character to the speaker.  This minor decrease in performance may drive some to distraction but most people won't really care.  

I use mine with front screens simply because I get tired of looking at the ugly panels all day long.  I like the look better with the screens.  If one wishes to remove the front screens keep in mind the speakers are now dangerous.  If there are small children, animals or drunk friends in the room probably best to leave them in place.     

Adding damping to the front of the panels will further reduce the resonances but then you kind of kill it.    Imagine what all that damping on the front would sound like!  You think the front screen is bad?

The rear damping does not eliminate the resonances it simple reduces the magnitude of the resonances and lowers the frequency of interest.