Result of Improper Orientation of Sierra Tower Grilles

[Pogre]

Can lead to possible damage! Okay first off, my dumb ass put the grilles on my towers upside down last night, so user error for sure. However, when I woke up this morning and took them off I was pretty bummed to see this.

1934

That was taken a couple of hours ago and it's just about back to 100% normal now, but I'm sure you guys can imagine my first reaction this morning. The way they're cut, to me, it's a little bit confusing as to which side is up. Guaranteed I won't confuse it again, but I could see it happening to others.

I've owned lots of speakers and have never run into this issue before. I've accidentally put grilles on upside down, but never had it cause any physical damage. I think a badge at the bottom would be a good good solution that wouldn't require a redesign or something. Anyone else run into this?

[John Galt]

I had this EXACT SAME problem. I even ran my first Audyssey with the grilles on upside down.

I ended up putting a sticker on the back of the grilles saying ‘UP!’. I really think that the magnet polarity should be oriented in such a way that the grilles can’t be put on upside down, or a grille logo, or grilles that can be installed in either vertical orientation.

[audiohead]

AHHhhhh...my heart just missed a beat! I ran and checked mine, all good, PHEW! I can easily see how that happened.

Maybe a small sweet ascend logo could be next in line for the grill? I'm sure each of us would be willing to test a few samples out
I think i would put a shout out for Dave on this?

P.S. i hear there is a road trip to Arizona in the works ;-) LOL!

heck, i bet they will sound even better now

[Pogre]

AHHhhhh...my heart just missed a beat! I ran and checked mine, all good, PHEW! I can easily see how that happened.

Maybe a small sweet ascend logo could be next in line for the grill? I'm sure each of us would be willing to test a few samples out
I think i would put a shout out for Dave on this?

P.S. i hear there is a road trip to Arizona in the works ;-) LOL!

heck, i bet they will sound even better now

Ha! Well, they've bounced back completely from what I can tell. The dent is gone now, but I was crapping my pants this morning.

I like the logo idea and think that'd be a pretty easy fix. Maybe I can finagle some free badges from Dina..?

[audiohead]

i'm sure they will be just fine. I certainly don't think it was your fault.
set down with a relaxing drink and enjoy them.

[Pogre]

i'm sure they will be just fine. I certainly don't think it was your fault.
set down with a relaxing drink and enjoy them.

Oh yeah. The initial panic is gone now and I'm all settled down, lol. I do think it's worth exploring some options so it doesn't happen to others like myself and John above there tho.

I don't wanna make a big stink, I'm not angry, I absolutely love these towers.

Some badges for the grilles would be kinda cool tho...

[Pogre]

I just pinged Dave in a pm too and brought it to his attention.

[racrawford65]

Sorry that happened but glad it seems to be ok. My Towers don't have the magnetic grilles. I'll have to check to see if they can be put on upside down. If so, I'll add my name to the logo list :-)

[Pogre]

Sorry that happened but glad it seems to be ok. My Towers don't have the magnetic grilles. I'll have to check to see if they can be put on upside down. If so, I'll add my name to the logo list :-)

On the scale of audio disasters this ranks pretty low on the Richter scale. I'm happy to report what appears to be a full recovery!

1935

Looks none the worse for wear now.

[mikesiskav]

Glad to see no permanent damage. I have put my S2 grills on upside down in the past. Fortunately, no damage of any kind. I noticed that in the proper orientation the grill goes all the way to the top of the speaker. Whereas, if installed upside down, there's about a quarter inch gap at the top. Not sure if that works for the tower.

[racrawford65]

Glad to hear, Pogre.
Checked my Tower grills (non-magnetic) - luckily not possible to put them on upside down. One less thing to worry about!

[John Galt]

My biggest concern is putting them on hastily at night, and accidentally leaving them on incorrectly for months or years.

[davef]

Thanks for bringing this up! We have been selling the towers with magnetic grilles for about a year now and this is the first time this has ever been mentioned to us. I like the idea of a small sticker on the back indicating "up" or "top" - that should work well I think.

We used to have logos on the grilles but the vast majority of our customers preferred the cleaner "logoless" look so we stopped using them.


I really think that the magnet polarity should be oriented in such a way that the grilles can’t be put on upside down, or a grille logo, or grilles that are unidirectional.

That is a good idea but from a manufacturing standpoint, an impossibility. Switching to magnetic grilles using bamboo cabinets was both challenging and expensive to implement. Typically, with magnetic grilles - either metal or magnets are installed into the front baffle from the front, and then covered with veneer. Since we don't use a veneer, we had to work out a method to install 6 magnets into the front baffle from behind, into holes that are about 1/4" deep into the bamboo so as to not damage the structural integrity of the bamboo. In order to have enough magnetic strength with the neo magnets not flush to the front baffle, we had to also insert magnets into the grilles.

If our cabinet maker tries to, for example, install (2) magnets on the bottom in reverse polarity, and then install (2) bottom magnets in the grille in reverse polarity - one polarity mistake and there goes the entire cabinet. Once the cabinet is assembled, getting to the front baffle magnets is impossible. Something like this would dramatically increase our costs.

We also can't have unidirectional grilles because with magnetic grilles, we had to add additional bracing to the grille frame as there is no longer any support given to the frame previously provided by the grille post inserts. We added the cross-bracing in the only possible locations.

Frankly, I am surprised the grilles stayed on upside down as only 2 pairs of magnets will line up properly in this position (instead of 3 pairs). In our original test samples, the grilles slid off when placed upside down but it could vary based on the different cabinet finishes - something I did not test for.

I think the overall best solution is a sticker on the back.

Thoughts?

[racrawford65]

Dave,
I think the sticker on the back is an effective and cost-efficient solution.

[audiohead]

Sticker sounds fine, I bet Pogre wont need a sticker, he'll remember next time lol!

[Pogre]

Sticker sounds fine, I bet Pogre wont need a sticker, he'll remember next time lol!

You got that right!

I can believe it's never been brought to Dave's attention before. You have to admit you're a dumbass in order to talk about it... lol.

[John Galt]

The sticker was a stop-gap for me. I sometimes feel compelled to make sure that I didn’t install the grilles upside down in haste.

IMO the best solution involves magnet polarity, or magnet re-arrangement so that it’s simply impossible to install incorrectly. Of course none of that will affect me since there’s no way to retrofit an existing speaker to this configuration.

[davef]

Sticker sounds fine, I bet Pogre wont need a sticker, he'll remember next time lol!

We are implementing this immediately.

[billy p]

Ha....my tower covers are non magnetic and come with the pegs. And yes...sir....I've placed them back incorrectly... thankfully....with this version.... they're 99.9 % idiot proof...;)

Doh...there is always(one) exception to the rule

[racrawford65]

Ha....my tower covers are non magnetic and come with the pegs. And yes...sir....I've placed them back incorrectly... thankfully....with this version.... they're 99.9 % idiot proof...;)

Doh...there is always(one) exception to the rule

How did you manage that? On my Towers (with peg grilles), can only go on one way for all pegs to fit..

[billy p]

How did you manage that? On my Towers (with peg grilles), can only go on one way for all pegs to fit..

Just carelessness....had them off for the longest time. Placed the first one on snapped right into place...second one was like wth....followed by a big oops.:o

[davef]

All towers shipping as of today will have this small label on the back of the grille.



1951


It is completely invisible from the front.

Really appreciate the feedback on this!

[Pogre]

All towers shipping as of today will have this small label on the back of the grille.



1951


It is completely invisible from the front.

Really appreciate the feedback on this!

That's awesome Dave. Even an idiot like me won't mess it up now, lol.

[John Galt]

All towers shipping as of today will have this small label on the back of the grille.



1951


It is completely invisible from the front.

Really appreciate the feedback on this!

I didn’t want mine taped to the fabric, nor did I want the tape adhesive possibly interacting with the finish. I just used a simple label maker a few months ago and trimmed (not pretty, I know).

Funny how we came up with an almost identical design independently.

1952

[esnewtunemakers]

I can believe it's never been brought to Dave's attention before. You have to admit you're a dumbass in order to talk about it... lol.

Great that you brought this up, saved a lot of us fellow dumbasses ;) from the same thing! Many thanks!

[jimlucci]

I was playing around with Sierra Tower room placement today, took the grills off and noticed one of the magnetic grilles was on upside down too!! Not sure for how long, but there was no indentation in the surround just a little dust mark which was hard to even see. It was then that I noticed the TOP sticker on the back indicating orientation. I have to say I like John Galt solution with different polarities top and bottom. My experience is that if it CAN happen, it WILL happen. I did a search to see if anyone else had this issue and here I am. This little issue notwithstanding, I have had these Towers for about 9 months now and love them more everyday.

[davef]

I was playing around with Sierra Tower room placement today, took the grills off and noticed one of the magnetic grilles was on upside down too!! Not sure for how long, but there was no indentation in the surround just a little dust mark which was hard to even see. It was then that I noticed the TOP sticker on the back indicating orientation. I have to say I like John Galt solution with different polarities top and bottom. My experience is that if it CAN happen, it WILL happen. I did a search to see if anyone else had this issue and here I am. This little issue notwithstanding, I have had these Towers for about 9 months now and love them more everyday.

Perhaps we should include a small note with the speakers regarding this? The problem with using different polarity on the top and bottom, and I have already discussed with our cabinet maker, is that if the production crew makes a mistake, there goes an entire cabinet. With using different polarities for the magnets, the chances of one of the guys inserting the magnet wrong is significantly higher.

With our cabinets, because there is no veneer, the magnets are inserted into the front baffle from behind and then epoxied in. A magnet installed with the wrong polarity, if not immediately caught, means that cabinet is now useless.

[racrawford65]

IMO, makes sense to minimize the risk of scraping an entire cabinet if the production crew makes a mistake with inserting a magnet. A note with the speaker, either separate or in the manual, should suffice.

[jimlucci]

I was trying to think of a way to "key" the grill and the cabinet in a way that would not allow them to orient any other way than the right way. I am not sure if this is plausible, but what if the bottom magnets were moved up between the two woofers. If someone tried to apply the grill upside down it would not stay - in other words offset the magnet locations top and bottom thus providing that keying. Just a thought. I just know that no matter how you detail something like this people will miss it somehow (haste, lack of attention, fatigue, etc).

[davef]

I was trying to think of a way to "key" the grill and the cabinet in a way that would not allow them to orient any other way than the right way. I am not sure if this is plausible, but what if the bottom magnets were moved up between the two woofers. If someone tried to apply the grill upside down it would not stay - in other words offset the magnet locations top and bottom thus providing that keying. Just a thought. I just know that no matter how you detail something like this people will miss it somehow (haste, lack of attention, fatigue, etc).

This is something we are looking into. As it stands now, the magnets are not symmetrical from top to bottom. When put on upside down, only 4 of the 6 magnets make contact - but, obviously, even with 4 making contact it is still enough to secure the grille.

[petmotel]

This is something we are looking into. As it stands now, the magnets are not symmetrical from top to bottom. When put on upside down, only 4 of the 6 magnets make contact - but, obviously, even with 4 making contact it is still enough to secure the grille.

How about spacing strategy. If, for instance, the bottom magnets were spaced a couple of inches above the bottom of the grille, if it were mistakenly put on upside down, the only way it would stick is if the grille were above the top of the cabinet, immediately recognizable as an inverted grille?

I realize I was just basically restating jimlucci's idea here, seems like a solid plan.

Jay

[jimlucci]

Petmotel,

Yeah, I was always a little confused by the orientation of the grills and for whatever reason, I never noticed the "this side up" tag on the back. I personally never owned speakers without a badge on the front, so it was just just a new situation for me and I did not pay enough attention or appreciate the potential problem of orienting them the wrong way. I still have a tiny artifact/smudge on the surround for the woofer, but they don't seem compromised and they operate mechanically and sonically as they should. I can tell you it won't happen to me again.

[Pogre]

I'm happy to report that the surrounds on my drivers bounced right back with no lasting visual marks or reduction in performance. :)

[racrawford65]

glad to hear, Pogre