GoldenEar Technology

Figured I'd get more responses!

I like seeing the drivers. I assume they were designed w/the black sock over the speaker. Is the sound affected?

LOL - thanks for the humor! Yes, the speaker was designed to have the sock in place. As you would expect, the high frequency response will change with the sock removed - but the sock also provides critical damping for cabinet resonances (the effectiveness of which was actually mentioned in the Stereophile review), critically important to the speaker's overall fidelity.

Besides the sonic issues, under the sock is sort of like behind the curtain/under the hood stuff - not intended to be seen (not "finished" in any way).

I peeled the sock of one of my units off partially and I must agree. The sound does seem to change and the look is ok but the front grill is not GREAT to look at on its own. This may be one sock you may want to keep on