The stock Harley speaker covers seem pretty restrictive. I'm wondering if anyone has simply replaced them with a metal mesh grill and, if so, did that make any difference in the sound quality?

 

Replacing just the cover will only make the housing look different. It will not affect sound in any perceptible way. If you want better sound you'll need better speakers.

 

Take it off and see (or hear) for yourself. They are just low end speakers made in China.

 

I have many years of experience playing lead guitar and bass guitar in bands and I can tell you that the speaker "cloth" (as it's called on guitar amps) can affect the sound.

The stock system on my '11 Street Glide is already bright enough, so I wouldn't want to put something less "restrictive" over it. Seriously.

 

Klockwerks aluminum

 

I put the metal mesh speaker cover over my old boston acoustic pros and there was a pretty big difference between the mesh and stock covers, you could hear a very noticable difference in the volume.

 

Change the speakers at the same time. If you are going to go thru the trouble of taking everything apart change it all.

 

The material cover has nothing to do with it. Some of the best speakers in the world, including recording monitors have cloth covers. Sound passes through them and the distortion cuased by the material is not audible to the human ear.

 

Metal vs Material mesh, yes for sure. but just materail. I'm not so sure. I would have to hear it to believe there is that much of a difference. JMO

 

I should have mentioned earlier that I already changed from the stock speakers to Hogtunes speakers with the tweeter pods. While the sound is much better than stock, I'm wondering if it might be even better with speaker grills such as the Klockwerks aluminum grills referred to above.