I’ve always considered it a no no to have stuff on speakers when listening to music.
From simple vibrations to resonating frequencies or whatever you’re having yourself it strikes me as likely to have an impact on sound.
Yet in many photos “from the listening position” there are numerous items placed on speakers.
In a hobby where we cable dress, de stress burndies, use Naim Fraim, incessantly discuss the effects of different cables/plugs/ethernet and even consider Melco and Naim “rips” - I find it rather puzzling.
But then many rooms look so reflective that the sound must be very muddled, against which vibration of ornaments on speakers would pale into significance when considering sound quality…
I used to gave a pair of battery operated Coke cans that sat on top of the loudspeaker cabinets and would ‘dance’ according to frequencies of the music signal.
I gave them away when I moved from my Kef speakers to QUAD ESLs (too narrow).
I once placed a candelabra on each speaker. Later, I found wax on one of the speaker grill covers. Oops, I was lucky to have the speaker covers on. The covers are off these days, and there is nothing on top of the speakers.
This was a long time before I discovered NAIM, and I was in my late twenties.
The other thing that amazes me is some of the pics of speaker placement, I know that not everyone has a dedicated listening room (myself included) which allows their speakers to placed in there optimal position but to see expensive speakers sat in corners or not even a reasonable distance apart cannot be doing anything for the performance of the speaker or the overall listening experience.
I have a family who will put a wine glass down on anything and they have too. £5k of CDX2 and XPS2? Hey it’s just an another version of a table. At a recent party senior relatives managed to spray gin over the front of the right speaker; the carpet; several boxed sets and a DAC.
Given that scenario the lesser of two evils is definitely a little chap like this.
This always amazes me too. I suspect that many of us have far from optimised listening rooms but at least I am able sit directly in front of the speakers which are not tight into corners.
Perhaps the speaker choice of each individual has been carefully chosen.