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Cats

foliver

foliver

Active Member
Man, sorry for the silly question...

In may i´m moving to a new house we are finishing after an year of work.

This year i´ve bought some speakers, amps etc to rig the living space.

So, we have 2 childrens, 3 and 5 years, and now they understand that cones and surrounds, and tweeter and all the stuff need to be untouched. The dog don´t give a sh#@. This last 2 years my main speakers was looking the wall to avoid tweeter and woofer death.

Now i'm confident everything is going to be good again.

BUT. A cat seems to be a new guest, in some time.....

So the equestion: does the cats like to destroy all the speakers they cross in their life?, do i need to start a plan to put an electrical fence arround the speaker and be seated close with a weapon, taking aprazolam?

Please say no.
 
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You can have them declawed. Newer laser surgery is less painful and has fewer complications than the old brutal method. You'll have to keep them indoors for a few weeks and use recycled paper litter to keep their paws from getting infected. And you'll probably have to put a few drops of pain medication in some canned food a couple of times a day.

However, once they're declawed, they're pretty much defenseless against other cats and neighborhood dogs. They should become indoor only pets at this point.
 
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I've had cats almost my entire life and never had a problem. Once in a while they would walk across the receiver or TT, but never scratched at them.

Now the corner of a sofa or your favorite easy chair is another thing.
 
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I wouldn't worry about it. Just get a squirt gun & zap the cat if it gets too "nosy" about your speakers. Painless, non-mutilating & it generally works.
 
Buy a plant watering ssquirt bottle & anytime the cat is near the speaker, give kitty a squirt. It won't be long they'll understand....
 
Cats won't mess with your speakers if you scare them a few times. My cat (Maine Coon) tried to sharpen her claws on my KEF sponge speaker fronts. I had the volume up and switched from an unused input to the FM tuner tuned between stations and with mute off. As soon as she went up on her hind legs i switched the input and scared the heck out of her. about 2 hours later she tried it again, with the same results. That loud hiss sound was a surprise! She just gave up on the speaker and started on the corner of my couch....

Squirting water is a good idea too, but keep it in the fridge so the water is cold too.
 
Make sure kitty has a scratching post. Investing in a secondary grill cover may be a good idea until you have trained the cat.
 
We've had cats forever and I didn't have too much trouble before this last group, they're the orneriest cats we've ever had as far as climbing and scratching. Not having had problems before we didn't really take initial precautions. Immediately we got the spray water bottles in place which partially works but if they've got a mind to jump up on top of the speakers in order to jump up on top of the stereo cabinet they're like obsessed!! The one cat however is immune to the water with regard to stopping him from scratching speakers as he's destroyed the grill of my University corner horn that I have in my basement workshop and he was doing it when I wasn't around. Looked like a scratching post to him and when you yell at him he just looks at you, not arrogantly like other cats I've had, just in a sort of goofy way as if to say, 'gee, I wonder why he's talking so much louder right now?'. All three of them (they're all adopted litter mates) come up to the arm of my recliner WHILE I'M IN IT and scratch it as if I trained them to do it. I yell and squirt to no avail, it's like a game to them apparently, they don't seem to get it. Currently I'm running ADS L880's as my main speakers (love those metal grills!) but if I end up with either the ESS or Ohm's I'm considering, I'll be building some sort of speaker protectors. With the grills removed however, I've never had a cat mess with and individual drivers (knock on wood). In addition to the speaker protectors I'm also on the lookout for a leather recliner. Used to have leather and I know they don't have any interest in scratching that. Good luck to you, hope you get cats like DG70's or the ones we USED to have!! :)
 
I currently have 5 cats, the oldest 15 years old now, and about 10 pairs of loudspeakers. Not a claw has ever touched a loudspeaker, and I didn't need to teach them this either. They just prefer trees, naturally. Second choice is the carpet.
 
Trees would be better, if our cats went outside they too would probably prefer them. They've always been inside cats and I'm "not allowed" to let them outside, boss' orders, you understand... ;)
 
Ja!, funny stories. Thanks for your opinions and tips.
The house has a back yard with 2 trees, so i hope this helps.
I'm going to have an eye on it.
 
Use fabric softener sheets, like Bounce. Put them under or around the speakers.
Cats hate the smell of them and they'll leave the speakers alone. I just bought Maggies, and our cats were a concern. Though they've never damaged a speaker by scratching, they do like to take the occasional stretch where they can find it and the last thing I want is a claw hole in one of the Maggie's drivers.
I put two sheets under each speaker. Probably overkill since the scent is very strong. The cats used to be up my hind end as soon as they heard the mancave door open, now they aren't all that interested in the room at all.
And the mancave has that just-washed scent!
 
I'd say it depends on the cat as I've found that cats pretty much do what they want. If I complain they'll stop doing whatever it is immediately, but that only works if I'm around. I've never had one mess up speakers, but once I had one sharpen her claws on the spines of some records.
 
Cats will always seek a scratching post. The question is, do you have a good alternative to your speaker grilles?

Note to OP: Don't dismiss dogs out of hand. I have a customer who's male dog decided to mark his in-house territory using one of her speakers as a marking post. Ooops!
 
In our living room, I have a pair of small wrought iron scuptures (one is a dog, the other a cat) placed in front of my L890s. They are just tall enough that they bother the cats when they stand up to scratch, but not tall enough that they are in front of the drivers). 3+ years on, no damage to either speaker.

You just have to be imaginative, and you can scratch-proof your speakers.

My cats are worth more to me than any pair of speakers, so even if they scratched up the grills, I would be irritated, but I'd get over it.
 
I have had cats in the house for the past 30 years or so. None has ever a clawed a grill cover. The only mishap was when a lizard sneaked in the patio door and hopped onto an HPM 60 that did not have a grill cover. Cinder instinctively swiped at the lizard and scratched the dust cap -- no other damage, no big deal. As wu6fiend said, my kitties are worth much more to me than any speakers.
 
Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never had my cats damage any of my stuff. They have walked though a table full of vintage glass, curving like a snake to make it through the obstacle course, but have been very agile and never tipped anything over.

I myself have been much clumsier and I damage 1000% more of my belongings than cats ever have :D
 
Just make sure the speakers aren't the most expensive thing they can scratch, a fine Persian rug, or a nice eames chair will do as a distraction.

I kid, I've had cats all my life and never seen a single one raise a claw to my speakers.
 
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