Full range stand mounted speakers

Recommendations please.

Get floorstanding speakers made of wood or metal that they’ll have no desire to scratch. As insurance if you want you could spray some citrus spray around them and the cats won’t go near them because they hate citrus, but it’s likely not necessary. Full-range, stand-mounted speakers are like unicorns and no need to go that route. This is from a lifelong cat owner BTW and they’ve never bothered with my speakers other than to occasionally jump on top of them, which has done no damage. The other option would be to get monitors and a pair of subs, but I’d leave the grills off the subs (or get bottom-firing subs) cause that’s a potential scratching post. Whatever you do, DO NOT declaw them — it’s cruel and if they ever get out they’re completely defenseless, and one of my friend’s cats died a slow, horrible death that way. Anyway, best of luck, and cats are well worth the effort.

Just get a good scratching post and show them how to scratch. Use your nails while they watch and rub so cat nip into it. I have never had issue with my cats and speakers. 
 

Active speakers are the only ones I can think of.  Dutch & Dutch 8C, large Genelec models. JBL 4329 might be close to full range. 

REFERENCE 3a REFLECTORs

The other neat feature? That “cladding” — it’s glass. Two layers of glass, actually, bonded with a layer of absorbent material constrained between them. The result? Mass …..  That is one dense cabinet! Think 75lbs … each…..

Sensitivity 92 dB

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0817/Reference_3A_Reflector_Monitor_Review.htm

https://wallofsound.ca/audioreviews/reference-3as-all-new-mythbusting-reflector/

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/review-reference-3a-reflector-monitors.26056/
 

Harbeth 40.2 or 40.3. They put many full range floorstanders to shame. 

I've never seen the One.Rs in person, but is it not possible to remove the cloth surrounds and run without them?

Options like the Harbeth 40.3, Spendor Classic 100 and Revival Atalante5 are all very nice, but not sure what your budget is, and these are all fairly large speakers.  

The A/D/S L810s that I owned for 20 years used a perforated metal grill.  They looked and sounded great and I still use two pair of their smaller model speakers (also with perforated metal grills) in ancillary systems.  Mine looked exactly like the picture below and I was stupid for selling them. 

Thank you all for your suggestions. I’ll see how the kittens treat the one.r’s. Grills are not removeable.

Mofi's Sourcepoint 10 or Fyne Audio's F500 or (depending upon your budget) their F1-5 perhaps?

I’d keep a spray bottle with water nearby and if the kitties approach the speakers or start to scratch give them a good squirt and they’ll get the message quickly — they’re smart and learn fast. Plus the citrus trick I mentioned above.

On on another note, I’d highly recommend avoiding mass-market crap cat food. We fed our prior cats Science Diet, which sucks BTW, and had unscheduled trips to the vet every year. With our current cats we switched to Solid Gold food and over five years have had zero unscheduled vet visits and they get top marks in their annual checkups.  It’s a little more expensive, but not that much and you’ll have healthier cats and likely save the difference or more on fewer trips to the vet. Here’s their kitten food…
https://www.amazon.com/Solid-Gold-Kitten-Heaven-Chicken/dp/B074Q6N7KF

https://www.amazon.com/Solid-Gold-Kitten-Flavorful-Chicken/dp/B0C153RR4F?th=1

After kitten food we switched to this, which they loved…

https://www.amazon.com/Solid-Gold-Indigo-Moon-Grain/dp/B01DT327Z0/ref=sr_1_4_pp?crid=3NIDHG4EX7HEW&keywords=solid%2Bgold%2Bindigo%2Bmoon%2Bdry%2Bcat%2Bfood&qid=1696085133&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=Solid%2BGold%2Bin%2Cpets%2C216&sr=1-4&th=1

But as our cats got older and started gaining weight (they are strictly indoor cats) we switched to this that worked great to keep them fit…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X0GTWTG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

BTW, if you occasionally wanna feed them tuna for some variety/treats get either chunk light or skipjack tuna — not only is it cheaper and healthier, it contains very low levels of mercury relative to other types.  Sorry to take this off topic, but just in case you’re new kitty parents I thought it might be helpful. Best of luck with the speakers and your new mini lions!

I have found the Sonas Fabers to be very well balanced. but much tamer top end than your GEs. Revel and Dynaudio pretty well balanced.  You will be glad to get rid of the brittle distortion the AMT tweeters produce.  Or if you like it, might I suggest the Elac? The MOFI 8 I thought was pretty good. 10 not so much. The CSS kits or built are very good. 

I would think the individual vertical strings of the Sonus Faber would be much less interesting to cats. They also sound fantastic.

I use the Monitor Audi Gold 100's for my stand-mount stereo speakers.  The sould is great without a sub (50hz - 20kHz).  Take the grilles off and you see non-fabric materials.

If you have woodworking skills or can pay a cabinet maker to build them, these are nearly impossible to beat for less than $15-20K!! The F3 (-3db) is 33hz so pretty full range! 
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/jeff-bagby-helios-speaker.373041/

Full range is 20 khz+  and below 25hz  Not possible 

whati would highly recommend  a very good Subwoofer 2 are better still 

such as a SVS 4000 which has a great app and they offer discounts and 45 day trial and pay shipping both ways ,the MBL 126 with stands and sub the most incredible stand mount and for $16500 a true Audiophile bargain .

I recommend developing and listening in a cat-free environment.  Cats contribute to an excess of negative energy that creates hard treble and a lack of bass definition.  Cats are also significantly contribute to phono cartridge early wear.  Cable fray has also been observed with cats present.  

Harbeth SHL 5 XD or 30.2 XD - you can add a sub(s) if you think you need it. Very hard to do better. Or if you have the budget and space - the 40.2 or 40.3 XD.

And the Cabasse Rialto is incredible and is self powered. Very clean installation with great sound. And very budget friendly. Although, I have the Harbeths above, I may get a pair of Rialto’s because they’re so impressive.

Cakids,

A price range would be nice, I can recommend speakers from $2,000 to $20,000.....but useless if it's not in your comfort level

I would get rid of the cats instead of the speakers. 

This is the only stand mount that I know of that'll get you near full range performance . 

https://legacyaudio.com/products/view/calibre

Maybe I live a charmed life, but our cat has never showed any interest in our leather sectional or my MA 300-7Gs (the bottom of their grille is 18" off the floor). He does make regular use of his 3-Tier scratching post, maybe because it looks out over our garden and is far more interesting of a hangout than the speakers. We do occasionally rub catnip into the post, though. I would love to know the feline pharmacology of catnip.

Totem Mani-2

Six cats. Stand mounted Wharfdale 85th Anniversary Lintons with a speaker level output down-firing REL T5i sub. Less than $2.5k including Mogami 3103 cables. No problems with claws in 18 months…and as full range as my 70 year old ears can hear LOL

Another option for conditioning, look at varieties of scat mats. 

Have you looked into the new GE T66.  Sock removed and replaced with hard services.  Not sure what is used for the side radiator covers.  

mitch2 

you beet me to it for a vintage suggestion. One of the only full range stand mount speakers i know of that actual do full range are the big A/D/S stand mounts. I have L910's and they go well into the 20HZ range. maybe not as detailed as modern speakers but every bit as musical. Hell they sound more musical and balanced then my new Spendor D9.2's (sold now). 

cant go wrong with some ADS speakers for a first or second system they are quite enjoyable to listen to for extended periods. L710,L810,L910 are my fav stand mounts. 

Yamaha NS-5000

I like the recommendation of Fyne Audio, but I would suggest looking at the F701, kinda pricey @ $7-8k, but the sweet spot of the range, and the larger woofer in the F701 will meet your full-range requirements.

If you are open to vintage and much cheaper, I am a BIG fan or Paradigm’s Reference Series 40.  Particularly V2 and V3.  At this point about 20 years old…they can be found in good shape, I just scored a second pair for about $700 plus shipping.
 

Good luck with your search.

Hey, I know these are not full range book shelf speakers. They are floor stand speakers. A guy I knew had the exact same problem. He went with Audio Physics 25s. They are glass with a bass driver in inside the glass cabinet. They absolutely disappear and have great full range sound. I hope this helps. 

There is no such thing as a full range stand mount loudspeaker. They all need subwoofers for the best performance and our cat is scared to death of them. 

Don't sell your Golden Ears. You can train the cats to stay away from them. You place these mats in front of the speakers. Every time they try to walk up to the speaker they get a small dose of static electricity. It will not harm a kitten at all, it is just strong enough to be unpleasant. After a little while they won't even think of heading in that direction. I have Sound Labs speakers, ceiling to floor grill cloth and our cat could care less. We took the mats away a long time ago. 

https://www.chewy.com/petsafe-generation-2-scatmat/dp/295852?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Pe

The Triton 1R in fact pretty damn close to full range. Not gonna find any standmount that can do bass like those or even close! Sub would work but I found the integration of the built in subs of my Triton 1s to be pretty seamless although I moved on from them years ago. Way more so than what could easily than could be done with subs. 

 

Frequency response of the Triton One.R is 27 Hz - 25 kHz (-6dB on axis @ 27Hz, anechoic bass response), and the frequency response of Totem Mani-2 is 29Hz - 20kHz ±3dB.

If paired with a powerful high-current amplifier, Totem will be on par with Triton One.R in terms of bass performance.

This is the only stand mount that I know of that'll get you near full range performance . 

https://legacyaudio.com/products/view/calibre

How so? The company specs these down to 38Hz. That means pretty much the entire bottom octave is missing. 

If you have a room that is not too small, say 15 x 20 at a minimum. then I would recommend the Yamaha NS5000. 

I bought the NS5000 due to safety concerns over the KEF Blade 2. It turned out to be a great choice. The NS5000 is hard to knock over, has great drills so less danger from fingers. is a stand mount and goes pretty deep. More than deep enough for me with my very powerful CODA #16 amp.

The 2 best sounding stand mounts....B&W 805 D4 and Focal Sopra #1.

I would highly recommend the Vivid Audio Kay S12 speakers.  They are so impressive. They disappear as the source of the sound and they are very 3-D. The most remarkable thing is the bass response which is so clean and so powerful it's really hard to believe. They sound best with their matching stands.  In summary that are a little slice of magic!  

KAYA S12 – Vivid Audio

Wilson-Benesch Endeavour.  Only $50K...

TAD ME1/ With a pair of RELS -S510

Best combo I have put together.

ATCs have metal grilles. They don’t go low on paper, but the bass is tight and sufficient for most people.

Dynaudio Heritage Specials 

Revival Audio Atalante 5

Here's another vote for the Harbeths mentioned above -- SHL5plus or the 40.x. I've had many speaker come through my room -- Klipsch, Tekton, Elac, Magnepan, Spaciall, and more -- but the Harbeths always prevail. 

Ocean Way Audio Eureka’s.

Not really full-range but when I turn off my (thoroughly dsp’d) sub, I can’t say there’s much of a difference. It is subtle.. so they are definitely getting into the low 30’s. They also image very well considering their size.

They are a quite large time-aligned 2 way speaker. I’d guess mine with Sound Anchor Sig stands weigh well over 150lbs each because of the large platform required. They use very good (but fairly inexpensive.. middling level) SB Acoustics transducers, and although these speakers are fairly rare, are designed by a famous sound engineer (Allen Sides), who put much work into the crossover with his audio engineer (Bruce Marien) whose other projects have included much, much larger systems for Skywalker Sound’s scoring stage and the AeroWave system for Santa Barbara’s Granada Theater.

They need a very good amp to do their best.. fast slew rate and very high damping factor because the woofer is not paper.. it’s aluminum. Being a large two-way they aren’t super detailed in the mid-range, of course, however the crossover with the tweeter is so good your brain easily compensates (as it does with all our gear).. so the sound still comes across as being well balanced and highly enjoyable. To put it another way, I wouldn’t call the Eureka’s mid-range response transparent per se, however the speaker as a whole sounds transparent as that is compensated for very well in crossover design and the driver choices made. For these reasons, I think this is why he partners with AGD Productions at the shows. Their amps are fast and smooth with the current needed to move a large alu mid-woofer.. the sound with AGD is great. The top end w AGD is also very refined considering the tweeter isn’t a bespoke affair. Link posted.

I’ve heard their larger Sausalito’s as well (also w/AGD), but felt they were overkill for that little hotel room.. the Eureka’s alone kinda need a decent sized room to breathe with their wide dispersion. They already sound like excellent large speakers with AGD amps, and even do quite well with my old Wyred SX-500 monos.

After having heard them several times at shows over the years.. I finally found some second hand (in the basic black finish) for around 4k. Not sure they’d be worth the money you have to spend at the price they are with the hand lacquered wood.. but maybe they are partnered with AGD GANFet amps. Personally, I’d pass on that finish upcharge.. doesn’t help the sound.

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/Florida_International_Audio_Expo_2023/Rochlin/AGD_Productions.htm