cats and speakers - looking for clues

My family decided to get a cat.

They should have included you in the decision. 

Don't freak out about it! Wait until the damage is done, then go ballistic.

Other helpful tidbits:

Speakers with metal grills are pet proof.

If the cat is a kitten, your worries will be magnified and especially futile.

Buy cheap gear and your panic will be financially marginalized. 

If you make an effort to bond with a cat, and give him or her a prominent spot to cop in your listening room, it will pay dividends. I have had numerous cats and dogs and nothing shocking has ever happened. After 10 to 20 years or so, you'll put the thought of pet distress behind you. 

When I moved into my first apartment (early 90’s) I had a pair of oversized (particularly in quality:square inch ratio) of KLH something’s. I was in community college and had bought them when I was in high school  

My room mate at the time decided to unilaterally invite a local stray cat which soon became perhaps a pair a trio. Unfortunately for me I had never heard that cats (male?) may ‘spray’ objects. 

One of the felines ultimately devised a way to cover an entire side of a 15” floor standing 15” finished in a fine trailer park quality oak veneer in what I must assume was a combination of urine and liquified feces. 

this was the last time I cohabitated with cats, and aside from a separate event where I suffered profound food poisoning from undercooked ground beef (I later learned the bowl of meat had briefly even the center of attention for one of the felines) I remain impressed and fearful of a cats ability to aerosolize their byproducts as a form of communication or display of ownership. 

Message received.
Soon after IV fluids and being told that cat-feces-contaminated foods generally transmit parasitic infections vs bacterial, I moved in with my current wife and allowed my former roommate and clutch of cats to enjoy those speakers.  
Note: grills may foreseeably attract claw damage but may have provided limited liquid and noxious chemical protection in lower volume exposures. 

What you need to do is take a portable bluetooth speaker to the pet store, play some jazz and get the cats that stop and listen. 

I’d be more careful of cables. I had a cat many years ago and then got my first true high end home system. I had Transparent Plus IC’s and speaker cables. Not cheap. One day I noticed teeth marks everywhere. I didn’t even know cats did that. Well that was a long time ago and I will never have another pet.

I wouldn't worry about it.  Most cats will be indifferent.  Over many years I only had one cat who thought the grill cloth made a convenient scratching post.  My best cat story though is about the late and sorely missed Ben.  He liked music and would sit at my feet and listen actively, head moving back and forth from left to right speaker as musical elements caught his attention.  He preferred Classical music, particularly Beethoven symphonies, #7 especially.  Who he could not abide was Rod Stewart.  Literally reacted to his voice as though in pain and would bolt from the room.  As Rod was a favorite on a local FM station, this could happen without warning.  Ben would look at me as though I had betrayed him after each and every encounter.  I miss Ben.