cats and speakers - looking for clues

In my great room where I would have my music system set up, in the absence of a dedicated music room, we have a large cat “tree” which has integral scratching posts from top to bottom. Our 2 fully clawed cats use it exclusively for scratching and have left the leather sofa and fabric recliners unblemished. They literally tear the posts to shreds and I’ve replaced them twice. I have metal grilles covering Magico A3s and do not allow them in the music room unless I’m in there to supervise. They have never shown any interest in the speakers, cables or turntable. But, left unsupervised, they would curl up on a warm amplifier or power supply. It is rare I let them in there because I do not want the chore of removing fur and dander from the equipment. If you have exposed speakers that you value, I recommend not risking exposure to any animals as they can be unpredictable. And, should you decide to trade or sell, It also can be a good selling point to say your equipment has been smoke and pet free. If I’m buying used, it matters to me.

Cheers!

sounds_real_audio makes a great (and humorous) point about listening to music with a clawed cat in one’s lap. A sudden crescendo can send a cat scrambling and leaving skid marks on the hoo-hoo! 🤣🤣

Wow, this is amazing ! I have not expected my question can produce such an abundance of comments, let alone stories. I read through each and every post and am grateful for all of them. This is all incredible material to ponder on and learn from. I am happy to conclude that the overall experience on "cats and speakers", shared here, is positive. My quick conclusion from reading your reflections: although cats may have mischievous sides, they are generally not known for merciless acts of speakers shredding. Keeping the grills off, using speaker-covers, and, occasionally, applying a citrus-spray, can be all helpful in controlling the situation. And, if we are a bit lucky, there is actually a chance our cat will enjoy listening to the music, as Ben [the cat] used to. Thank you everyone for pitching in. Cheers and greetings for now and I will try to come back with an update, when the eagle lands...   Once again, big thanks !

I have 4 cats and 3 dogs at the moment. They hang out at times and don't mess anything up.

I keep the doors closed when I am not in the room, listening rooms are in the basement. When I crank it up, I send them out anyways. They have 2 other floors to go buck wild, zoomies, whatever, if they want to, but, they are well behaved in my sound room.

I had an old cat who screwed up a panel a bit around 20 years ago. But, i was on work travel for weeks and my wife accidentally left a door open sometime in my old house.

If you are in a dedicated room with a door that can be shut, there is no issue.

I have 2 cats, and 2 set of floor standing speakers, AE 509’s and Golden Ear Triton 7’s. I have numerous scratch post and boxes with scratch pads inside. My cats do sometimes end up sitting on top of my speakers so I put a rubber mat on top of the AE 509's to protect the top of the grills,.but they’ve never scratched the grills on either set. I do have to lint brush the Golden Ears often but other than that they’ve been untouched. My cats have access to both rooms 24/7.