Cats vs Speakers???????

Jesse22

I am new to Club Polk and building a moderate 5.1 home theater setup (my first). Here is my dilemma, I have researched lots of things on this forum but found nothing about speakers sharing space with cats.... I was really hoping to get some Monitor 70s series II but in 6 months I will be moving in with my girlfriend who owns 2 cats. I am thinking her cats love to destroy things and I have read cats like to scratch speaker covers. How do they feel if the covers are off though are they going to shred a speaker cone? So my options are buy some Monitor 70s and hope for the best while stressing out the cats are going to destroy them while I am away or get some Monitor 40s and throw them on speaker stands and pretend I am happy. The other thing there is will they try and get on top of the 40s and knock them over and how do they feel about speaker wire?
If anyone has experience with this please help me out!!!!! Thanks!

Upstatemax

Get the monitor 70's and a spray bottle... everytime they so much as look at them, spray them.... they will quickly learn they are off limits.

My monitor 70's survived several years with two German shepherd puppies... they may not claw at speakers, but they are 85lb wreaking balls that love to run all around the house...

gsxr141

cats definitely like speaker covers, lol. they will also scratch the drivers on occasion. i just had the surround repaired on one of my rt10's.

stangjason

gsxr141 wrote: »

cats definitely like speaker covers, lol. they will also scratch the drivers on occasion. i just had the surround repaired on one of my rt10's.

Dead cats don't damage speakers and in your case if that cat was mine it would be just that.

Oh and declawed cats don't mess them up and both of mine are declawed.

Jesse22

Upstatemax wrote: »

Get the monitor 70's and a spray bottle... everytime they so much as look at them, spray them.... they will quickly learn they are off limits.

Yeah you see I have tried that with her main pain in my rear cat when it comes to furniture it just goes right back after 10 mins like its little brain just resets.
Also i get yelled at for for soaking it a little too much

Jesse22

stangjason wrote: »

Oh and declawed cats don't mess them up and both of mine are declawed.

I wish that was an option seeing as how I am taking no ownership of them and the girlfriend being against the idea. Also being a dog person and growing up with all of my animals being outside pets I see nothing wrong with having them declawed they are strictly indoor. But I am still wondering do cats try and jump on top of speakers... I figure they look similar to cat forts or whatever they are called.

somefinfishy

I own a cat and am just kidding here. again seriously here just jokeing
"Cats vs Speakers???????" place cat in speaker. Speaker wins! problem solved. Every cat i've owned likes a unfinished pine over anything else in the house. a simple upright 2x4 always worked here.

decal

Ask your GF a simple question.Me or the cats?Her answer should tell you quite a bit.

Jesse22

decal wrote: »

Ask your GF a simple question.Me or the cats?Her answer should tell you quite a bit.

Haha I already joked about how living together was a deal breaker if she kept the cats, unfortunately they have been around longer than I. As I would not give up a dog for a girl even though they aren't capable of chores...

alienwatcher

stangjason wrote: »

Dead cats don't damage speakers and in your case if that cat was mine it would be just that.

Oh and declawed cats don't mess them up and both of mine are declawed.

LOL Greatest. Thread. Ever.

For what it's worth, I also have two cats and believe that they can do little damage once declawed. It also helps that I turn into the old man from Monster House when they get close to my stuff.

skrol

I have been very fortunate. We have 2 cats and they seem to be OK with leaving my towers alone. When we got the cats I sprayed the grills lightly with this natural stuff that has some weird herbs. I can get the name later. That was about 4 years ago and I am sure it has worn off by now.

I have also heard that cats hate tin foil and that you can place the foil in front of the speakers to train them to stay away.

Good Luck
Stan

Jesse22

Thanks for all the advice, I wish I had a way to test out the Monitor 40s though, I was actually quite impressed with the 30s especially after running some sound tests on them and seeing how smooth the mids to highs are even with basic bass and treble adjustments. For now I will probably do the 40s on stands. I figure thats $120 for speakers through newegg (my preferred electronics dealer) and 100 or so for stands through parts express. which is still $120 cheaper than two monitor 70s on sale.... even though that's not too much money. depending on how those go over I will most likely upgrade to a 7.1 system. New receiver and amp and then upgrade those fronts to 70s.

Ern Dog

I had two cats and tower speakers and never had any problems. Make sure you have 1 or 2 scratching posts that they like using in the house. Rubbing some cat nip on the post will help. The squirt bottle trick worked wonders for me. Adjust the nozzle to "stream" and aim for the face. They absolutely hate that and after a couple times, they get the idea.

B Run

My cat claws on my speakers every morning, thank god she's declawed, however i'm not so lucky with my puppy. I have an 11 month old Great Dane/English Mastiff mix who's like a bull in a china shop. He's already 125 lbs and knocked my RTi8 over yesterday. The good news is he'll make a great big rug if he does it again

BeefJerky

skrol wrote: »

When we got the cats I sprayed the grills lightly with this natural stuff that has some weird herbs. I can get the name later. That was about 4 years ago and I am sure it has worn off by now.

I wonder if your spray is the same as the intensely-bitter stuff that I tried when we got my kitten awhile back. He liked chewing on wires, so I tried spraying it on them and around the area. The damn cat liked the stuff! Go figure. Thankfully he grew out of that phase fairly quickly and without electrocuting himself. He's declawed, so the scratching thing was a non-issue.

HHStuart

I kept some cats for a friend for a while. The cats would not claw the center of the speakers but would claw the corners. I found some wide transparent tape which protected the area and that saved my speakers (POLK SDA -II's). Just a thought.

SCompRacer

Cats have numerous scent glands, inclucing under the pads of their front paws. So they also rub on things to mark territory.

I suggest you rub your hands all over your speakers in front of the cats early on and often to show them who the alpha is.:biggrin:

Welcome to Club Polk!

treitz3

It's all about priorities.

1. Lose the girl and get one that doesn't have a cat or may be planning too.

2. Get screwed, no matter the speaker you buy.

I chose option 1 and haven't looked back since. Years later, married another woman and had child. Couldn't be happier about the choice of the woman or my decision but that's just me. It's all about priorities.

kefranklin

I once had kittens climb up my monitor 10s and destroy both sl-2000s. Luckily, though, I found this forum in my search for replacement.

JimAckley

Run some electrified wire about 10" high around your tower... that'll keep those little rascals away :biggrin:

Tour2ma

My Maggies' owner's manual actually recommends that cat owners spray repellent around their bases.

But I think a pair of pliers and a baseball glove could also work...

And remember, "O cat" spelled backwards is TACO...

blueboxer

The spray bottle with half water and half white vinegar helps them learn fairly quickly, if not you can buy socks for the little devils. Keeping them entertained with other toys and posts goes a long way as well. A bored animal is a destructive animal.

nclh7

When you initially set up your speakers, leave the covers off. They will be new and investigated rather thoroughly. After a few weeks, the newness has worn off, put on the grills. The interest factor in the change should leave you unmolested grills.

skrol

B Run wrote: »

My cat claws on my speakers every morning, thank god she's declawed, however i'm not so lucky with my puppy. I have an 11 month old Great Dane/English Mastiff mix who's like a bull in a china shop. He's already 125 lbs and knocked my RTi8 over yesterday. The good news is he'll make a great big rug if he does it again

When one of my sons was a toddler, he used to like to hide behind my speakers. Once he knocked one over into the side wall. That night I strapped them to the floor with metal brackets. I attached the brackets to the speaker where the floor spikes screw in and screwed the other end into the wood floor.
Stan

vwfred69

my cats claw at my 60's and lick the grills. good thing they are declawed

tonyb

vwfred69 wrote: »

my cats claw at my 60's and lick the grills. good thing they are declawed

Had a girlfriend like that back in the day...only she still had her claws.

ibewbrother

Nice lols in this thread.....I am a cat person and have been thinking about adopting one..I guess I have one more reason not to ..now.

And thanks for the heads up....I didn't think about speaker damage in my "I'd like a cat" thoughts.

Jesse22

Haha all of this is great advice! I will have to try some of these ideas one of the nights when I am over there with the couch, such as the white vinegar and water mix (if she allows it, or sees me pouring it in the bottle ) I always see mixed reviews about the consumer sprays.

Leaving the grills off at first... I am not sure about that, don't wan't them to be able to tear right into a speaker.

treitz3

It's still better than a shotgun blast to the paws. :biggrin:

Jesse22

treitz3 wrote: »

It's still better than a shotgun blast to the paws. :biggrin:

:eek:
I sure hope PETA doesn't run across this thread on a Google search! Haha

treitz3

I keed, I keed....