I have a pair of WTW towers I built some 20+ years ago, a girlfriend at the time got "us" a cat...it didn't take long for the cat to destroy the pair. The woodwork of those towers has since morphed into a reimagined Infinity Qb, tall & sleek.
Fast forward to today, the towers are in another room, now I have an "industrial" pair of vintage 12" FR...with a stout mesh grille...Not stout enough for a cat!!! Its a so stout, the cat thinks it a challenge! Damage is minimal fortunately..
But now, I have just completed one of a pair of Aesthetically "good" small FR units...fully fragile...no grille cover...
It's almost as if I should squirrel away the new small FR units...not to see the light of day??
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick.....
Fast forward to today, the towers are in another room, now I have an "industrial" pair of vintage 12" FR...with a stout mesh grille...Not stout enough for a cat!!! Its a so stout, the cat thinks it a challenge! Damage is minimal fortunately..
But now, I have just completed one of a pair of Aesthetically "good" small FR units...fully fragile...no grille cover...
It's almost as if I should squirrel away the new small FR units...not to see the light of day??
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick.....
The squirrels would likely still find them, and from watching the few we can see in the trees in our neighbor’s backyard, they are far more intrepid climbers than any cat.
It is possible to build cat proof speakers. Cat proofing the turntable is a different story.
After nearly a year of "training" I convinced my cats to steer clear of the speaker cabinets. The training involved leaving the 400 watt Carver set at full volume but powered off. When Fat Cat even thought about climbing the speakers, he would get a blast of water to the face from a toy squirt gun. If that wasn't an effective deterrent, I hit the power switch. Going from zero to 400 watts in an instant sent Fat Cat under the console TV in the opposite corner of the house. Note, that only the not so smart male cat needed training. The female learned from Fat Cat's mistakes.
I often left the system playing while I was in another room, and on such an occurrence I heard a loud racket followed by dead silence. Fat Cat had climbed the bookshelf on another wall near the stereo system, then made a flying leap from the top of the bookshelf directly onto the spinning vinyl on the turntable. This destroyed my Garrard Zero-100, the record and the needle. The stupid two piece dust cover on the Zero made it impossible to close the lid once the record was playing, so I often left it off when playing records.
The Zero hit the trash in about 1980 and was replaced by a Technics SL-D2 which I still have.
After nearly a year of "training" I convinced my cats to steer clear of the speaker cabinets. The training involved leaving the 400 watt Carver set at full volume but powered off. When Fat Cat even thought about climbing the speakers, he would get a blast of water to the face from a toy squirt gun. If that wasn't an effective deterrent, I hit the power switch. Going from zero to 400 watts in an instant sent Fat Cat under the console TV in the opposite corner of the house. Note, that only the not so smart male cat needed training. The female learned from Fat Cat's mistakes.
I often left the system playing while I was in another room, and on such an occurrence I heard a loud racket followed by dead silence. Fat Cat had climbed the bookshelf on another wall near the stereo system, then made a flying leap from the top of the bookshelf directly onto the spinning vinyl on the turntable. This destroyed my Garrard Zero-100, the record and the needle. The stupid two piece dust cover on the Zero made it impossible to close the lid once the record was playing, so I often left it off when playing records.
The Zero hit the trash in about 1980 and was replaced by a Technics SL-D2 which I still have.
My cat, Victor, used to sit exactly in between the speakers, with his ears tipped back, and would stay there and listen to Led Zeppelin. There was never an attempt made to destroy any speakers...
He was a rare one indeed.
He was a rare one indeed.
My one cat loved sleeping on top of the turntable dust cover. She is sadly gone now. The cats stayed well away from the ESLs. They can sense that charge a mile away.
Nowadays I have to keep the remaining three out of the living area; my allergies have flared up again and my lungs cannot cope.
Almost lost my Avatar cat in September - she had to have the one kidney removed because of many kidney stones. Fortunately the other one is holding up well. She'll be 12 end February.
Nowadays I have to keep the remaining three out of the living area; my allergies have flared up again and my lungs cannot cope.
Almost lost my Avatar cat in September - she had to have the one kidney removed because of many kidney stones. Fortunately the other one is holding up well. She'll be 12 end February.
Just gonna leave this laying here in the lounge.
I think we have enough other stuff for the cats to scratch that they never touch the speakers.
I made these (one cabinet shown) some time after the two house cats died of old age. These were use for being loud in small spaces. Two cabinets can be easily carried nearly anywhere, and they can play loud enough for outdoor use in a pretty big strip mall parking lot.
I have fed them with a 120 WPC tube amp cranked to the edge of clipping or a class D amp with a power inverter and a boat battery. Such use will rattle the grills off, but they are just an interference fit. The blue stuff is "expanded aluminum" with a spray can paint job. I got the idea from the 60 year old radio next to the cabinet.
The stray that has adopted me is not allowed in the house, so when there are no grandkids around I play these with the grills off.
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I'm sure that stray "adopted you" George, with no encouragement. I have cats that "adopted me" also. If you've given him a name, he's yours.