Stereo5,
I wasn't going to chime in here since the thread was resuscitated long after you posted, but since you posted, I'd like to offer an advice and share my cat experience, which was similar to yours.
My girlfriend came with two cats, neither one declawed. When she moved in with me into my large studio apt in NYC, I asked her whether the cats would scratch my Totem Hawk speakers, which do not come with grills, and essentially have the same driver configuration as your Odysseys. She said no, and one of the cats of course tore a little "V" in the mid/woofer surround soon after. I wanted to kill the fcker and we almost broke up over it. I ended up using Shoe Goo to patch it up and it seemed to work very well. I then moved the speakers so that the drivers would face the wall every time I was doing listening, which was very tiresome. I then started using big paper shopping bags to cover the drivers. They are the type you get when you shop at the mall and fit nicely over the top of the speakers, and cats do not seem interested in that texture so they ignore it. Pretty? Hell no, but essentially free and very effective, and I could sleep soundly.
After that, I simply negotiated my own listening room when we moved into a new apartment, a compromise of sort - she gets to keep her cats, I get to get my own listening room where cats are not allowed. Every time I read a review or a post where people have their cats anywhere their equipment, like Sam Tellig from Stereophile, I cringe. There is no room for mistake here. My equipment is just too valuable to take any chance with cats (dogs might be a different thing perhaps). Once I experienced first hand what cats do at night when I had to share a small space with them in NYC, I will never let one anywhere near my stereo, even if declawed.
I wasn't going to chime in here since the thread was resuscitated long after you posted, but since you posted, I'd like to offer an advice and share my cat experience, which was similar to yours.
My girlfriend came with two cats, neither one declawed. When she moved in with me into my large studio apt in NYC, I asked her whether the cats would scratch my Totem Hawk speakers, which do not come with grills, and essentially have the same driver configuration as your Odysseys. She said no, and one of the cats of course tore a little "V" in the mid/woofer surround soon after. I wanted to kill the fcker and we almost broke up over it. I ended up using Shoe Goo to patch it up and it seemed to work very well. I then moved the speakers so that the drivers would face the wall every time I was doing listening, which was very tiresome. I then started using big paper shopping bags to cover the drivers. They are the type you get when you shop at the mall and fit nicely over the top of the speakers, and cats do not seem interested in that texture so they ignore it. Pretty? Hell no, but essentially free and very effective, and I could sleep soundly.
After that, I simply negotiated my own listening room when we moved into a new apartment, a compromise of sort - she gets to keep her cats, I get to get my own listening room where cats are not allowed. Every time I read a review or a post where people have their cats anywhere their equipment, like Sam Tellig from Stereophile, I cringe. There is no room for mistake here. My equipment is just too valuable to take any chance with cats (dogs might be a different thing perhaps). Once I experienced first hand what cats do at night when I had to share a small space with them in NYC, I will never let one anywhere near my stereo, even if declawed.