Can Vandy's get along with cats?


I'm currently a proud owner of a pair of Vandersteen 3A sig., and am considering getting a cat. I've held off up to this point because I'm concerned that the cat would shred the socks on the Vandersteens. It's a big enough concern that I have thought about getting different speakers. I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with cats and Vandersteens sharing the same space. Has this worked for anyone in the past?

Thank you very much,
robshrode
1) Most cats would rather scratch a sissal scratching post and one near enough the speakers will get used preferentially.

2) Most cats will avoid things that get them sprayed with a water bottle (while they're actually in the process of doing something undesirable).

3) Grill cloth doesn't cost a lot of money to replace if somehow that fails.

I had 6-7 years of overlap between having my cat (and my sister's cat when she moved in) and speakers with grills without issue.
My cats have coexisted nicely with speakers, one of them going on 19 years now with only one incident. One day while listening to music she just up and decided to jump on top of my speaker. She gave me that look like she knew it was not the right thing to do but did it anyway. I calmly got up, went over and picked her up off the speaker, then gave her a pretty good lecture. For further emphasis I put the water bottle on top of the speaker.

No need to declaw or even change speakers. Cats don't inherently find speakers attractive and they can easily have their attention diverted to other toys that will aid in trimming their nails or giving them some feline pleasure.
Two cats, three dogs, one pair of Vandersteen 1C's. Thirteen years of peaceful co-existence. Never a problem, and the Vandy fabric looks as good as it did the day I brought the speakers home in 1998. And my pets are all healthy, happy, and loving the music.
My cat, Renfield by name, NEVER went near my Maggies. When Renfield was gone a few years and I replaced him with a pair of littermates, THEY never went near 'em, either.
One of the sofas was the worse for wear, however, and the big orange one liked tearing up the trees in the back yard. I made the orange one a scratch post, which was HIS. I could never get his sister to stop picking on a small but nice area rug.

Do not declaw, under any circumstances. It's mean. Cats should have some space of there own....a raised platform with a view outside is nice. Regularly scheduled playtime is almost mandatory, too. My wife used to sing to 'em which they enjoyed.