Are there any cat owners and audiophiles out there? Do your cats listen with you? I have four hyperactive bengals 2 males 1 year old and two females 18 weeks old. The males will listen to chamber music but not symphonic; all hate opera. None use the Avalons nor the Acoustats as scratching posts... lucky I guess. All four will sleep or listen on the sofa except the alpha male Crash (apropos). He will wander over to the Spectral DMA 180 and lay on it for warmth ( why I don't know because the room is warm enough). They will all leave disgusted if I attempt to put on rock or jazz. They will listen to Mozart all night long or until they are hungry, in which case they will "coo" (bengals coo--rarely meow) and do their love bites to let me know it is time for food.
Yes I have a cat - more like a dog then a cat actually. Picture Garfield and that's my cat. He weighs in about 17 pds and can easily take down a squirell with no problem. I have had him for about 12 years now.
Anyway - he is the most laid back cat in the world and he does not seem to care what I listen too - he will hang out for it all.
Back in my younger days when all I cared about was how loud it was - extremely high volumes never bothered him. I have since matured quite a bit as have my listening tastes, habits, and system.
He does not seem to have a strong preference to any one type of music. And he leaves my system alone for the most part too - no wire chewing or speaker scratching. (He likes trees for scratching posts) He does not lay on any componants either - hot tubes will tend to make them steer clear, but he will lay in front of my tube mono blocks in the winter though.
He prefers to use my Persian rugs as scratching pads more then my speakers - Boy can he do some damage to a carpet!
Our cats aren't interested in the music but they all run away when it gets loud enough of course. We also have an indoor pet fox squirrel who isn't phased by pop / rock / jazz, but she freaks out at the sound of classical orchestra so I only play that when she's playing outside.
I agree with the cats on the opera ... just be careful, and when you see them sitting in the chair that occupies the sweet spot, you will know that they are making their move to assert pack dominace over you, and your system. It will probably be one of the older male's who makes the first move, desiring to establish his "ALHPA" status with in the pack. At this point Pet Counseling is useless.
My 2 males will lounge with me most of the time but shy away from loudness and heavy metal. Some rock music seems to be ok - depends on the time of day. Only one of them has laid on the McIntosh but after scolding him, he never did it again (they mind me very well for some reason). They spend lots of time outside so they don't scratch anything.
I've been told that they help cancel sidewall reflections if you have them stuffed and stack them about halfway between your listening position and speakers. FWIW.
One of my cats with run out and set right in the middle of the room when I put on Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of Voodoo Chile. She will set there and stair from one speaker to the other for the whole song.
There are 3 cats in my house. One of them just sleeps all day. My cat likes classical, blues, and classic rock. She'll leave the room if heavy metal is put on. My girlfriends cat is the opposite. She loves heavy metal and will leave the room if classical music is put on. I have a perch for them between my right speaker and my equipment stand. they leave the equipment alone, and scratch the perch.
i have 6 cats inside but only one of them sits in my lap every night when i turn out the lights to listen.the other 5 have their own place to sleep but 'brown nose' is in my lap until i go to bed...
My male cat "Nick" will immediately roll on his back with his legs up when I play the piano (mostly jazz) and will jump on my lap when I listen to jazz music (he thinks he's a dog - he licks my face like a dog also!). My female cat "Eve" seems to prefer classical music, and she is much more enamored with my wife who happens to play classical piano. Coincidence?
I have found my cat lounging inside the front opening (bass fold) of my Klipsch La Scalas numerous times. Not while playing, of course, but the irony always amuses me. He's always keen on watching movies with us, where he seems mainly interested (and very much so) in the center channel, which really grabs his attention - ears and head tracking the dialogue and center channel sounds intently.
These stories are wonderful. I can just picture these cats doing all the things described here. The winning story however, is from Bob Bundus. PET FOX SQUIRREL?
I thought I had a pretty good thing going, calling my bunch down from the trees in the front yard and letting them eat wheat bread from my hand.
Having a tame one as a pet? That takes it to a new level and is really something. Surprised he (or she) doesnt chew the furniture.
The only place that our two cats sit in the basement are on the CAT amps. Go figure. There are always lots of little kitty paw prints on the top plate.
Great thread... how about one on parrots? Mine loves Reggae.. some music he doesn't like and squawks loudly... also loud music doesn't seem to bother him.
In our yard, we have a couple of tree rats, I mean, squirrels. One in particular, we call Fatso, he teases the crap out of the cats. He runs up to the windows and paws and taps them as hard as he can, then stands on his hind legs and sort of grimaces at them. Quite funny. Of course we feed the squirrels whole peanuts, which they take delight in tauting the cats while eating. I did open the door once and Crash, the alpha male dove for one but the squirrels ran like hell up the tree. Crash thought better of it. Crash did have a run in with a groundhog. Crash lost that battle but his brother and sisters ( all four have the same ma and pa) were in awe of him for taking that critter on.
Movies: apparently there is a DVD with cats meowing and birds chirping that is suppose to entrall cats, but I have not seen it anywhere.
On the animal planet channel when the lions and tigers come on they watch very intently.
I have 2 cats about nine years old. They are sisters and couldn't be any different from one another. The one will come into the living room and jump on my lap as soon as I fire up the music. I'll bounce her around to the beat and drum on her to the rhythm. She'll stay there until I womp on her too hard. She isn't particular in her musical tastes, but really seems to prefer it loud like her daddy!
Xiekitchen, my parrot seems to like female vocalists, and will sometimes warble along with the performer. He also enjoys female comediennes on TV, and will sometimes laugh and cackle hysterically, along with the audience or laugh track!
"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave to the leash. That is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat"---Mark Twain
"When I play with my cat, who knows if I am a pastime to her more than she is to me?"---Montaigne
"A cat has absolutely emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another may hide their feelings, but a cat does not"----Ernest Hemingway ( BTW, the descendents of EH's cats are all over Key West---most are polytactyls)
"The smallest feline is a masterpiece"---Leonardo da Vinci
"If you want to know the character of a man, find out what his cat thinks of him"----Anonymous
I ,in my past experiences with the pussy-cat...have seen some short ones,hairy,hey some owners even shave them.There were some some that smell pretty awful.Fishy sort of smell...must be all that tuna.Wet ones too...oh how they hate the water.I've met some with headaches too....
If you asked a dog to jump off a cliff he would be stupid enough to do it. If you asked a cat he would look at you and look at the cliff and say "If you think a dog is man's best friend why don't you jump off with him", turn around and go find something to eat.
The cat might jump if the cliff was high enough. In New York, and probably other cities, cats do fall out the windows of tall buildings. An interesting fact has been observed...if a cat falls from the third(I think) floor, it will likely be killed. As the fall moves up, even to the twentieth floor, it becomes LESS likely that the cat will die. A falling cat reaches a terminal velociy which it can survive IF it has been falling long enough to orient its body for the landing.
I invite anyone who doubts this to throw Felix out of a tall building.
My first cat would listen to anything, but liked rap - for the strong bass, I guess. I hate rap, but sometimes put on Will Smith and the like to humor him.
My cat that survived him doesn't care; she listens to everything.
My three, Zoë, Isabelle, and wheels enjoy the Hifi. Zoë (orange tabby, male) is the consummate audiophile likes analog and cant sit still with digital. If that doesnt make a case for vinyl... When not sitting on the knoll post of the stairway (centered) behind my listening chairs, he is trying to steal my spot every time I get up to change the record. Purrrrrrs endlessly but, with his mouth open! Isabelle (silver tabby litter sister to Zoë) is tolerant of it all, but shows little real interest with one exception. When I play The Pixies she flees. As for Wheels (b&w tuxedo male) named, because he was found in an abandon car. Enjoys most things I play. I think he likes TV more. Must have something to do with his street cat, blue-collar upbringing. Dont let his fine dressing fool you. Funny thing is, I thought I was going to deal with some issues with the Atma-Sphere Silvers down on the floor but, so far, no problems. I guess its because they run so damn hot and there is no spot on them to stretch out.
My 19-year old male black & white tuxedo passed in December. He was my faithful music listening companion, and I truly hated to see him go.
For all his life, he had an unbelievable affinity for jazz and Russian classical music. The Russian classical thing was really uncanny and fun to watch. He would sit in the listening room for hours on end if you were willing to adhere to a Russian program, but any break from that - especially German music - would run him right out of the room. I never understood why he never took to French impressionist era music or Delius, for example, both of which certainly strike me as cat-friendly music.
I once tested this Russian music phenomenon by playing the Shostakovich 13th Symphony (Babi Yar) through from beginning to end at high volume. The cat perked up, sat on the arm of the listening chair and purred throughout the entire 1-hour plus program of the unrelenting, bellowing Russian basso. Impressive.
Our new friends are two seven-month old male tuxedo kittens. They are currently in training ;>).
this is one of the few long threads i've read. too much fun.
i have 2 long hairs: vito & xena. xena, well, she'd like to spend time in the listening room but vito, the alpha male, won't allow it---he's quite dominating but so handsome he gets away with it. he's also known to listen w/ me for hours on end...but if i get up to get a snack, he'll jump into my listening chair and refuse to leave.
most interestingly, they never used to listen when i owned merlins or soundlabs, but they love the WP6s, as i do.
an audiophile spelling lesson: fazed vs. phased... Belongs posted with that other thread ["you know you're an audiophile when"] you confuse 'phased' with 'fazed'. Of course I meant the latter although I posted the former above.
Yes Albert: Roxi is an INDOOR squirrel; sounds just a little bit eccentric doesn't it? Yes she chews on the furniture, & everything else that she can sink her big rodent teeth into. The house is pretty well trashed; she once even got ahold of the edge on one of my speakers & took a small hunk out of it. Doorjams, cabinetry, furniture, paneling & trim have all suffered some abuse from time to time. But this has been going on for many years now; we started out with 'Rocky' rehabbing squirrels over ten years ago & this now is our sixth one. It's definitely a surreal experience.
Bob, its cool to see someone that doesnt get "phased" by the damage the squirrel does...as much I as I like my gear, I could never prioritize it over how I relate to my pets...good job with the rodent!
Three cats here, but ALL of them are on double secret probation right now due to some holes being put into a pair of grill covers for the Sonus Faber Electa Amator II's that I used to own.
Someday they might be allowed back into the listening room, but that bummed me out so badddddd.
I wish I could sleep as well as my cat.. she likes Oasis by Kronos Quartet. Seems to like all classical, even opera. She enjoys the music and stays away from the equipment. My mom has a cool 15 lb Maine Coon - again, musical preferance - classical, but frankly would rather eat.
My system is in my basement, and it's off-limits to my cat--though she's occasionally snuck down there when I accidentally left the door open. Though I doubt she would do any damage--she mainly likes to sniff around--I'm not taking any chances. I've heard enough horror stories of pets and audio equipment to last a liftetime!
Having your cat, or any other pet, sitting next to on even on top of you will enhance the listening experience. Any number of medical experiments have shown that pets increase endorphin levels, lower blood pressure and have other physical effects that put the body in a relaxed mood. It stands to reason that you'll be more receptive to music when relaxed.
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