My friend did this with his old ESS Heil Air Motion Transformer AMT-1A speakers in the late 1970s (which we thought were "high end"). He made some nice wooden frames to hold the chicken wire and back in those days he had to spray paint it black. He stained the frames the same as the speakers. Looked nice and didn't seem to affect the sound at all. He had two kittens and had never had cats before so it was all a learning experience. Worked fine. Grilles were never scratched.
just wanted to share my fix for making my speakers cat and grand kid proof!
you can get black chicken wire ( and other colors ) fr hardware store and easily make theses and prob do a better job than i did it is virtually acousticly transparent. this really works and we love our 15 cats all recues , mostly tamed formerly ferals
ferals are best pets ! smart , strong like to play . loyal , will bond amazingly well