Dekay, They leak on the stands? Our good friend Maurice Richard (aka Mo and Momo) followed my wife home one day. We fed it what we had on hand that a cat would possibly consider as food. The very next morning, a Saturday, he showed up at our patio door looking like a slow heavyweight boxer after twelve rounds with a fast one. We tended to him that day as best we could and, come the next morning his eye was still shut tight and his face swollen. Taking out the yellow pages, we found a vet with weekend emergency service. After this, Momo adopted us. Well I'll spare you the details, $350. later the abscess was removed. Not to be undone my wife decided to have the ultimate insult to a male cat performed at the same time. A little later on, despite my less than strenuous objections (I could see some furniture, sound system saving aspect after all) she had the poor Momo declawed front and back. After a very slow recovery, his paws are now fine. Declawing is not a trivial matter. Well, and this might be the real point of this blurb, I think Momo is actually a dat. He comes when I call him (unless he is totally stuffed at the time, granting him some immunity from my calls), he walks by our side when we take a walk, wants to follow my wife to work every morning, and, I think this is the clincher, he likes short rides in the car or the occasional long snooze in the car when parked in the driveway, he just jumps in when the door is opened. He likes to sleep on the morning paper when we are reading it, and sleeps on the papers littering my desk for hours while I am working and listens to the music playing, his ears sometimes moving to catch some less than desirable feature of the tweeters, no doubt. It would be great to have those cute triangular ears to be able to move them, almost radar-like, to pick up on the artefacts of our systems, no? . And oh yes, he always asks for the door when in need and has never touched any of the speakers, floor standing or not (and that's three pairs in the house). Tell me is this a cat or a dat? |
you could try some of those metal waffle style grills. Maybe not attractive but that would protect things. And as a bonus metal conducts electricty so you could wire the grills up the the AC so that when the cat touches it, or pees on it, it will get shocked. Then'll s/he'll think twice. Sprays are not fun and I find declawing a bit cruel since it is an amputation of the first digit. |
Have some leads surgically installed into your cats (one cat per channel), then attach some speaker cable (the fur behind the neck works best), and allow your amp to vibrate the cats. This method of transduction produces a modicum of extraneous noise, and the bass reproduction isn't as good as the treble, however the soundstaging is remarkable. |
AKA (cats)A this time, I would suggest moving to stand mounted speakers. Sprays and such have never been effective on our cats and DE-clawing is out of the question (they have already had the ultimate alteration). My wife did not care much for "stands" in the living room until I picked up a pair of Target HR70's which match (balance) well with the JMR Twin's that I use. Never thought that she would actually like them, but she does, and they look much better than "catified" (AKA "ratified":-) speaker grills and cabinets. They soon gave up attempting to damage the powder coated finish and when they occasionally "leak" on the stands, it is easily cleaned up. Maybe time for a change? |
Pricha why not have the original woofers refoamed or even reconed? The surrounds can be economically replaced alone, provided that the cones are still in decent shape, or the whole voicecoil/spider cone/surround can be replaced in the original baskets. Contact Bob at Van L Speakerworks:
http://www.vanlspeakerworks.com/ |
Keep the speakers, they have wonderfuld crossovers which are typically more expensive than the drivers in high end speakers. Replace the drivers with Dynaudio. Get rid of the cats. Buy a dog. |
I had the same problem. I had a great pair of full range floorstanders, very old JBL's . I liked them but so did the cat and dog and the kids. Eventually I replaced all the drivers and kid proofed them with metal covers over each driver. This worked so well that I refinished the cabinets and then sold them to a friend who was having the same problem with dogs and kids. The speakers are still standing and sound better with driver covers than with dents and holes. After that I learned that in my house all electronics need to be inside a cabinet. All speakers are now wall mounted monitor type. All subwoofers are are downfiring type. And most important the Joule Electra monoblocks are on waist high stands with French doors protecting them. Best of both, the cat is cool. |
Declaw the cats. Use the citrus spray. My cat liked jazz as evidenced by her being there during most listening sessions, at times on her back in front of the speaker with feet up and eyes closed. I have more experience with cats and kids( I told the kids at an early age that there were few things in the house they couldn't touch, but if they touched the stereo they would die.Seems to have worked.)I have the Paradigm Ref. 100's and am happy. My guess what I would would be investigate what redoing the current speakers would entail, investigate used/ demo options, obsess over the whole thing and make a decision, currently having no wife to contend with, and refusing to consult the dogs. |
My two indoor cats aren't allowed in the room where I keep my stereo gear. |
I can second Pbbs approval of the Paradigms. Never have heard the Pro-acs, but when I went CDP shopping, I heard a CAL demo'd with NAD and Paradigms and was quite impressed. Very good imaging, taut and fast. A little too analytical for my taste (I have Vandersteens) but this wasn't the ideal set up with lots of other speakers and mid-fi electronics. I WAS definately impressed with sound/$. Just my $0.02. |
I'd keep the Proac's at least until you get the cats better trained. Ever since he was a kitten, my cat gets a regular nail trimming where his nails are shortened back to the thick sections. He sometimes even purrs when I do it so it doesn't need to be a fight and certainly doesn't hurt him. He also has had a "teepee" to scratch on. He once put a paw toward the speaker grills and I hissed loudly at him. Eyes big as saucers with a dumbfounded look, but he has since not made a move against them. Try different things and be patient and you should find a way to end their unwanted behavior. |
Pricha00,
Soix has a good idea with the citrus scent. Works in keepng cats form using our landscaping as a sand box, so it should work on your speakers. I'd recommend sprayng the scent on the grilles, that way you won't take any chances with the new drivers. |
My cats live outside where they belong. My dog lives inside where he belongs. My niece once poked in my tweeters, we call her "Lefty" now. |
I had a similar problem recently in that my Thiel 3.5s needed a new midrange. The repair process proved to be more difficult than at first anticipated. Nothing major but the new midrange I got was damaged during the replacement process. I will not bore you with the details. I bought Paradigm Reference Studio 100 v2 against the recommendations of a few retailers who told me that after having owned Thiels I would find Paradigm or PSBs a let-down. Well, I am pleased to say that speaker manufacturers have (not to be too general, Paradigm at least) have made significant improvements in the last ten years. My present speakers and the former ones sound different, no doubt. But at this price level, I am very pleased with my choice and feel these boxes have no right sounding that good. Perfection, no. Midrange- natural, very nice; bass- fast, taut, maybe a little less deep than the equalized Thiels but surprising when the program requires bass; tweeter- have heard better, at more than six times the price though (Dynaudio Contour 3.3s and the more expensive ones with Esotar tweeters at 8X the price, go figure). My point is that some companies now offer a very attractive performance/price ratio. The main problem with Paradigms, as I am sure with other makes, is their lack of snob appeal. I would never get rid of my cat, although it appears to be more well mannered than yours. I take no credit for that, nature provides. It's not quite clear to me what you mean by all the drivers, (your cat must have had a field day!) and I doubt they are all $200 a piece. If you can do it with exact replacements at less than $1000. CDN, and you are not really in need of something new to make your day, I would go for the repairs. By the way, being a Canadian audiophile these days is rather hellish if you look beyond our borders. If you go for Canadian equipment though the bang for the buck (Canadian Peso???) ratio is much improved. By manufacturers who are not sullied by their mid-fi offerings, you could look at Totem (I just find they look too weird with their metal cone doo-ichy-poos (spelling???) on the cabinets; what are those things anyway?) And no, for the record, I am not nor have I ever been associated with Paradigm or any other speaker manufacturer, any of their respective directors, officers, employees, agents,representatives or any wives or girl friends of any of the foregoing. Regards. |
After fixing your speakers you might consider scenting the area around your speakers with some sort of citrus scent(cats detest citrus--ever let a cat smell an orange?). Pet stores sell this type of thing in a spray bottle that you might want to spray around the drivers--I doubt it will hurt the drivers(definately not worse than the cats) and once the cats get the idea they won't go near your speakers anymore. And don't forget the good, old-fasioned spraying cats with the waterbottle when you catch them in the act. Best of luck.
Tim |
SO what it all boils down to is: keep the speakers, replace the drivers. With good units' soldering and screwing onto the cabinet, checking out the c/over maybe... the speakers will start singing again!
MUCH cheaper than Grande Utopia! "Cheaper replacement speakers" are hardly cheap nowadays, either (Avanti's, Eidolons, Piega's... +7-10k) -- nor are these protected from pets!
After all, you are (were) happy with the sound of these speakers so, keep them. |
fix the speakers and get rid of cats. what do you mean your wife wont let you. show her you wear the pants. i take that back just buy grand utopias . |
Since you can't replace them with anything near the same price, i would opt for replacing the drivers one more time. At this point in time, i would also take whatever steps necessary to protect your investment. If this means putting up removable barriers when not in use, so be it. If need be, you can decorate the barriers, etc....
While i know that pets become a part of the family, even human children get reprimanded / have restrictions placed upon them when they are "bad". Just like children, pets will continue to "act up" / "get away with what they can" until the law is laid down before them. Sean
> |
