Celestion ditton 44 crossover repair help needed please .

[andyrlb]

Hi Guys & girls ,
Well I went and purchased a pair of ditton 44's in very good cosmetic condition, stupidly I didn't ( couldn't ) test them at the point of sale but I was assured they were fine .
Alas when I plugged them in I immediately knew that the muddy sound couldn't be right .... TWEETERS !!! ... Oh no more expense !!!
But fortunately ( I think ) the actual tweeters are working fine but it's something on the crossover, imo some capacitors, but I'm not sure which ones feed the tweeter(s) ( it's both speakers) I do have photos of the crossovers on this phone but I've no idea how I upload them . Btw they are mark 1 44's ( I'm told )I know nothing about electronics but I'm determined to get these up and running by myself and of course with the expert advice I'm hoping I'll get from you guys .




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[walpurgis]

I'd test the tweeters before doing anything further. Fortunately as the wire terminals are on the front, you can do this without removing them. just use a cheap multimeter (about a fiver from Maplins etc.). They should measure around 4 ohms.

[andyrlb]

Hi Walpurgis ,I have basically wired an amp only very low volume directly to the tweeter and to my ears they are fine . Do I replace the black things on the crossover ? ( caps )

[brozier]

Hiya,

Have a look at this thread should get you up to speed on changing caps :-
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...ng-ditton-44-s
Cheers

Hi Walpurgis ,I have basically wired an amp only very low volume directly to the tweeter and to my ears they are fine . Do I replace the black things on the crossover ? ( caps )

[DarrenHW]

Hi Andy,
I've taken your various posts from other threads and collated them here to simplify things.

Hi Madders,
Hope you don't mind me asking how you got on doing the refurbishment on your 44's ? I am in need of little advice about mine , basically I have no feed to the tweeters .
Regards
Andy

As Geoff (Walpugis) has said the first place to start is to check your tweeters for continuity with a multimetre, like so: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...796#post745796. If your tweeters check out, test your inductors and wires, although these are highly unlikely to be the fault it only takes a couple of minutes to test.

I've put some arrows on your photo's to identify the tweeter caps and inductor:



If you do have any problems here I have spare inductors and some Jantzen CrossCaps and Alcap LL (I'm no longer using them as their not the best choice) you can have for the price of postage.

Hi Jamie , I am about to replace the tweeter caps on my 44's but I'm not sure what to go for , any advice please

I'd be as bold to say Ken's (Qwin) approach is the AoS recommendation: http://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Project_Images/66/66_XOver.pdf (don't worry that this is for Ditton 66's the crossovers are very similar and identical in the HF), that is 1 x 4uF Ansar PP and 1 x 4.7uF & 1 x 1.5uF Ansar PP, they are available from here: http://www.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/supe...itors-68-c.asp

For further reading Ken has fully documented his work on the 66's http://www.jkwynn.co.uk//66_HTML/66_Thumbs.html / http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...ghlight=ditton

[andyrlb]

Hi Darren, thank you so much for your help , I suspected it was the black things that you've pointed out , at last !!!
I would be over the moon to use your bits and pay postage and more if need be . Top man .I had best go and buy a soldering iron now .
Pls let me know how you'd like to be paid etc .
Thanks

[walpurgis]

If tinkering with speakers is likely to be regular, invest in an LCR multimeter. I've been using one for years. An absolute must if you're serious.

[andyrlb]

Well I do appear to have "a thing " about speakers so I will follow your advice Mr Tact , thank you.

[walpurgis]

Well I do appear to have "a thing " about speakers so I will follow your advice Mr Tact , thank you.

This is the sort of thing: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LCR-INDUCT...sAAOSw3mpXIV~W

You can the test inductors, capacitors, resistance and continuity.

By the way. Did you know that the DC resistance of moving coil drive units will measure less than the impedance rating (usually)? An 8 ohm speaker unit will typically read at 5 to 6 ohms.

[DarrenHW]

Hi Darren, thank you so much for your help , I suspected it was the black things that you've pointed out , at last !!!
I would be over the moon to use your bits and pay postage and more if need be . Top man .I had best go and buy a soldering iron now .
Pls let me know how you'd like to be paid etc .
Thanks

Yes, the black things! I'll dig out the caps and get them packaged up over the weekend and drop you a PM. I have Jantzen CrossCaps for the tweeters and Alcap LL for the mids, you may as well replace the mid caps whilst your in there but if your keeping the speakers I'd highly recommend swapping them for Mundorfs and Ansars in the future.

Good spot on the LCR Geoff, that's quite a bargain!