View Full Version : Celestion DL6
technobear
06-11-2011, 16:45
The Freecycle gods have smiled on me today :eyebrows:
I picked up a rather unlovely and desperately unloved pair of Celestion DL6. They had been in this guy's loft and were in a right state. Very dusty, covered in spider pooh and looked like they were ready for the skip. Fortunately they had their grilles on. Oh well, nothing ventured, etc. so I brought them home.
First, do they play. Well sort of. The surround of one was hanging off the basket so I glued it back on. The other looks OK. Now they play! Not bad at all :)
Four hours of scraping, scrubbing and polishing later and they are now unrecognisable from their former state. They have come up beautifully. Just waiting for the grilles to dry out before I put them back on.
They sound bloody lovely http://www.technobear.btinternet.co.uk/emoticons/stereo.gif
http://www.technobear.btinternet.co.uk/images/DL6-1.jpg
http://www.technobear.btinternet.co.uk/images/DL6-2.jpg
http://www.technobear.btinternet.co.uk/emoticons/thumbup.gif
Reid Malenfant
06-11-2011, 18:03
They are pretty decent speakers if the truth be known. Overdamped rear ported bass reflex if I remember right :scratch: You'll be pretty impressed with them as long as you don't move them more than a few feet from the rear wall, as they need a bit of wall assistance to bring up the low bass as they roll off like a sealed box from about 60Hz.
I'm kind of gutted I got rid of mine to a friend in all honesty. Then he got burgled & lost all his kit & records... No doubt he was more gutted than I was :(
Well done for getting them for free :cool:
technobear
06-11-2011, 18:23
Overdamped rear ported bass reflex if I remember right :scratch:
Your memory serves you well. They have that critical reflex alignment that means the bass cones hardly move even when rocking out to some Led Zep or Orbital.
I'm using them about 8 inches off the back wall, either side of the telly and they don't want for bass. They rock quite impressively too - much more authoritative than the Jamo's - proving once again that when it comes to speakers, size matters!
The bass is strong and quite tuneful, bordering on boomy at times, great for low-level listening, perhaps I won't need an amp with tone controls afterall. Listening to this I'm tempted to keep the Croft.
Not to get carried away they're never gonna convince anyone that there are real musicians in the room (as the Zu's could do at times) but they have a nice sense of atmosphere to them where the Jamo's are a little laid back and slightly muffled. I'll bet they are gonna be just fine for movies.
:cool:
Rare Bird
06-11-2011, 18:29
:nocomment:
Reid Malenfant
06-11-2011, 18:41
:lol: @ Andr'e...
Pull them out from the wall gradually Chris & you'll find that they won't boom as much ;) When I had mine I pulled the bass drivers out & measured there parameters (nice cast alloy chassis by the way), so I could see what they were doing & how come they performed so well.
That's how I know they roll off like a sealed box having also measured the enclosure & tuning frequency. They'll start to go out of phase at about 30Hz, but there is usable bass down to that frequency as long as you set them up right. They'll never do stupid volume at 30Hz though but 40Hz should see them doing a pretty high output :eyebrows:
They sound good because THEY ARE BLOODY GOOD!!!
From an era not dominated by far eastern two-a-penny generic boxes, but desigbed for a market by engineers who listened and WHO CARED enough to make a great cost-performance compromise, hence no ported boomy thud masquerading as bass or a fizzed up glossy sting acting as treble.
I don't know how much longer the DL range will remain sleeping, but in my book they're light years forward from the likes of Ditton 15's, Counties et al, even if they don't look particularly "retro" as yet...
Has anyone tried the Ditton 150's? These were an update on the 15XR and featured several improvements to the bass driver as I recall, which should have taken away some of the colouration...
technobear
06-11-2011, 18:50
There's a test sticker on the back of each one :)
It says 16/5/87 so that makes them 24 years old :eek:
Reid Malenfant
06-11-2011, 18:53
It says 16/5/87 so that makes them 24 years old :eek:
Nicely run in then :eyebrows:
My first speakers when I was 17! I auditioned them against Tannoy Mercury (awful wallowy bass) and was told that if I didnt like the Tannoys I would hate Hebrook HB1s.......
The DL6 sounded great on the end of my NAD3120. Hope they give you as much pleasure as they gave me.
I heard Tannoy Mercury's years later and the wallowy bass they had with vinyl seemed significantly reduced with "live" radio and digital sources in fairness to them. the late 90's "Mercury" series were rather horrid though, cos that fine midrange disappeared, along with the treble ;)
jandl100
06-11-2011, 19:44
I heard a pair of UL6 a few months ago - I was amazed at the natural and open quality of the midrange. Very nice indeed.
Rare Bird
06-11-2011, 19:47
I heard a pair of UL6 a few months ago - I was amazed at the natural and open quality of the midrange. Very nice indeed.
:eyebrows:
Just as an aside, after I bought the DL6 the whole range was examined my Martin Colloms for HFN; he liked them - apart from the DL6 and actually said how much better the Tannoy Mercury was. I was gutted and soon replaced the excellent sounding sixes with some truly awful Musical Fidelity MC4.
I was only a teenager with very little self belief and it was some years before I learned to trust my own judgement and ears.
Nowadays I know that Colloms and I differ strongly about what good sound is..... C'est la vie!
Didn't Martin Colloms have a say in the Mercury design and/or "voicing?" or was it the Mercury 2? Once he'd "consulted" on products, I understand they then spent some time in his "reference systems." That's what I was told anyway.....
I heard Tannoy Mercury's years later and the wallowy bass they had with vinyl seemed significantly reduced with "live" radio and digital sources in fairness...
Stop being so diplomatic Dave... They were bloody terrible.
I bet Marco's Tannoys have wallowy one note bass as well....
( sorry Marco: it's the devil in me!)
technobear
06-11-2011, 20:23
I bet Marco's Tannoys have wallowy one note bass as well....
:lolsign:
You should hear them.
Take some ketchup.
It'll make those words easier to swallow :lol:
A mate of mine had some Tannoy Mercury M3's in about 1997. They were dreadful. Bass was definitely a weakness. Just dreadful.
technobear
06-11-2011, 20:29
I'm enjoying myself so much here that I'm thinking it's probably worth it to upgrade some of the crossover components on these.
I spotted 3 white ceramic sound coffins which could be changed for something less destructive like Mills.
There are 3 capacitors too. They all look electrolytic. Can't see all the values. One is 4.7 uFD. Not sure about the others. A tweeter damping resistor wouldn't hurt either although to be honest the treble is really quite nice already.
The binding posts aren't exactly fabulous either and the crossover is built on the back of same.
Rare Bird
06-11-2011, 20:51
Ansar 'Supersound' Polyprops & Mills 'MRA12' Reezistarz :eyebrows:
I bet Marco's Tannoys have wallowy one note bass as well....
( sorry Marco: it's the devil in me!)
No, you're absolutely right. I love wallowy bass, almost as much as I do a good buggering by a Bulgarian builder :more: :bum:
Marco.
Rare Bird
06-11-2011, 21:25
What's a wallowy bass? Ive ni eard that technical term used efore!
No, you're absolutely right. I love wallowy bass, almost as much as I do a good buggering by a Bulgarian builder :more: :bum:
Marco.
Goodness! I've led a sheltered life.
What glue did you use.
Need to do a similar job on a pair of arc 101's.
technobear
07-11-2011, 07:36
What glue did you use.
Need to do a similar job on a pair of arc 101's.
I just used superglue.
Lay the speaker on its back so that the cone remained centred.
I could be wrong, but i think PVA of various types is used in driver manufacture (certainly a white colour I remember)...
technobear
07-11-2011, 09:58
These Celestion drivers had a brown glue.
I had nothing to hand to hold the surround down while glue dried and I thought Evo-Stik impact adhesive would be too messy.
Had superglue been invented in 1987?
Canetoad
07-11-2011, 13:19
The glue that comes with replacement surrounds for AR speakers is very thick PVA. Works a treat too. :eyebrows:
Rare Bird
07-11-2011, 14:36
It needs to be flexible to a certain degree
The Black Adder
07-11-2011, 19:25
Nice speakers... I've got the DL10's and the build quality is superb.
Love the DL6's and DL8's too.
Currently selling my spare pair of DL10's as room is an issue at the moment.
Enjoy! :)
hifi_dave
07-11-2011, 19:44
Had superglue been invented in 1987?
I saw a 'superglue' being used in a GEC factory in 1978/79. Don't think it was generally available back then.
technobear
07-11-2011, 21:52
If we've aroused anyone's interest in owning a pair of these, there's a pair of the later DL6 using the titanium tweeter on Gumtree right now:
http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/celestion-dl6-speakers-in-perfect-working-order/91165885
£20 :eek:
Arm - off - bite :doh:
Reid Malenfant
07-11-2011, 21:57
I Think I'd prefer the MK1 version with the soft dome Chris... Titanium still breaks up in the audio band :rolleyes: Now if it was a Beryllium tweeter that's a different matter as you'd be looking at about 27KHz+ ;)
They didn't make one though :eyebrows: No harm in dreaming...
Rare Bird
07-11-2011, 23:18
Some DL8/II on BIN £35.00
I Think I'd prefer the MK1 version with the soft dome Chris... Titanium still breaks up in the audio band :rolleyes
Really? I thought the first titanium break up modes were at 22khz?
Also would these not have been aluminium tweeters such as developed for the sl6s and the sl700?
And another thing.... Don't soft domes break up well within the audio band? :)
Reid Malenfant
09-11-2011, 17:19
Hi Darren, I think you'll find that Aluminium starts going off at about 16Khz & Titanium at roughly 19Khz size & profile & probably thickness (of the diaphram itself) dependent. I'd take a look at the responses of some tweeters, when you see things deviate from fairly flat when on axis is when things start getting nasty :eyebrows:
Yes you are 100% correct that soft domes break up much earlier :) However the nature of the breakup is vastly different due to the stiffness of the material that is used. In other words because it's soft it tends to damp itself, where as a metal dome will ring like a bell :eek:
Rare Bird
09-11-2011, 18:37
Celestion made some nice speakers in the begining of the 90's in the form of the : 3000/5000/7000 using ribbon tweeters..
technobear
09-11-2011, 19:56
Where are they now? One never sees them. Did they all die?
Hi Darren, I think you'll find that Aluminium starts going off at about 16Khz & Titanium at roughly 19Khz
So the break up only effects small children and bats?
I've had loads of metal domes and never heard any breakup on program material..... But I've heard plenty of smeared, dull treble from soft dome tweeters......
I like ribbon treble best of all as featured in some Maggies etc.
Reid Malenfant
09-11-2011, 21:51
Ribbons are great admittedly ;) Even though I can't hear a 19Khz waveform I can certainly hear the result of the breakup of a Titanium tweeter in the resulting audio spectrum given out by the loudspeaker.
If you think out of band stuff isn't going to affect what you hear then you need to call a sh*t load of people rather deluded :eyebrows:
It's kind of like pretending it doesn't exist, because you can't hear it :mental:
Where are they now? One never sees them. Did they all die?
A pair were available earlier this year: http://www.world-designs.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=6084
Rare Bird
09-11-2011, 23:39
They use Monopole ribbons 45 degree mounted..
It's kind of like pretending it doesn't exist, because you can't hear it :mental:
If I can't hear it then surely it's of no consequence and may as well not exist? Shouldn't I trust my ears?
Reid Malenfant
10-11-2011, 17:56
If I can't hear it then surely it's of no consequence and may as well not exist? Shouldn't I trust my ears?
Hi Darren, I see you are going to take a little convincing :eyebrows:
Just because you can't hear a waveform out of band does not mean that you won't hear it's effects in the audio band ;) One waveform will modulate another be it a higher or lower frequency, thus an out of audio band 25Khz waveform can certainly make it's presence known on other waveforms in the treble spectrum.
If I had two decent working audio oscillators I could show you precisely what I mean on an oscilloscope. Now assuming you have some fangled supertweeter in your system & also that it was set up correctly & in phase with the tweeter, or if you like you are listening using a pair of NS1000Ms which will happily reproduce 25Khz & I fed these two signals of say 25Khz & 12.5Khz I feel sure it'd be pretty obvious to you listening to the 12.5Khz that you could hear, that there would be an audible difference if I shut off the 25Khz signal...
As it is though you'll either have to do some reading... Or take it on faith that I know what I'm saying is correct :cool:
Pete The Cat
10-11-2011, 20:50
1990-ish I bought my DL6s (series IIs) from Superfi in Nottingham for around £140. Although things moved on I held on to them in my second system until last year, when an amp died and took one of them with it. Since then MS05s and 731LEs haven't been as good all round. They were very decent utility speakers although the bass did seem to cut out completely beneath a certain frequency even when close to walls, but for the price you can't really expect perfection. I reckon the contemporary reviews that made them the weak link in the DL4/6/8 range have helped reduce their second hand price and they represent great VFM.
Pete
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