Celestion Ditton 44's

[karma67]

Well i won these on ebay last week for the princely sum of £51.99,the seller listed them as vinatge speakers and not by name so i guess that's why i got them cheap.Since getting back into hifi ive always wanted to try them.
After getting back from collecting them i wired them up for a listen......bugger 1 tweeter had gone tits :( a bit of reading up on the net told me they are fragile and a lot of people use the seas modern replacement,i might go this route as they are cheap to buy new,take more abuse and just a better tweeter but first i wanted to hear how they sound using the original HF2000.
to be fair i new i was going to like them as listen to just 1 on mono it sounded lovely.

After a quick ebay search which brought nothing i typed a wanted ad here,Darren (DarrenHW) sent me a pm saying he had a pair for sale
so money changed hands and they arrived today. A quick session with the soldering iron changing the speaker connectors from front mounting to rear and im ready to have a listen.

Well im very impressed so far,they are just what i was looking for as id gone from MS pageants to KLH 23'S, i loved the bass from the 23's but missed the treble of the pageants,i needed a combination of the 2 and the ditton 44's are it with more!
Next up will be a recap but to be honest they sound fine as they are.

To those that have owned these before what is a good height for them? im guessing having middle of mid and tweeter at ear level??

Sweet as! :)

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150731_180737_zps0v1fvgku.jpg

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150731_180758_zpsvpkglrvy.jpg

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150731_180827_zps79hbjdux.jpg

[struth]

Look in lovely nick Jamie. height looks about right for your position

[karma67]

Cheers grant,yep they not in bad nick,the covers are a bit frayed and the cabs have odd knock and scratch but over all good condition.

[Gordon Steadman]

Cheers grant,yep they not in bad nick,the covers are a bit fraid and the cabs have odd knock and scratch but over all good condition.

Just tell them not to be frightened (sorry about that, spelling Nazi on the loose)

They look very nice indeed. Fantastic value for money. I don't know the sound of the 2000s as all my experiences of Dittons has been with the HF1300. That remains my favourite tweeter, especially now my ears probably don't go beyond 10,000htz.

Great that you are happy with them.

[Barry]

What kind of 'chat room' are you looking at? !! :stalks: (One where the last correspondent obviously doesn’t know how to spell! :doh:)

[karma67]

whoops sorry about that,its called Facebook,us young people browse it from time to time! lol
shall i change the photo mods?

[Barry]

Ah yes, Facebook. Would that be related to this new-fangled "interweb" thingy that I've read about? Do you need a licence to receive it? :lol:

[struth]

whoops sorry about that,its called Facebook,us young people browse it from time to time! lol
shall i change the photo mods?

when I was your age, if i wanted to communicate with someone far away you had to shout very loud;)

:wheniwasaboy:

[Wakefield Turntables]

I lived my 44s, I never got much further up the tree than using 44s, anyway. A couple of tips. Standing them on the metal stands seems to bring the best out if them, I tried mine on a few and decided open steel tubing frame stands seemed to work best. Secondly don't dick around with the xo. Loads of people have tried messing around only to find they end up going back to original caps and cap values. Other than that well done sir, you've bagged a bargain and they should last YOU out..!!!

[DarrenHW]

Glad they're hitting the spot :thumbsup:. I have mine on 400mm stands, yours look about the same. How far away from the rear wall do you have them? Following a visit from Marco yesterday mine are now 500mm from the rear wall (measured from the rear of the speaker), fine tuning this distance has improved focus and really helped dial in the bass.

The cabinets and drivers look to be in very good condition, it's worth chucking some low bass kicks at them to check for leaks, any leaks will be clearly audible as a farting sound.

[karma67]

i agree Andy,these are staying as they are,if i do a recap it will be like for like.
Darren, i have them 340mm off the floor and 310mm away from the wall, they sound good at these measurements and due to the room i cant really move them out more.

[Wakefield Turntables]

You might want to get a decent set of speaker terminals installed as well. The 44's terminals are a bit limited are easily bettered. I bought some fanatastic solid Cu OEM terminals and they can take just about any banana plug, space, or diameter of cable you can through at them. I'd also counsel replacing the wiring internally with some nice new cheap high quality copper cabling. The terminals and cabling would cost less then £40 and make a massive difference.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Darren is your resident '44 specialist on this forum.

[karma67]

You might want to get a decent set of speaker terminals installed as well. The 44's terminals are a bit limited are easily bettered. I bought some fanatastic solid Cu OEM terminals and they can take just about any banana plug, space, or diameter of cable you can through at them. I'd also counsel replacing the wiring internally with some nice new cheap high quality copper cabling. The terminals and cabling would cost less then £40 and make a massive difference.

yep,noted and all on the "to do list"

[Wakefield Turntables]

You might want to get a decent set of speaker terminals installed as well. The 44's terminals are a bit limited are easily bettered. I bought some fanatastic solid Cu OEM terminals and they can take just about any banana plug, space, or diameter of cable you can through at them. I'd also counsel replacing the wiring internally with some nice new cheap high quality copper cabling. The terminals and cabling would cost less then £40 and make a massive difference.

I can promise you I wasn't pissed when I posted this.

[karma67]

Oh dear what have i done :)
After driving half way up the country to buy them last week,yesterday i flicked through gumtree only to find a pair listed 2 miles away!!
I went round to view them today,i couldn't hear them but both tweeters measured fine on the meter so i took a gamble and bought them for £85. the lady wouldn't come down in price as she'd had so many phone calls and one guy even begged her to sell them to him.
so shall i go for a stack?? hee hee.

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150802_121135_zpsbgwtn5ab.jpg

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150802_121559_zpscy4dqlx6.jpg

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150802_121536_zpscscfen20.jpg

[Gordon Steadman]

:lol:

Excellent

[struth]

looks like another terminal case of speakeritis

[karma67]

Lol I fear you may be right!

[Firebottle]

Do tell us how they sound stacked :mental:

[karma67]

very nice considering im only sitting 5 ft away! :lol: totally ridiculous though.:mental:

[leg7]

Why's the bubble in the middle a different size on one pair?

Hey! is Marco stalking you too? :eek:
http://i.imgur.com/vn8WlKK.jpg

[Barry]

Do tell us how they sound stacked :mental:

Pretty awful I would imagine - if stacked B&W DM2As are anything to go by. :(

[karma67]

Why's the bubble in the middle a different size on one pair?

ah ive just twigged what you mean,the bass drivers right?
it would appear that one pair are late and the others are the early type,ie just after the change from black painted baffle to the veneered versions.
also the speaker connections at the rear are different too,i shall pull both bass drivers to check model numbers.the rubber surrounds on the earlier mids is fatter too.

[Macca]

I thought the veneered baffles are the early ones, unfinished baffle is later?

[karma67]

I thought the veneered baffles are the early ones, unfinished baffle is later?
really? i thought it was the other way round.
both bass drivers have the same model number,the xovers however are different.

here's the ones on what i think are the later speakers with the larger bass driver dust cover.its circiut board is the same style as the ones from the 15xr's which came after the 15's?

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150802_191108_zpsukzzdqgz.jpg

and the ones on the earlier model with different tiny speaker wire connectors and smaller bass driver dust cover,i would say its half the size of the other one.

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj548/jamiecreig123/20150802_191547_zpsbssvmosh.jpg

[Macca]

I'm going from memory from when I had some but mine were veneered baffle and I think I found out they were an early serial number. Not that it matters. The stacking is the craziest thing we've had here for a while, congratulations! ;)

[karma67]

do i get a prize ?:eyebrows:

[Gordon Steadman]

do i get a prize ?:eyebrows:

What would you like? Something 'stacked'?

[karma67]

WARNING!!

Dont be a turd like me and stack your ditton's,your blow your bloody amp up! :eek:

[agk]

So yes there is a prize but it's the boobie prize.