View Full Version : Offered FOC: Celestion Ditton 15 MK 1
aquapiranha
11-10-2010, 17:39
Hi. I have a pair of Ditton 15's that were given to me. they are in fairly good condition and it appears on of the ABR's has been replaced. They are the earlier model without the veneer on the baffle if that helps. Free to anyone who can collect from the Wirral.
:)
Dave Hewitt
11-10-2010, 17:56
Hi Steve'
You don't have any big tannoys for nowt do you ?
Yours in anticipation,Dave.;)
aquapiranha
11-10-2010, 18:03
Hi Dave. I had some old heavy things with a blingy cover on the back and lots of little holes inside the middle of the cone... think they said LSU/HF/15G or something on them? anyway, they sounded shite so I put them in a skip.....
:lol:
Rare Bird
11-10-2010, 21:04
you could take out the coles '4001' & celestion 'HF1300' tweeters..
aquapiranha
11-10-2010, 21:09
you could take out the coles 4001 & celestion HF1300 tweeters..
They look like this Andre...
http://listeninn.com/catalog/images/Used-Speakers/Celestion(Ditton%2015)%20enlarge1.jpg
Not sure about the tweeters
Reid Malenfant
11-10-2010, 21:09
you could take out the coles 4001 & celestion HF1300 tweeters..
There is no Coles in the 15, only the HF1300 ;)
HF1300 + 8" bass/mid & 8" ABR..
Rare Bird
11-10-2010, 21:11
Sorry i was thinking of the B&W 'DM4' I feel a right T**t :o
Reid Malenfant
11-10-2010, 21:14
Hey Andre, i'm sure i have messed up to on a number of occasions. Nothing to fret over :) No-one knows everthing! So much is easy to forget lol
aquapiranha
12-10-2010, 17:40
The speakers are now going to a new home, thanks.
Hi Steve,
They look like this Andre...
http://listeninn.com/catalog/images/Used-Speakers/Celestion(Ditton%2015)%20enlarge1.jpg
They look like an early pair and rather different from mine....
Glad they've gone to a new home - saves you carting them over to the Emerald Isle! ;)
Marco.
Rare Bird
12-10-2010, 18:07
Hey Andre, i'm sure i have messed up to on a number of occasions. Nothing to fret over :) No-one knows everthing! So much is easy to forget lol
I feel a plonker cos Celestions were one of my specialities years ago :o
Reid Malenfant
12-10-2010, 18:16
Years ago, well i was into a few things (non hifi) many moons ago & there is no way i can remember now what i knew then :doh: Perhaps if i did a load of reading it'd all come back?
Stop bashing yourself ;) Only human :ner:
aquapiranha
12-10-2010, 19:03
Yes I have enough paraphernalia to take as it is! they are the earlier models so they are quite different to yours Marco.
Yup - I quite like the early ones, but you've seen how good a condition mine are in :)
Btw, I noticed your contribution on the 'speakers first thing' thread on pfm, where your 'friend' and mine the 'hi-fi expert' is talking the most incredible bollocks about Tannoys ;)
I've not had such a good laugh in ages!!
Marco.
aquapiranha
12-10-2010, 19:29
I just wondered why the Kensington's are Mahogany, it's a personal thing but I think the walnut veneer (and genuine walnut inserts) on Ian's Canterbury's looks fantastic.
I'm sure you can also get the Kensingtons in a walnut finish, but regardless, they'll still suffer from the 'compromised little speaker' syndrome next to proper (big) Tannoys such as the Lockwoods or Ian's Canterburys! ;)
Marco.
aquapiranha
12-10-2010, 20:03
I'm sure you can also get the Kensingtons in a walnut finish, but regardless, they'll still suffer from the 'compromised little speaker' syndrome next to proper (big) Tannoys such as the Lockwoods or Ian's Canterburys! ;)
Marco.
common sense would say you are correct on that one, and having heard yours I can't believe a 10" would offer the same depth tbh.
Indeed, but Mr T has his own (rather unique) way of listening, which in my experience more often than not leads him to making these erroneous conclusions! ;)
Anyway, 'nuff said. If he's happy, he's happy.
Marco (whose speakers are called 'Lockwood Majors'. The only 'wardrobes' in his house are in the bedroom!)
Don't knock 10" tannoy DC's, they have a charm all their own, you know......
I'm not, Dave - I like them (and indeed have heard them) but they have to be judged in the appropriate context :)
I suspect Mr T has a wee 'agenda' of his own which has got nothing to do with the respective audio performance of the speakers concerned......
Marco.
spendorman
12-10-2010, 20:45
Sorry i was thinking of the B&W 'DM4' I feel a right T**t :o
The Ditton 15 (mk1) would have been better if fitted with the Coles supertweeter as well
Absolutely, Paul. Andre made that rather pertinent point when I bought my own (later edition) Ditton 15s.
I'm absolutely delighted with mine, though, and am frequently shocked at how good they sound on the end of my system for what are, after all, 30-odd year-old designs.
Just wait until I tweak the crossovers! ;)
Marco.
spendorman
12-10-2010, 21:26
I'm absolutely delighted with mine, though, and am frequently shocked at how good they sound on the end of my system for what are, after all, 30 year-old designs.
Just wait until I tweak the crossovers! ;)
Marco.
Someone once said:
"there have been marvellous advances in the design of loudspeakers in the last 30 years, shame that the sound quality hasn't advanced"
That "someone" was very astute!
Marco.
Absolutely, Paul. Andre made that rather pertinent point when I bought my own (later edition) Ditton 15s.
I'm absolutely delighted with mine, though, and am frequently shocked at how good they sound on the end of my system for what are, after all, 30-odd year-old designs.
Just wait until I tweak the crossovers! ;)
Marco.
Rather more than 30 years Marco. If you let your head rule for a while, I can assure you that the later DL8's would pee all over them, even if they didn't look so "retro."
Speakers today have the potential to be better than ever, with modern cone materials, lower cost production in the far east, wider bandwidth tweeters and far less distortion, let alone affordable and better quality crossover components. There's still a long way to go, but at the moment the market isn't there like it once was, so getting the speakers made as cheaply as possible is the order of the day IMO.
Hi Dave,
Rather more than 30 years Marco.
I see, so exactly how old are my versions, then? :)
If you let your head rule for a while, I can assure you that the later DL8's would pee all over them, even if they didn't look so "retro."
Lol! I don't disagree, but that's totally not the point.
I bought the Ditton 15XRs because I wanted something 'retro' to fit in with the period features of our home, and the pair I found were, to all intents and purposes, in brand new condition, which for me was important as this time they'd be in full view in our lounge and not upstairs in my dedicated music room, where aesthetically in terms of hi-fi equipment, anything goes.
Then when I heard them on the Atacama stands Andre recommended, I was so stunned at how good they sounded on the end of my system that I'd realised what a bargain I'd got :eek:
For the £260 I paid for the Celestions, they unquestionably outperform, musically, most stand-mount speakers made today I've heard under a grand, and that's before I've upgraded the crossovers. If I get the same result there as I did with the Tannoy Monitor Golds, then I'll really be laughing! :eyebrows:
As I've told you already, the Celestions are so good I'm seriously thinking of using them as part of the AoS system at Scalford Hall next year, as it would definitely raise a few eyebrows and also make a change from doing the 'big speaker thing', which we've done successfully for the last two years.
Of course, this will involve hiring a much smaller room, but I must admit I would get quite a lot of satisfaction from demonstrating how good a sound can be obtained from such 'legacy technology' ;)
If you get your arse into gear next year (and detach yourself from the apron strings of your good lady) you can come and hear the results for yourself....! :ner:
Speakers today have the potential to be better than ever, with modern cone materials, lower cost production in the far east, wider bandwidth tweeters and far less distortion, let alone affordable and better quality crossover components.
I completely agree. However, I'm glad you used the word "potential", as unfortunately that potential is in my opinion only occasionally realised. I'm a great believer in combining the best of old and new technologies (witness this philosophy at work in most of my system), as the rewards can be substantial, and of course that also applies to speakers.
It's not the raw ingredients available nowadays that's the problem - far from it, as in most cases they're of a much higher standard than most of what was produced 20, 30 or 40 years ago, but rather how they're implemented.
And here I'm talking about the way loudspeakers today are 'voiced' by manufacturers, which more often than not for me creates a falsely 'pumped up' sonic presentation that is unrepresentative of how real voices and instruments actually sound. Your Spendors are also a case in point, and represent the more natural and realistic voicing of quality vintage designs.
You know my thoughts on this matter all too well, Dave, so I'm not going to labour the point any further.
There's still a long way to go, but at the moment the market isn't there like it once was, so getting the speakers made as cheaply as possible is the order of the day IMO.
Yep, and so unfortunately quality becomes yet again the victim of commercialism and convenience, which is why buying good quality vintage gear (and bringing it up to date if necessary) so often pays considerable dividends!
Marco.
Rare Bird
13-10-2010, 10:08
I see, so exactly how old are my versions, then? :)
'XR' were circa approx 1975
Cheers, dude. So they're about 35 years old then, and not "rather more than", as Dave said, the 30-odd years I initially quoted ;)
Marco.
Wot we talkin about eh?
The XR's were around in '75 as I remember and the original's were still around in 1974 when I started at KJ Watford. these latter did sound a bit constricted in the treble by this time, even when compared with the likes of the KEF Chorale, hardly a toppy speaker. We had comparators then, with rows of speakers we could switch instantly between to gain an overal view of balance/colourations etc. It was said, not entirely without substance, that the "single speaker dem" actually worked against the progress of speakers because on the one hand, one doesn't take long to adapt to an inferior sound and make excuses for it when there's nothing else to directly compare it to, although on the other, the speaker cones in the row will vibrate in sympathy with the ones playing, thus remove fine detail and subtlety.
With the cheaper speakers, we used to do a quick multi-speaker comparison and then whisk the winning two or three to the dem room (unused ones outside) for the final choice. A good compromise I felt at the time.
Hi Dave,
Wot we talkin about eh?
You replied earlier, in response to me saying that my Ditton 15XRs were "30-odd years old":
Rather more than 30 years Marco.
It turns out they were produced in 1975, which is hardly "rather more" than 30-odd years (35 to be precise)...
They way you were talking, it sounded like they were produced in the 50s or 60s!
That's what we're talkin' about, dude ;)
Marco.
The way they can sound, it could well have been the 50's :ner:
Mock ye not, there were a lot of good speakers made in the 50s - Tannoys, for example!
The Dittons only sound pants when used with some of the piss-poor screechy solid-state amps and 'phat' sounding bouncy T/Ts of their day!! :eyebrows:
You need to update your 'memory banks' (again), old chap, and I'll do that if you come to Scalford Hall next year....
However, it's getting rather boring now being proved right all the time! :lol: ;)
Marco.
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