Celestion Ditton 44

Picked up a pair of 44's today courtesy of fellow forumer Lance aka 'Elvis's Last Movement' (thoroughly nice bloke). These appear to be of a similar vintage to Martin's pair as they have the veneered baffles and feeble terminal posts on a plastic circular insert. Unlike Martin's these cabinets are well worn with a few knocks and one tweeter has lost its rubber outer ring but it appears to be working OK, all this was reflected in the very generous price that Lance let them go for.:)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...itton44002.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...itton44003.jpg

Have hooked them up to the A60 and will give them a good listen to see how they compare to my Audiomasters before deciding how to proceed with any restoration.

OOOh... very nice, looking forward in hearing how they sound, they are in superb nick.

Joe, they look alright from a distance but they do have signs of their 30+ year life when you get close up, should be a good basis for some restoration though.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...itton44004.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...itton44007.jpg

Still in better condition than the enclosures of my Ditton 66 Rich :)

Mine look like they have been attacked by a pack of ravenous rats on speed :lol:

They still work as intended though, which is the main thing ;)

Still not bad Rich... I'm sure those bits can be fixed up.

I need to get a weeks listening under my belt before deciding how to proceed with the 44's and then bombarding you guy's for advice. Initial impressions are good but they are by no means wiping the floor with the Audiomasters, I think it maybe a close fight ;)

Well I have lived with the 44’s for a couple of weeks and have to say that I really like them, they have that definite 70’s feel about them and can be listened to for hours with out any sense of fatigue. My listening room is the size of a single garage (cause that’s what it used to be) and I when I got the 44’s I was expecting them to be too much for a releatively small space, however I have found the base to be so polite and well controlled that I often forget that I’m listening to largish speakers and get a shock when I turn round to find two 12” base drivers staring back at me :lol:.

I think these are definitely going to be keepers and so now have to decide what to do them, the cabinet’s definitely need some work but I am a little unsure about how to go about this with the drivers in place.

For those that are interested in the oily bits, I also had a peek inside at a crossover. I have identified the values of some of the caps but some are unmarked, also not sure what type of caps the green ones are in the HF circuit

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...4Crossover.jpg

Hi Rich

Your findings mirror mine in that despite the size of these speakers and the 12'' bass drivers they are certainly not a PA speaker. I cannot get the best out of them in my room but your's does sound close to ideal for them. I agree they are so easy to listen to and bass quality is superb. That crossover looks mint to me, do you think it is worth updating the components?

Rich,

I'm in the same position as you in that i'm now going to modify the hell out of the 44's I own. :cool: Quick tip. Remove all the drivers first and then restore the cabinets. Take lots of photo's. The cross-over has been extensively discussed on www.diyaudio.com just do a search of the threads for celestion 44 and not only will you get the values to your seeking but also some very good info on how to tweek them. I have the following mods planned.

1. Stiffen up the cab with more cross bracing
2. rebuild the x-o with silver instead of copper, replace all caps with silver based
versions.
3. brand new high purity silver/copper binding posts (or see point 8)
4. re-wire all units with teflon coated silver
5. replaced the dampening material
6. remount all the drivers with a 1mm sorbothane dampening ring
7. externally house the cross-over in aluminium and mumetal casing
8. Probably solder speaker cables direct to x-o so no need for binding posts
or a set of Eichmann's

Skys the limit really but just a few ideas to float your boat. :cool:

Wow Andrew, that some list of mods you are planning:eek:. I had read a few threads re the crossover caps, there seems to be some discrepancy about the larger value cap on the Mid circuit I have seen values mentioned from 24uF to 33uf, I have ??uF+6uf in parallel.

Martin, I'm not sure what to do about the crossovers, what do you think? I had toy'd with the idea off changing the Mid & HF caps for some basic films such as Ansars or Claritycaps and then do a straight swap for new electrolytics on the base caps, this would keep the cost reasonable. However I think the necessary soldering skills would be beyond me and so I am currently trying to work out if I can refurb the cabinets with the drivers in place.