Celestion DL10's - A classic waiting to be appreciated?

[The Black Adder]

Hi guys.

I've dug out my late farthers Celestion DL10's the other day and what a great sounding speaker. Very monitor sounding.

I've been after a pair for ages but after some persuasion my mum decided that she wanted some smaller speakers.. Which she does anyway.

They haven't been used for a while so when I got them out of the box I was very surprised in the weight and quality of them.

Similar in size to the Harbeth SHL5's and sporting a 10" bass unit, a 6" mid and the legendary titanium dome tweeter. They are cast metal baskets with paper cones too.

So... in sound quality terms what are these like? Well... they are totally different beasts than my Tannoys so I'm not going to compare here but the sound is superb! Very much like the SHL5's (of which I've previously compared too) except that the bass reflex is on the rear and not the front like the SHL5's.

Bought in 1984 from Superfi in Sheffield these were originally partnered with a Trio hifi delivering 50wpc and boasting the first ever CD player by Trio (Kenwood).

Now they are being driven by my Glenn Croft Quad II's and basic 25 pre and it's not until you get something like this driving them that you can really appreciate the DL10's.

Looking on the net and doing a search for the DL10's you will find more adverts for sale of them than anything but you will also find more people saying that they regret selling their DL10's too.

So, I want to put these speakers in a new light. One person on a forum said 'the DL10's are great speakers but not audiophile'... A very grey statement if it was ever a statement in the first place because if that's the case I need to be re-educated in to what an audiophile speaker truly is.

I think a great speaker should give drama, space and dynamics and make you feel the music. These do all of that but in a Celestion way like the Harbeths and Tannoys do it in their way.