Just won these on Ebay......

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Hamish:
Ever seen that trick where you pull the table cloth from under a full laid out dinner table?

HA!

[Rare Bird]

Right. it was my understanding that the Ditton 15XR had the HF1300's in 'em.

No 'XR' had 'HF1000' tweeters

Marco, the tweeters in yours look to be the same as the ones in the "UL" series which came out at the same time.

Yes that applies to the 'UL6' & 'UL8' but the 'UL10' had HF2000 Tweeter

Seriously Marco, (the Ditton 25's were pants but) the 33 and 44 would be marvellous for the garden (12" bass driver in the 44) as they go loud, are efficient IIRC and sound very good if got off the floor (most of these were plonked on the carpet with the inevitable results)

I never liked the '25' they had a pair of HF1300' & 'HF2000'..'44' & '66' were the choice for a lot, i'm not a fan of the '66' they cause cracks in the plaster

[spendorman]

Just had a quick scan through all this and have not much to add to what Andr'e has said. The Original Ditton 15 (with the HF1300 tweeter) is not is not a world beater in sound quality. But one has to remember that is was designed for the "average system" all those years ago when amplifiers were not that powerful. What it does is make quite reasonable noises with not that many watts input.

As mentioned, the HF1300 does not go that high, but what it does it does quite well.

The extreme HF would be improved with something like a Coles 4001 supertweeter.

And yes, there are several versions of HF1300, differing magnet size and impedance. Possibly the best is the version that is called HF1400, has the biggest magnet and is used in some BBC Monitors and in the B&W DM3.

One point, the Ditton 15 can be a bit boomy in the bass, they were often turned upside down and that seemed to help a bit.

Here is the HF1300 with Coles 4001G in the B&W DM2 (I have no connection with the sale).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...E:B:SS:GB:1123

[DSJR]

Marco, I was wrong about the tweeter, the HF1000 did indeed seem to be the main difference in the two models and I suspect the "BBC" version of the HF1300 may have been kept going while IMF, Rogers and Spendor needed it. By the late eighties it was quietly retired as Rogers had all but gone and Spendor totally revamped the SP1, yet kept the same or very similar balance, which is some doing IMO.

The main "thing" about the XR is that there is only a three element crossover - good in terms of efficiency, but bad when one or other of the drivers desperately needs to be sorted out. As long as you can live with it, the shape is indeed excellent for the job you need it to do, although I'd have probably suggested re-foamed Mission 700's instead (the grilles would have crumbled as well, but fresh could have been obtained and trimmed to size

Good luck...

Inglenook fireplaces? We had a sort-of one of those, with a pig-ugly cowling which rang like a bell. Wifey hated that house and has all but wiped the five years she suffered there from her mind...

[Rare Bird]

I think the Missions Marco are refering to are the '700-2'... if i'm not wrong these didnt have foam surrounds & the grills were glued on.

[Marco]

Interesting stuff, chaps, so many thanks for your input. I'll certainly report back on what I hear when the Dittons arrive (probably by the end of the week)

I suspect that any bass boominess will be largely ameliorated with future crossover component upgrades, as I've heard that happen so often with vintage speakers once they've been modified with, for example, polyproplene caps instead of the electrolytics used.

Dave, does it say what the test system was used in the review?

Spendorman (what's your first name, btw?),

I've always liked the DM2s, but wondered why B&W used such small bass drivers for the size of the cabinets?

They look so out of proportion - as if bass units at least 2" bigger could've been used instead!

Excuse my ignorance, but was there any reason why they didn't fit bigger bass units, instead of having what seems like so much 'empty space' under the grilles?

Marco.

[Marco]

I think the Missions Marco are refering to are the '700-2'... if i'm not wrong these didnt have foam surrounds & the grills were glued on.

100% correct! See the picture here I posted earlier

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

Interesting stuff, chaps, so many thanks for your input. I'll certainly report back on what I hear when the Dittons arrive (probably by the end of the week)

I suspect that any bass boominess will be largely ameliorated with future crossover component upgrades, as I've heard that happen so often with vintage speakers once they've been modified with, for example, polyproplene caps instead of the electrolytics used.

I've always liked the DM2s, but wondered why B&W used such small bass drivers for the size of the cabinets?

They look so out of proportion - as if bass units at least 2" bigger could've been used instead!

Excuse my ignorance, but was there any reason why they didn't fit bigger bass units, instead of having what seems like so much 'empty space' inside the front baffles?

Marco.

I had B&W 'DM2a' only last year (Fully veneered 1" thick plywood baffles) they are a Transmission line speeka, 1/4 wave....You only have to look at any Transmission line to see the Units look out of proportion, actually i think the 'DM2' look very in proportion. There's 'DM2' & 'DM2a'

DM2.II are a different speaker

[Marco]

These don't though:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...B:1123&afsrc=1

It looks as if you could almost get a 12" bass unit in there!

Marco.

[hifi_dave]

You probably could but then the tweeter wouldn't go low enough to marry up.