Celestion Ditton 44

[Macca]

I bought a set of ditton 130's they had the same terminals on them, the red and black screw on bits completely unscrew, anyway i gave them to a mate and he used crimp ring terminals with Belkin Pure A/V speaker cable. they are strange somewhat old fashioned terminals but do the job and you can at least get the connections screwed down nice and tight.

Thanks Mike I'll see whats available - if they fit the Belkin cable that's all I need.

[Macca]

Enjoy and cherish them, Martin - I think its great that the previous owner wanted them to go to a good home - and after you've listened to them for a while I suspect they will be going nowhere!

That's it - in theory my A2s should be better given 20 odd years development. I'll need stands for the Dittons first so it is a fair comparison.

Great just to look at them though, have to confess I got in from work tonight and went straight for another look at them before I took my coat off

[Macca]

I wasn't suggesting that Martin, what i meant was if a pair of tweeters can go for getting on for £100 or more then it gives some idea of the value of the whole lot

Sorry Mark - yes I understood you - although didn't know the HF units were so valuable - they do look good, though. Neither of us was interested in making a buck on the deal it was just very generous of him to refuse any more on principle. Top bloke really.

[Rare Bird]

Martin
They are an early pair of Veneered baffle board 44's, that still carry the previous plastic terminal pods ..Just remove the old terminals & fit a small diameter post such as the Michell.

Use the Michell Amplifier post (not the speaker post version)..

This terminal is only approx 10mm dia, needs a 5mm hole. you will be able to use bannana plugs or thick bare wire then. I can tell you the best place to get them from..

[Marco]

That's it - in theory my A2s should be better given 20 odd years development.

That counts for bugger all, mate.

The best vintage speakers will more often than not piss all over many modern designs, simply because they often used much better quality drive units, and crucially, were voiced to accurately reproduce music, and not the screechy noise that commercial pressures dictate that speaker manufacturers should produce with their designs these days!

The only thing that sometimes holds back the performance of the best vintage speaker designs are the crossover components, which often need replacing due to being long past their sell-by date.

However, that can be done sympathetically by anyone with an understanding of basic electronics, and a good pair of ears

The comparison will be interesting, but I'm expecting the A2s to sound rather more 'hi-fi' than the Celestions. I suspect that both will have their strengths and weaknesses, but that the 44s will be the ones you come back to listening to most

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

Hi Marco
Too right mate, It still amazes me the results you can get from changing the old cross over parts, some old companies around this era did infact use very high quality Inductors, celestion being an example, i would personally stick with whats in those '44's indctor wise..As for caps, not brainy spending mega buck on boutique capacitors, a set of Ansar polyprops would be an excepional choice at beer money, i'll always recommend these caps, Mike (Jack Hawk) took up the recommendation with his old castle's, i believe he was very very please with the end result.

[Marco]

Yep, mate, I agree about the inductors - I'd leave those well alone. The ones used inside my 66s are very good indeed, and so I'd expect those in the 44s to be of similar quality

Classic speakers like these should be kept as original as possible, but sometimes small tweaks need to be carried out in order to get the best from them - and also crucially to preserve the functionality of the drive units, which of course are very difficult to replace.

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

Right. I whole wholeheartedly agree that gear of this age does need rebuilding & in most instances with modern high quality equivilant parts, but under no circumstances do i believe in modification that requires defacing an old item, my advice is think very carefully as to your plan & what items you are gonna use to perform the rebuild/mod, it;'s always possible. As for crossovers, my recommendation would be to hardwire on a new board. Just keep the original board safe no harm is done then.If the board is already an old hard wired then great, a simple part change (except those inductors that will be the same quality as your 66's marco)

[spendorman]

Both pairs of my Ditton 44's (and my four spare crossovers) have hard wired crossovers.

[Macca]

Hi Marco, Andre

I have ordered some Belkin screw on spade connectors to replace the screw on banana plugs so as soon as they arrive I can connect up the Dittons without modding anything. I don't intend to change the caps unless they really sound like they need doing.

The Celestion A2 was from the last flagship range Celestion did before being bought out by the Chinese (Haden Boardman described them as 'the last of the true Celestions') so they are designed and built in the UK just as the Dittons before them - they definetly do not sound like modern screechy speakers if they did I would not be using them as I find the sound of a lot of modern speakers to be unmusical, as I suspect do both of you.