Celestion Ditton 44

[DSJR]

You can toe them in a little if you'd like to

They look lovely. Glad you love them and you can be assured that they've almost never sounded as good as they do now...

[DSJR]

Don't understand, Counties have an 8" paper cone bass unit and HF1300. The 1300 was often used with 8" bass units.

The Ditton 10 used an approx. 5" unit (same as the Ditton 44 mid) and HF1300.

Both County and 10 are not too bad a speaker. The Ditton 10 has remarkable bass for the size. Treble, up to the limit of the 1300 (not that high) is pretty good.

The early Ditton 10's were 15 Ohm, were marked Studio Series, had heavy bitumen panels damping the inside of the cabinet and I reckon that they were possibly an inspiration for the LS3/5a

The limited (but good) treble of the 10's might make them good rear channel speakers for the Ditton 44.

It was ages ago (decades in fact), but I remember the Counties as nasal, overly dry and almost muffled in balance.

[Macca]

Thanks for your responses lads

Dave - I have toed them in a bit earlier tonight...just a little. Some more minor fettling to do I think. Incidentally it's also a thumbs up for the bargain basement Belkin AV speaker cable - my struggle to open the packaging was nothing short of heroic, I assure you - anyway - nothing wrong with it that I can hear.

Regards

[Jac Hawk]

Thanks for your responses lads

Dave - I have toed them in a bit earlier tonight...just a little. Some more minor fettling to do I think. Incidentally it's also a thumbs up for the bargain basement Belkin AV speaker cable - my struggle to open the packaging was nothing short of heroic, I assure you - anyway - nothing wrong with it that I can hear.

Regards

That Belkin Pure A/V speaker cable is deceptively good value, i use it on all my kit now, i don't think it's worth looking any further, nowt cheaper is as good and you have to pay considerably more to hear any real difference

[Macca]

That Belkin Pure A/V speaker cable is deceptively good value, i use it on all my kit now, i don't think it's worth looking any further, nowt cheaper is as good and you have to pay considerably more to hear any real difference

Yes, agree totally - I am going to order some more runs - the only issue I have with it is that it is a bit inflexible with that mesh screening, minor point I know but if you have WAF considerations it is a bit difficult to hide.

[Quadraphonic]

Hi to everyone, this is my first post, I live in Liverpool, uk, a firm hi fi buff without the anorak!! but very keen on decent sound, vinyl, I love Quadraphonic sound which ought to raise a couple of eyebrows, but my first post concerns the Celestion Ditton 44s.

I have four, predictably, and thought others might like to know what i have done with these in terms of restoration. Acutally very little, but all pretty far reaching.

First, I replaced the undersize binding posts with modern banana sockets. Beware, the metal plates on the earlier round post enclosures act as conductors.....you need something between, ok. I also replaced the wire between posts to crossover, and crossover to bass. The rest I think pretty adequate for now........

Next, I did not hesitate to replace the capacitors, thinking them well past their best. The inductors are excellent, so I left those well alone. The caps set me back about £40. At first, they sounded thinner, lighter and I though OMG!!! and wanted to reverse the work. But, I left them a good couple of months, and they truly opened up, bass is more extended but not boomy, they dig lower than ever I heard them, but remain very controlled. Lower notes of organ are certainly reproduced well below the stated bottom end of 25 Hz, I tried a CD of Liverpool cathedral organ and could catch bottom C!! 16 Hz.

The last thing I did was check the midrange enclosures, these are glued yes, but I noticed when I got these last year that the enclosures were not airtight (probably glue decomposing? cracking?), but moved with the 12 inch bass, ie the cone was being sucked in with the 12's movement. Not good. I PVA glued all four enclosures (bit of a pain!!....) , all of which leaked to varying degrees, and the midrange opened up amazingly. The bass was much the same, slightly tighter but not night and day. The big difference was the mid. Bright, very airy, musical, detailed.

A friend of mine had these babies years ago, I finally got four myself, as I was tired of small speaekrs failing to reproduce organ or orchestral stuff well and sounding wel....small!!!, these sound big and accurate, but amazingly uncoloured, even by todays standards.

Thanks for reading, hope this is of interest and maybe some help to you guys!!

Richard

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hi Richard,
Would you mind stopping by the Welcome section to introduce yourself to the natives? That's the best way to be sure of a warm welcome. Tell us a bit about yourself, the rest of your system & the music you like.

Cheers

[pavalon]

I'm considering a pair of classic Celestion speakers. The price of 15s are very resonable at the moment compared with the 44s. Are the Ditton 15s worth getting or is it worth up the budget a little and go for a pair of better sounding 44s ?

[Macca]

I'm considering a pair of classic Celestion speakers. The price of 15s are very resonable at the moment compared with the 44s. Are the Ditton 15s worth getting or is it worth up the budget a little and go for a pair of better sounding 44s ?

Never heard a 15 but they are quite different in their design from the 44 so I guess will have a different presentation too. The really important thing to take into account with these old Celestions is the drive unit condition. They're very old speakers now so I would not worry about which model so much as getting a very lightly used pair that will still be able to give their best.

[DSJR]

The 15's were rather coloured by the standards of the mid 70's, let alone today.. HOWEVER, a modern system and a re-wire/recap may help to change all that, so don't be put off.

The best vintage mini-Celestions are possibly the DL range, as these got good reviews, look a bit more modern and benefitted from more advanced driver design...

By the way, the Ditton 15 became the 15XR which Marco uses and likes. I believe these evolved into the Ditton 150, but I have no knowledge of these at all. Anyone ever heard them?