Celestion Ditton 44 Speakers


Does anyone have or ever had Celestion Ditton 44 speakers? I saw a pair at a thrift shop, excellent condition, cheap, and could not resist buying them. I am currently have them hooked up to my store system (In budget minded virtual systems). Any comments about them? Has anyone ever replaced or upgraded the capacitors in the crossovers of vintage speakers?
My comments after a week of listening: Very listenable; no listening fatigue; punchy bass (they have a 12 inch woofer). However, they are noticably somewhat "muddier" than the CAMBER speakers I have been using. Not lots muddier, but somewhat muddier. By muddier, I mean less precice sounding. (The Celestions are three way speakers, and the Cambers are two way with a 7" woofer, and that may partly explain why the Celestions sound muddier.) I will hook the Cambers back up when I get around to it. However, I would like to try the Celestions in a room that is more appropriatly set up acoustically. If you look at my virtual system, there are serious issues with the room of my store system, but that is where I listen most.
playtrim

Showing 1 response by lhlb

These were very pleasant speakers in a system I had in the U.K. over 20 years ago! You are right, one can listen for hours without fatigue probably due to the treble driver, which was thought to be very sweet back then. As I recall, trumpet, horn and sax came over the midrange very realistically and the soft-roll base had plenty of punch. These speakers worked well for many types of music but I remember them best for the ability to work with close-in jazz. However these units, good as they were, were of a different technological time. Driver materials have improved so much that I think regardless of your cross-over tweaks you'll not improve greatly over the factory sound.
The treble unit, though sweet, rolled off beyond 18k as I remember and the midrange was a paper driver. You might want to rotate the base units 180 degrees, top to bottom, to help with the coil alignment. For me, I say accept them for what they are; a nice pair of older, cheaper speakers. lhlb