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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
playtrim OP
16 posts
 
I have enjoyed these speakers so much, I have kept them in my system so far.... Of course, they are so heavy, I do not feel like lifting them down from the shelf. It took a bit of effort to get them up there...
donjoan072d
1 posts
 
I enjoyed a pair of black Dittons 44 for about 20 years, very pleasant sound with nice colors. Made some modifications in crossover at high freqs of the 12" and 5". Outstanding tweeter!

Don Joan
devereuxlounge8aa5
1 posts
 
i need a midrange driver for a ditton 44. can anyone help? also is there a crossover mod i can do to use them as two way not three way units ? i got these speakers dirt cheap cos the tweeters were long gone. i wouldn't mind spending £20 and a bit of time to make them work........
marcus
england
playtrim OP
16 posts
 
The midrange went bad in one of my ditton 44s. They still sounded alright, it took me two months before I got around to installing the Cambers I had before. Man, the Cambers are way more efficient, I don't need to crank my amp so high. The amp I had before fried about three months ago, I wonder if driving the amp hard running these inefficient speakers caused it's demise... (the amp was 20 years old). "Honey, the amp blew." "You turned it up too loud, didn't you" "Yeah...."
I would like to find new midrange drivers for my dittons, because I like them, but if devererxlounge@hotmail.com needs a midrange, maybe I will part mine out. bookfairy@rockbridge.net
There are a pair of Ditton 44 speakers for sale on E bay right now, I put a bid on them; If I win the bid, I will have the owner send the drivers only to save on shipping.
gonglee3
304 posts
 
I have a ditton - I like the tweeter especially. They are not as dynamic sounding as newer speakers, but is a musical sounding one. Very listenable and doesn't sound like a cheap speaker at all.

The capacitor change probably will improve it for sure - on an old item like this.

I love mine and listen to classical with it.
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