Restored Celestion Ditton 66 (Oak)

[stephen_cowslip]

Hope you're all well.

Thought I would share these Ditton 66 speakers with you.

Found in a skip a couple of months ago, laying in rainwater. Miraculously, all the drivers worked but the sides were completely blown. The glue had failed and the wood had swollen in places.

No longer being sealed units, there was lots of vibration throughout the cabinets and the passive radiators were of course not working as intended.

Was luck enough to have an engineer in the village who said he could try and restore them. Obviously gone way off-piste with regards to purism but as the speakers owed me nothing, there was nothing to lose.

He ended up restoring them in solid oak panels (top, bottom and sides) and left the rear of the cabinets intact.

Unfortunately I did not supply the grilles so the shape of the top and bottom panels has been lost but I was not planning to use covers so not too much of a loss.

At the moment, they sound fantastic. The cabinets have no vibration or loose panel contacts. They are now a lot heavier (around 30%).

Next stop is to have the crossovers checked out.

Cheers

 

[calorgas]

What a lucky find! I think the restored finish looks great.

 

[AudioAl]

 

[Tony L]

Superb! It is astonishing what some people throw in skips. A great speaker and a really nice restoration job.

 

[booja30]

Superb! It is astonishing what some people throw in skips. A great speaker and a really nice restoration job.

It reminds me of a thread I saw on audioheritage.org (JBL/Lansing) where a guy answered a Craigslist ad and bought some beat up studio monitors from a guy that was cleaning out his dad’s garage. There were 5+ other pairs in fair condition that had already been taken to the dump. The guy didn’t know what he had! The drivers and horns in the pair that were left were worth several hundred.

If it were me my next order of business would have been to drive straight to the dump and look for the other pairs!

 

[Blue Belle]

How fabulous.. well done.

 

[Tony L]

One of my architect/design-related friends actually bought a tip for a while as a business venture, as much as anything to see what ended up there. He got some really cool stuff, though the nightmare story was someone he was employing driving a JCB over a Quad ESL. He rescued the other one and a couple of Quad IIs though (I’ve seen it, so not a wind-up!). I think that’s where he got his still nice if somewhat ‘road worn’ original Eames recliner from too!

 

[pickwickpapers]

wonderful work.

 

[gary]

Very nice restoration ! Amazing what folk chuck away.

 

[ToTo Man]

Beautiful restoration, @stephen_cowslip, I hope they sound as good as they look! Shameless plug but if you ever need replacement drivers then drop me a message, - having refurbished three pairs of 66 in recent years and being OCD about pair-matching I have a plentiful supply of original stock.

 

[stephen_cowslip]

Thanks all.

I'm over the moon with them to be honest. They sound fantastic and I couldn't have wished for a better outcome aesthetically.

@ToTo Man thank you for your message and it's great to know where I can source some drivers. They all sound OK to me but the man in the know is visiting Friday and he may tell me otherwise!

Cheers

 

[Mynamemynaim]

I think ditton 66s were THE dream speaker for anyone who loved hi-fi in the 70s

Yours look amazing...well done

 

[mark.king]

Really nice and it must be so pleasing since you found them.