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Celestion Ditton 15XRs

legacylenslover

legacylenslover

pfm Member
Found myself the new owner of a pair of these speakers earlier this week.
I am not sure I truly set out to buy them, but it just sort of happened.
Anyway, now that I own them, I need to get on and use them!
Whilst I’m waiting for speaker stands to arrive (which could be a long time since I haven’t bought any yet), I have connected them up to my existing kit and listened for about an hour.
A quite noticeably different presentation to my existing Castle Severn 2s!
If any fellow members have any words of wisdom for how to get the best out of them or any experience of repairs to the cabinet, then I’d be pleased to hear. By the way, they’ll be running off the back of a Rega Brio.
Thanks
 
Hi there legacylenslover.

I have a pair in a 2nd system.I got them inheriated when my father passed on as they where his and been in the family for years so I know them very well.
I find them very easy on the ear their bass is definately not their strong points quite bloated.But their ok.
Originally I was useing them with a Denon PM250 SE intergrated amp about 30 watts.Its a decent amp but getting a Rega IO for this system really woke the 15XR's up.
Maybe the IO has more current (I am not good at Hi Fi terminlogy ) but its very enjoyable.
I see that you have a Brio so they should work a treat with yours.
Stands can't help as have mine just sit on carpet.
 
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So long since I’ve listened to Ditton 15s, and I know the original better than the XR. They were a radical speaker when first released in the 1960s, the passive radiator being a new way of getting bass out of a “little” speaker (they were very small for a speaker of their era). Very well reviewed in their day and stayed in production for a very, very long time in one guise or another. My view, again largely from memory, but I did hear a pair at the Wigwam show a decade or more ago, is much though maybe not all of the ‘soft and soggy’ reputation is unfair and caused by being partnered with poorly sited budget turntables. Give them a good source and they are really not bad at all. Also remember they are a ‘bookshelf’ speaker, so they do want a wall nearby. They were everywhere when I was a kid, so many people I knew had a family system along the lines of a Pioneer PL12D or Trio equivalent, a little entry-level Pioneer or Marantz receiver and a pair of 15s usually on bookshelves or on the floor. They are one of those products that do everything well enough and don’t dictate a genre the way so many ‘80s British speakers did. You’d find them in both classical and rock/pop systems. The other ubiquitous speakers were ARs of various types, some of which I like a lot.

PS The original Ditton was interesting as it had a variation on the ‘low tweeter’ (can’t remember the model off the top of my head) used in the BC1, which rolls off pretty low. I think it’s good up to 15kHz or so, but is a very, very good tweeter IMO. It is where a lot of the BC1 magic comes from. At the time I felt they were a little dull as I could actually hear that sort of thing being a kid/teenager, but I also remember liking the way they did hi-hats, cymbals etc.
 
Tony L said:
The original Ditton was interesting as it had a variation on the ‘low tweeter’ (can’t remember the model off the top of my head) used in the BC1, which rolls off pretty low. I think it’s good up to 15kHz or so, but is a very, very good tweeter IMO.
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Celestion HF1300?
 
That’s it! IIRC it’s a different impedance version to the BC1 so no one should ever kill a pair of 15s to get the tweeters, but it is a very similar thing.
 
I heard a set belonging to a mate probably 3 times a week for 4 years or so back when I was a teenager and he had this pair on stands and well away from walls. They never failed to impress but of course my expectations were rather lower than these days!
Under these conditions they had a reasonably tight and fast bass end which still had more than decent extension for a speaker of the size. He had a rather up market front end for a young un... (generous parents really who spoilt him!) after a reasonable Technics deck with the EPC270C cart he got a Thorens TD160 Super with SME 3009 Series 3 and that deck then replaced by an LP12 a year so after... all pre CD. Most other occasion I've heard them on floor or on shelf and with lower end gear and yes sounding slow and blousy plus rather muddy.

Cut to about 2 years ago and I heard an immaculate pair being used for background music in a barn... they were placed on a small table only about 4' apart but in the middle of the huge barn and driven by a "mere" all in one plastic system but which of course had CD as the front end and they really surprised me I must say!

They sounded much as I remembered them as a teenager once again... which was nice:)

I've never heard the pre XR version but do own a set... a late mate said "if you want those old Celestions just take them" and as they had spare tweeters for my Spendors, home they came... roped to the back of my motorbike! I more than half expected that at least one of the tweeters would be blown but upon removing them and putting a multimeter to them they measured good... but the wrong impedance for the Spendors! The tweeters have sat on a shelf ever since but I did briefly test "the rest of" the 15's with a meter and the bass drivers also measure good... and do not rub when given the finger test... So other than a past owner deciding that these 15's would look much better painted matt black i believe that if I put the tweeters back in I'll have a functioning set of 15's just needing a few new caps to be back to A1 (no foam surrounds on bass drivers and no ferrofluid in those tweets!)
 
I don't think it's only the impedance of the HF1300 in the Ditton 15 (8Ω) that's different to the one that was used in Spendors, B&Ws, IMFs, etc, (15Ω or 16Ω) but also the power handling. I was told the 8Ω HF1300 in the Ditton 15 had lower power handling than the 16Ω version due to a smaller magnet, so bear that in mind Jez when you crank 'em up to Eleven! :D
 
FWIW - all of the HF1300s I've measured have commendably flat frequency responses but drop like a stone above 13.5kHz when measured a few degrees off-axis. I imagine the HF1001 in the Ditton 15 XR should extend quite a bit higher given it's a conventional-sized dome tweeter.

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ToTo Man said:
I don't think it's only the impedance of the HF1300 in the Ditton 15 (8Ω) that's different to the one that was used in Spendors, B&Ws, IMFs, etc, (15Ω or 16Ω) but also the power handling. I was told the 8Ω HF1300 in the Ditton 15 had lower power handling than the 16Ω version due to a smaller magnet, so bear that in mind Jez when you crank 'em up to Eleven! :D
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought they also had different magnets but wasn't sure enough to say anything... didn't know they had lower power handling though!

Certainly the version in the Spendors is bloody impressive by any standards... and when you think that they are a 1958 GEC design it makes it even more so. Those curves you posted above show it to be near-as-textbook-perfect other than the lack of extension...hence the Coles/STC 4001... (actually a microphone capsule used in reverse!)
 
ToTo Man said:
FWIW - all of the HF1300s I've measured have commendably flat frequency responses but drop like a stone above 13.5kHz when measured a few degrees off-axis. I imagine the HF1001 in the Ditton 15 XR should extend quite a bit higher given it's a conventional-sized dome tweeter.

48223922146_661cc841d4_o.jpg


48223922271_1a4510d1a6_o.jpg
Click to expand...

BTW All your conscientious work in measuring and quantifying tweeters, especially the differences as they age and the spread in expected parameters, has been superb and I'm sure very useful to many people. Thanks for sharing it :)
 
There is a lot to be said in a two way for sacrificing output at 20 KHz for better integration at crossover. These days that often means using a 28 mm dome.
To me using a 20 mm on a 2 way is madness
 
I use a pair of the original 15s all the time.....Shure M55 -- Lenco GL75 --Tandberg 2075 ---Celestion15s ----Floor!
 
madmike said:
I use a pair of the original 15s all the time.....Shure M55 -- Lenco GL75 --Tandberg 2075 ---Celestion15s ----Floor!
Click to expand...

A bit of an under-use of the magnificent TR2075! (says he who uses the 2055 for background music in the workshop!).

Some of the best receivers ever made IMHO.
 
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