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Celestion Ditton 44 Speakers - Any good?

J

jonesi

pfm Member
Looking to try some speakers with bigger bass drivers, the Celestion 44s certainly look the part but are they any good? I'm also looking for something that's easy to drive and not too demanding on the amp. I don't want to spend a lot, £200ish, any recommendations?
 
jonesi said:
Looking to try some speakers with bigger bass drivers, the Celestion 44s certainly look the part but are they any good? I'm also looking for something that's easy to drive and not too demanding on the amp. I don't want to spend a lot, £200ish, any recommendations?
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Full bodied sound with veeeeery nice Bass, sweet mid range, not the most uncoloured by "Modern" standards, but lovely with Classical and the old Pink Floyd sound.. Oh and try with a little Joan Armatrading or almost any other decent female vocalist..NOT Celine Deon!! another underrated sleeping classic, Celestion have always been somewhat undersold after KEF for some unknown reason, class snobbery maybe? If you can get for 200 Quid or less in good condition then bite someones hand off..get yer young mates around and tell them how old and how much and watch jaws drop.
 
Superb speaker, I have Ditton 66MK2s, the next step up, stunning. No substitute for a 12'' driver.
 
Sounds encouraging. I was watching some 66s on ePay, they sold for £1,171.11, a bit outside my budget!
 
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The 44 is a lovely speaker and still serviced by Celestion. The 66 is better still, a truly excellent speaker. My pal owns a set of each, I think he owns everything. Somewhere. If 66s are going for £1k, even he may sell!
 
I'd love to hear some 66s again! It was hearing the Moody Blues Question Of Balance on a friend's dad's pair as a kid that got me into this stuff in the first place. The rest of the system was (IIRC) TD-125 / 3009 S2 / V15, 33 / 303 and it was the first proper hi-fi system I ever heard.

Tony.
 
I really can't tell you just how good the 66s are, spell binding.

The 44s have a lot of it too, as do the 25s.
 
packtech said:
Full bodied sound with veeeeery nice Bass, sweet mid range, not the most uncoloured by "Modern" standards, but lovely with Classical and the old Pink Floyd sound.. Oh and try with a little Joan Armatrading or almost any other decent female vocalist..NOT Celine Deon!! another underrated sleeping classic, Celestion have always been somewhat undersold after KEF for some unknown reason, class snobbery maybe? If you can get for 200 Quid or less in good condition then bite someones hand off..get yer young mates around and tell them how old and how much and watch jaws drop.
Click to expand...

jonesi said:
Sounds encouraging. I was watching some 66s on ePay, they sold for £1,171.11, a bit outside my budget!
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Hello everyone, first post :)
Though Celestion prices have been rising steadily for the last few years, they normally go for alittle less than this.
About £100-200 for the 44 and £400-800 for the 66. If there's one near you that is collection only you might snag a bargain.
I've got the ditton33 which is fairly similar to the 44, I think the main differences are that it is a slightly smaller cabinet and uses a different tweeter. It has a very nice full bodied sound.
My main problem with it would be that the highs can be sibilant at times, I would wonder if the 44 with it's different tweeter suffers from this problem as well.
 
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The 44 sounded really good on reasobly high stands (HBS1's around 18") and driven with a more "assertive" kind of amp. the bass was a bit "full on" for old-style LP reproduction (they were from the era of "a nice tone") but should be perfect for modern sources. the mid to top wasn't the most refined (tweeters have inproved markedly in response width and power handling, if not quality), but was never unpleasant. I'll scan a review and post it.

The 66? Ah, lovely memories of that one and the 552/662 were good too. We traded some in around '88 and Celestion had the last stocks of tweeter "modules" for these back then.

Another possible classic which I'm pretty sure that none on here would know is the B&O Beovox 5702 - not far off a "squashed" Ditton 66 in a heavy, beautifully finished and well styled box. B&O collectors are into re-capping old crossovers in a big way too, as B&O used basic electrolytics all too freely.
 
I'm so glad those on here know and like the 66s, when ever I mention them in the Audio section either people don't know them which I find astonishing or I'm talking to a brick wall!
 
My 44s cost me £170 brand new. I loved them. At that time nobody put them on stands....they were floorstanders. I probably never got the best out of them on the floor. Drive units are nicely made.

Only a year or two ago these were going for peanuts.
 
I had a pair of brand new Ditton 44's back in the '70's. Judging by what others have said here, perhaps I should have used then on stands, but they were sold to me as floorstanders and that's how I used them.

I have never been so disappointed. They were awful, the sound was very "coloured" and not a patch on the Spendor BC1's that replaced them.
 
They do need to be on stands, like the BC1s do. I thought the BC1s were over rated.

If placing on the floor granite plinths or the like can help.
 
I think Ditton 44's should fit the bill very well. Have a look at the reviews around the Internet. One needs to be careful (as one does with any used speaker) the tweeter (Celestion HF2000) is a good unit, but cannot take unlimited power, the tweeter is likely to be the first casualty in 44. Check that it is working and has reasonable output. Also check that it has the black metal protection grille. This sometimes falls off. Replacement (used) HF2000's can fetch about £70. I bought a pair of 44's with one blown HF2000, the seller had assured me that all units were working.
 
It's a good point, the grilles can come off but not a big problem and doesn't affect the sound, this is also true with the 25s.

I agree the 44s will fit the bill here very nicely.
 
My main reason for mentioning the black metal grilles over the HF2000 tweeter is that if present, the unit(s) are worth more. It, of course protects the dome very usefully and it does have a small effect on the tweeters performance, it tends to boost the very high frequencies slightly. This was a desired effect and the same (but slightly modified) grille is used on the BBC designed LS3/5a.

However, with my old ears, I probably would find it difficult to hear the difference (with / without grille).
 
I had both. I preferred the Dittons,although the BC1s had a great mid range they were boomy. I had a pair of Celef PE1s. Now they were magic.
 
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