Celestion Revisited

Last year I picked up a set of Celestion speakers. To the best of my knowledge they may be Ditton 15XRs. I decided to sell off a Kenwood 9940 quad that I bought in error (didn't realise I already had one ) Set it up for the buyer using the Celstions and a Kyocera 410 cdp as they were the easiest things to grab. I was surprised by the sound. Took the volume up to about 9 o'clock and the Celestions didn't miss a beat. Very smooth and mellow. This in the driveway. Buyer ran the tone controls through their full range and they kept up with no problem. I auditioned briefly when I got them but only to check the drivers. If this is the "British Sound" I am impressed. Thought I had posted about finding these but may be not so here is a pic.

This post has been edited by hakka26 on May 22, 2009 11:23 pm

Attached Image (Click thumbnail to expand)

That's a vintage Celestion. Great find. The guys at Thames-Ditton were in fact great speaker designers.
Are there any other speaker brand with the auxiliary bass radiator like the ones on the Celestions ? I know that a passive radiator has similar effects to bass response as a port does when using a vented enclosure, adding around 3dB to sub frequencies, but are there any speakers that using the same design allow us to tune the low-bass freqs?

Clint, what's the difference between a simple radiator and an "auxiliary bass radiator"? Various Polk models come to mind when thinking about radiators. IMO, Polks are not ideal because the radiators used are usually larger than the bass driver so the potential for clean bass is not good. My Soundcraftsmen Lancers have bass radiators that are the same size as the woofers.

Hakka, I used to own a pair of Celestion DL-10's. They were three way acoustic with gain controls for the mid and tweeter. The x-over cutoffs were very sharp so there was no bleed between the drivers. When I bought them, I played them briefly and put them in the stacks. Like you, when it came time to sell a receiver, I hooked up the Celestions for the audition. OH MY GOD, what a nice sound. The guy took the receiver AND the Celestions. I regretted not keeping them longer for a thorough listen.

This post has been edited by socal sam on May 23, 2009 02:44 pm

Simple parlance or terminology.

They definitely have a very nice sound. I had some Journey playing and was bummed that the seller showed up on time as I would've like to hear more. No controls on these and the labels are missing so I'm guessing at the model.

Hey Clint

I've been doing a lot of searching lately and found that you had bought some UL6s a couple of years ago.

I've had a pair of Celestion UL6s for over 30 years. Great speakers.

However, my daughters friend thought he was working front of house at a rock concert and blew one of the woofers. I've tried to contact Celestion and they won't even acknowledge my emails.
I've taken the woofer out but it has no model number. I far as I know the driver would have gone out of production 20+ years ago, so I need to know the T/S properties so I can buy a pair of compatible drivers that I can replace in my UL6s.

Does anyone have any idea how I can find the T/S properties?

Sorry to hi-jack the thread guys, but it's nice to find people who know that Celestion makes more than just guitar speakers.

Sorry Nordo, but i can't help you on this because i'd trade that set of beautiful speakers a few weeks later i bought them, anyway i think some of the guys here at ST can in a way or another help you on this matter. If not you can contact Wilmslow audio I'm certain they can tell you.....if not they will have a suitable replacement.

https://secure.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/catalog/

Keep us posted.

Thanks Clint

I'll contact Wilmslow Audio to see if they can help.
And I might start a new thread to see if anyone on the forum can help.

Many years ago I was into building my own speakers, and used to test drivers and actually calculate all the T/S properties, but that seems too much trouble these days.

This post has been edited by Nordo on June 28, 2009 02:09 pm