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I was in two minds whether to purchase a set of these. Many go for the Ditton 44 and 66, which have a great following. These often get overlooked as they had some average reviews in their time, but allegedly sold loads and was a popular speaker in the early to mid seventies. The build. Solid veneered cabinets and these are quite heavy. Two 8 inch drivers, one of which is a suspension unit that improves low end fullness of the sound. A tweeter with a 15khz cut off which takes some getting used to, I believe the latter XR series put in a higher frequency unit for up to 23 kHz. I love these speakers, the look, the sound which takes adjusting to as they are different sounding speakers to the norm. Now for the sound. I have owned many pairs of speakers, don’t keep any unless they are sentimental. I like to listen to music either in tone bypass or on zero for both bass and treble settings. For me this reproduces the full sound without tweaks and portrays a speaker and amps ability to reveal what is in the music, as it was recorded. Now based on the frequency response of 30 hz to 15 kHz, these are lacking the very top end. The sound is not clipped or rolled off, it is just not there. This plays in well for vinyl lovers like myself as these speakers get rid of the higher end unwanted sounds that higher frequency tweeters can over extend and distort. I would say that if you are into digital sound like streaming or cd music, then the XR will be better with the higher response tweeter. There is a fullness in the sound that these produce and when I first played them I thought that the tweeters were not working. To start with I did not think I would like the sound as I was used to full top range tweeters, but after a few tracks these speakers revealed an open ness in the vocals and brought some clarity that was missed or disguised behind tweeters of previous units. I think Celestion got it right with these for the time, although by the mid seventies were out of fashion by more modern designs. So if you are not running anything top end hi if and would like an honest reproduction of the warm vinyl sound, then go for these. If you want a record to sound like a cd with a modern cartridge and mastered vinyl that also sounds like a cd, then I would recommend trying the XR, or another underdog which I have had many a pleasure with digital and vinyl, The Heybrook HB1, which one awards for 3 years running in the 80’s when they came out.Read full review
Verified purchase: No