Celestion Ditton 130 Speaker System Review

Celestion’s Ditton 130 is the lowest priced of a group of three new speakers from that well-known British manufacturer. It uses a newly designed tweeter—the HF1001—whose 1-inch dome has visco-elastic damping for control of high-frequency-resonance breakup modes. The new tweeter has higher efficiency and greater power-handling ability than its predecessors by virtue of a two-layer voice coil and a magnetic-circuit design that focuses the field in the voice-coil gap.

The Ditton 130 is a compact, two-way system whose acoustic-suspension woofer (located close to and in a vertical line with the tweeter) has an effective diameter of 6 inches (nominally an 8-inch speaker). The crossover frequency is 2,300 Hz, with cutoff slopes of 12 dB per octave for the woofer and 18 dB per octave for the tweeter. There are no user-adjustable controls.

The nominal impedance of the Ditton 130 is 8 ohms, and its frequency response is rated at 75 to 20,000 Hz ±3 dB. Its maximum rated power with program material is 50 watts, and a 1-watt input produces an 87.5-dB sound-pressure level at a 1-meter distance.

The walnut-finish vinyl-clad wooden cabinet has an all-black grille cloth retained by plastic fasteners, and the panel behind the grille is finished in flat black. The cabinet dimensions are 19 inches high, 10 inches wide, and 9 inches deep (in the vertical position; the speaker can also be used horizontally). The speaker weighs 17 pounds. A chrome-finish metal stand is available for floor mounting the speaker, raising it 14 inches above the floor. Price: $200 each (sold in pairs); the stands, $75 per pair.

Laboratory Measurements

The reverberant-field frequency-response curves of the individual speakers were averaged, corrected for known room-absorption characteristics, and spliced to a close-miked woofer-response curve. The composite frequency response was exceptionally smooth and flat over the full range of the speaker, with no “bumps” or “holes” greater than a couple of decibels (which is within the uncertainty range of the measurement method).

The frequency response was flat within ±1.5 dB from 200 to 10,000 Hz, and the output rose at higher frequencies to a maximum of +3.5 dB at 15,000 Hz (it was still above the midrange level at 20,000 Hz). The woofer had its maximum output between 100 and 140 Hz, falling at 12 dB per octave below 100 Hz. With the average midrange output level as a reference, the speaker output was within ± 3.5 dB from 60 to 20,000 Hz, easily meeting the published rating and representing very fine performance for a speaker of this size.

The high-frequency directivity of the tweeter could be seen readily in the response curves from the left and right speakers, since the microphone was on the axis of one and about 30 degrees off the axis of the other. The two curves began to diverge at frequencies above 5,000 Hz, with a growing separation above 10,000 Hz. In subjective terms, the beaming of the highs was not significant, but it was measurably somewhat greater than we have seen recently.

A small woofer must inevitably have more distortion than a larger one (all else being equal) at very low frequencies and/or high power inputs, since its cone excursion is correspondingly greater. At a 1-watt input, the distortion of the Ditton 130 was under 1.5 per cent down to about 70 Hz, rising to just over 5 per cent at 40 Hz. This amount of bass distortion is negligible—in fact, it can be considered excellent. However, “pushing” the speaker with a 10-watt input resulted in a distortion characteristic that increased linearly with decreasing frequency, from about 1.5 per cent at 100 Hz to almost 15 per cent at 40 Hz.

The measured sensitivity of the Ditton 130 was slightly higher than rated and near the upper end of the range for an acoustic-suspension system. An input of 2.83 volts of random noise in an octave band centered at 1,000 Hz (nominally 1 watt) produced an 89-dB sound-pressure level at 1 meter. The speaker impedance was 8 ohms at 20 Hz, rose to about 25 ohms at the bass-resonance frequency of 80 Hz, and dropped to 8 ohms between 140 and 250 Hz. Normally, this would justify the Ditton 130’s impedance rating of 8 ohms. However, after rising again to about 30 ohms at 2,000 Hz, the impedance dropped to a minimum of 5 ohms between 5,000 and 11,000 Hz. In itself, this is of minor importance, but should one parallel two pairs of these speakers the amplifier would “see” a load of only 2.5 ohms at 10,000 Hz or so, and not all amplifiers react kindly to such stress.

Comment

Celestion has done considerable pioneering work in the use of laser interferometry for measuring the vibration modes of speaker cones, including the use of computer processing to generate three-dimensional displays that show vividly how the cone flexes and otherwise misbehaves under certain conditions. (This should not be confused with the computer-derived displays of acoustic response and decay characteristics that have been used with great effectiveness by several speaker manufacturers.) The Celestion method involves scanning the cone with a laser beam and processing the reflected light; it is capable of resolving cone displacements comparable to the wavelength of the laser light.

We mention this measurement technique not because it has necessarily been used in the development of the drivers in the new Celestion speakers (we have no information on that), but rather to show that Celestion engineers are able to determine with great accuracy exactly what is happening in a driver or a complete system under different operating conditions. It would be a fair assumption that they also know what constitutes a good speaker and when they have created one.

That assumption is impressively confirmed in listening to the Celestion Ditton 130. If one ignores its size and simply listens to it or makes comparisons with other speakers, the results are both surprising and gratifying. We compared it with several other fine speakers priced up to seven times higher than the Ditton 130. Naturally, the larger speakers had superior output and distortion characteristics in the low bass, but that was not always apparent in their sound, since most program material has little energy in the range below 70 Hz or so. Otherwise, it was sometimes very difficult to decide which speaker was playing. There were differences between all of them, but the Ditton 130 sounds close enough to many to be a near “twin” sonically speaking.

Much to our surprise, it was not possible to say unequivocally that any of the other speakers sounded “better” than the Ditton 130 (frankly, we are not sure what “better” means when one is listening to speakers above a certain quality level). When there was a distinct difference in sound between two speakers, any individual might express a preference for one or the other, but more often than not the difference was just not very important.

This does not mean that this diminutive, moderate-price speaker is the equal of larger systems selling for many times its price. Its power-handling ability is limited by the laws of physics. If room-shaking sound levels are your preference, this is not the speaker to use (although it can play at a very healthy volume, and do so with only a few watts of drive from an inexpensive receiver). We tried to push the Ditton 130 to its limits with a 200-watt amplifier and had no difficulty in doing so. However, unlike many lesser speakers, when the Ditton 130 is driven to high levels it does not get “mushy” and give advance warning of excessive input. Instead, it just gets louder— always sounding clean—until suddenly the woofer reaches its limits. That produces a sharp “snap” or “click” that cannot be ignored; backing down slightly on the volume control restores the inherently clean sound of the speaker. (Continued on page 44) We did not damage the speaker by driving it to such high levels, but undoubtedly it could be destroyed if regularly pushed beyond its limits. It takes a large amplifier, used incautiously, to do this, and if the manufacturer’s power recommendations are followed we doubt that any trouble will result. If a very powerful amplifier (say, 100 watts or more) is used, we would suggest fusing the speakers (consult the manufacturer for suggestions on appropriate fuse ratings).

The Celestion Ditton 130 is priced to compete with a number of other fine speakers, including some of those with which we compared it in our tests. The fact that its size and weight permit it either to be placed on the smallest bookshelf or to be used as an attractive floor-standing speaker (on its optional stand or an equivalent) is another considerable advantage of this system. As our A-B tests showed, it can hold its own against many far more expensive speakers if the program does not exceed the Ditton 130’s low-frequency or power limitations. Personal preference aside, we have no hesitancy in placing the Ditton 130 among the finest speakers in its price range.

Read all

Celestion reviews

Read all