Celestion DL12 Series ll

L

Larr Evers

New Member
Have done a little research on these. Just picked these up. Can not find anything new on them. All the info I've found is from old posts. Would like some current thoughts and comments. Any help out there ???????
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Not familiar with the dl12 but owned the smaller dl8 with the same tweeter. Liked them a lot so I’d bet the 12’s are even better. Welcome to AK!
 
Thanks for the comment and the welcome. Hope these are in good shape. Will find out this evening. I’ve read that same comment on older posts. Seems a lot more people have either owned the 8’s or the 10’s.
Found these at Goodwill for $30. Enclosures are a little dirty but doesn’t appear to have any dents or scratches on them. Drivers look fine, just a little dust. Wish me luck.
 
By the way, I’ve noticed that the 12’s have rubber surrounds. Did the 8’s have rubber surrounds? Do you have an opinion about one over the other (foam)?
I’ve never had rubber as a surround. Just curious.
 
For reference:

celestion_dl12_loudspeaker_system.jpg

GeeDeeEmm
 
I prefer the older Ditton series my self, the 662 in particular. Its very similar to a B&O 5700/02. The DL 12 have that fantastic but a little bright titanium tweeter, that's really the first design where cone break upon tweeters was studied very thoroughly. Controlling that' and high frequency resonance was very essential in allowing the tweeter to perform well. B&W was in the race, too along with others; but, I preferred the sound of the Celestions. I wish they had continued to use the fabulous large dome for the midrange, but alas they didn't with this model. +
 
The DL12s were my first serious hifi speaker! And were not inexpensive - retail was around $1000 or so.

Couple of things - they will benefit from being raised off the floor. Hopefully they come with the stands that are factory with them - they make an important difference. Also, I would suggest to recap the crossovers. This made a marked improvement in my pair.

Overall, though, they are excellent sounding speakers. I really enjoyed my time with them.
 
twiiii said:
I prefer the older Ditton series my self, the 662 in particular. Its very similar to a B&O 5700/02. The DL 12 have that fantastic but a little bright titanium tweeter, that's really the first design where cone break upon tweeters was studied very thoroughly. Controlling that' and high frequency resonance was very essential in allowing the tweeter to perform well. B&W was in the race, too along with others; but, I preferred the sound of the Celestions. I wish they had continued to use the fabulous large dome for the midrange, but alas they didn't with this model. +
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Doo you have an opinion about rubber surrounds or foam? Preference? Pro/Cons?
 
canuckaudiog said:
The DL12s were my first serious hifi speaker! And were not inexpensive - retail was around $1000 or so.

Couple of things - they will benefit from being raised off the floor. Hopefully they come with the stands that are factory with them - they make an important difference. Also, I would suggest to recap the crossovers. This made a marked improvement in my pair.

Overall, though, they are excellent sounding speakers. I really enjoyed my time with them.
Click to expand...
Fairly new to this level of audio,but it almost seems like recapping is almost standard procedure on units of this age. Not automatic but certainly common. Also from older posts, seems like perhaps it would be a good practice to be carefull with the tweeters. Several posts mention blown tweeters. Am very curious about the rubber versus foam thing on the surrounds. Any thoughts??
 
I too have a pair of DL8's. I've been trying to curtail dragging gear home and kind of swore off speakers a while ago. But, saw those in a thrift for $20 and could not suppress the urge. There were several series of Celestions I was somewhat familiar with but never laid eyes on any DL's so curiosity got the better of me.

I was aware Celestion incorporated/developed high speed laser interferometry to "map out" tweeter topography while in motion and the result was their copper dome. And also that less expensive models with aluminum domes were direct beneficiaries. Since the DL8's were so equipped, and were in near perfect condition, they went home with me.

I left them hooked up for a couple of weeks and concluded vocals were a strong suit - at least that was my impression. That would lead me to expect them to be well suited to acoustic instruments also.

Generally speaking, Celestions are not an overly efficient speaker therefore a bit power hungry. That may be so but I had them connected to a goodly number of watts so never noticed any distress or deficiency.

The third voice coil in DL12's would likely enjoy even more power than DL8's but the larger cabinet will make more prodigious bass. Bass extension (or output) is something I have been less than satisfied with in some British speakers.

My opinion of Celestion for the most part is they are accurate without being boring. The DL series was far from their most expensive offering but not the cheapest. Not sure what tag DL12's would have carried but it seems the DL8's were about that same many bills.
 
Larr Evers said:
Fairly new to this level of audio,but it almost seems like recapping is almost standard procedure on units of this age. Not automatic but certainly common. Also from older posts, seems like perhaps it would be a good practice to be carefull with the tweeters. Several posts mention blown tweeters. Am very curious about the rubber versus foam thing on the surrounds. Any thoughts??
Click to expand...

Re: recapping yes, basically almost all speakers used some form of electrolytic capacitors on the crossovers. These are chemical parts - and the chemicals lose their potency and dry out over the years. This causes them to behave incorrectly and means the crossover doesn't function as originally intended anymore. Replacing them restores the balance and crossover of the speaker.

For rubber vs. foam I wouldn't think too much on it. Rubber lasts much longer (which means you will not need to replace the surrounds), but from what I've read (and not personal experience) foam tends to be the better sounding material. But - I would not go and replace those surrounds with foam, just leave them as is. They are great sounding speakers so there's really no reason to bother.
 
I have a strong preference for rubber or cloth surrounds. Why? Because of the now-outdated belief that those two materials represented endurance and reliability, while foam was subject to rapid degeneration. That's no longer the case, but the conviction remains the same for me. Time to renew my membership to the Flat Earth Society. :dunno:

GeeDeeEmm
 
Well i cleaned these up and hooked them up. (BIG SMILE). These babies clean up like a brand new penny and sound like one too. With the exception of just a couple of things they could pass for “fresh, just out of the box”. Hard to believe that these can look this good and sound this good,being as old as they are.

The plints have a little curling of the veneer on the floor side and a little “rattiness”. The enclosure are near perfect. No corner cruntches, no dents, no sratches, i mean nothing. The grill coverings have 2 very tiny holes in one of them. One of the badges is missing.

They are a little heavy on bass, at least for my liking, but not bad at all. High end sounds clean and crip. All in all, for their age, i would call it a 9 out 10, both cosmetically and sonicly. I found some info and specs online along with a drawing of the crossover. Next up is a little surgery on them to see how they are put together. Very pleased.

Fot what i paid for these, they fall in my top 10 of good deal jinds.
 
I no that this is a long shot, but would anyone perhaps have or no of a sourse that i might find a badge for the one that i’m missing?
 
Glad you like these. Do you have them off the floor as the bass response may be a little better. Also move them in or out frome the walls a little at a time to find the best bass. For recapping I am torn. I used to recap everything. Now I tend to leave things alone. I have many speakers much older then those and sound pretty darn good. The tweeter cap in my dl8 was a little aluminum electrolytic cap. Maybe just change that guy out.
The rubber surrounds last a long time. Unless they feel dry, stiff and are cracked they are fine.
Great deal, have fun!
Jim
 
slimpikkins said:
Glad you like these. Do you have them off the floor as the bass response may be a little better. Also move them in or out frome the walls a little at a time to find the best bass. For recapping I am torn. I used to recap everything. Now I tend to leave things alone. I have many speakers much older then those and sound pretty darn good. The tweeter cap in my dl8 was a little aluminum electrolytic cap. Maybe just change that guy out.
The rubber surrounds last a long time. Unless they feel dry, stiff and are cracked they are fine.
Great deal, have fun!
Jim
Click to expand...

Yes they are on their original plints. Plan to experiment a little with placement. I’m undecided about the caps. These sound pretty nice as is. Alittle more high end would be a good thing. Was thinking about just the tweeter cap. The rubber surrounds look and feel fine, no plans there.

A would really like to find a badge to replace the one i am missing, but that is obviously pure cosmetics. I guess no idea about that, huh.

Almost didn’t pick these up because of how dirty thet were. Thinking they were probubly in poor shape. Boy was i wrong. These, except for the missing badge and some ware on the plints, look like they were just “unpacked”. Love them.
 
Larr Evers said:
I no that this is a long shot, but would anyone perhaps have or no of a sourse that i might find a badge for the one that i’m missing?
Click to expand...

A few years ago I re-habbed a pair of Goodman's with one missing a badge. I looked for and within no more than a week, found a pair on the E-bay UK site. They were not the Goodman badges original to my speakers but they were Goodman and there was two so no issue as far as I was concerned.

Because they are small enough to send in an envelope, chances are the vendor would have no issue sending by mail and the cost would not be horrendous. The ones I purchased were about $20 all in.
 
I got the OP beat; mine were free from Freecycle several years ago. I didn't have a good amp when I got them, but in last couple years I've used them with a pair of modest NAD integrated's and I'm very pleased.
 
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