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Utah Celesta - Could this be the Coolest vintage driver ever?

Tom Brennan said:
Don't you guys know that every old driver sounds good and EVERY open baffle does too?
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heh heh . . .do I sense some sarcasm ?? :D

I had a pair of the Celesta's for a while, and although they are one of the coolest looking speakers, their sound wasn't my cup of tea . . . I tested them on some Open Baffles (go figure - me ? open baffles ?!?) I like my RCA console drivers better - no tweeter needed :thmbsp:

If I remember correctly, in a box, they need something ridiculous like 6 cubic feet to sound good on the low end . . . sounds liek an ideal canidate for Infinite Baffle :yes:
 
Redboy said:
Well, that's a stinker! I wonder if I can justify keeping them for aesthetic reasons alone. I'll have to listen to them first, though. Maybe yours were just duds, Steve. Both of them... yeah, sure. :no:
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Got anybody up there in MN with measurement gear? Maybe a little dorking with the XO or some contour filtering could help make them acceptable.

Ray
 
Seems there's enough members in that area to pool resources and share a Behringer, for example, Ray.

There's probably some income to be be made doing room and system alignments, as well.

[Takes about two minutes to dial in a system.... :thmbsp: ]
 
Tom's tried a couple of speakers in OBs, as far as I know. He does notice a trend that I have also noticed, which is that there never seems to be an open baffle that doesn't sound good when others try it.
 
RayW said:
Got anybody up there in MN with measurement gear? Maybe a little dorking with the XO or some contour filtering could help make them acceptable.

Ray
Click to expand...

OK...

The Delos Surround sound spectacular test disk, a Radio Shack meter at six feet and mystery Utahs.

They are in sealed (epoxied) vented enclosures built from plans by Utah by my Godfather in 1960. Given to me at Easter, all I know is they are 12 inch coaxial Utah's.

I'm listening to them now as I visit AK.

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They are the top speaker in this picture. The grill would have to be cut off or the back of the cab sawed off to see what model they are. I guess the plans called for lots of plywood and either left no option for opening them up again, or Lordell went a little over the top in building them.

I bought a hypodermic intended for vaccinating livestock and ArmorAll'd the surrounds.

It was the only way I could get to them.

It made a big improvement, they had made some crunchy noises before. Well, they sat in the same basement since 1972, rarely used.

Freq response, the highest test signal on this disk is 12,699hz, it's 2 db down from 1,000 hz.

Track 19, Low-Frequency sweep with voice over. In room bass gives out at 58hz. No gentle roll off either, it's a sonic nose dive. Though I could hear (faint and useless) 32 hz.

They are easy to listen to, a bit bright, OK detail, wid-ish sound stage. Sensitivity is huge, I could measure it if I felt inclided to drag them downstairs. However my Luxman RV-371 at half volume at six feet, listening to Minnesota Public radio, 104db. that was on a solo acoustic guitar piece....and I might add, way louder than I want to listen to MPR or acoustic guitar music.

I tried pink noise, honestly, at 108db at six feet, they are kinda scary. I felt no desire to turn the thing up all the way.

They didn't distort.

The meter says 70 db now, nice to listen to again. Next up Wagner at 80db (which would be fine except I don't like Wagner), the volume on the Luxman is about 1/10th open.

My Ohm Walsh 300's are in no danger of being replaced, but these are fun.
 
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dnewma04 said:
Tom's tried a couple of speakers in OBs, as far as I know. He does notice a trend that I have also noticed, which is that there never seems to be an open baffle that doesn't sound good when others try it.
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I haven't heard many. The ones I have heard were OK but thats about it. I have a few pair that I would like to try OB someday, but I don't think turn me into a OB convert. :D

RC
 
I had several sets of these but with out the tweeter. I used them in sealed boxes about 2 cubic ft. I used one set in a very large corner horns and they sounded ok to me at the time. I was using a 25 wpc Heath tube amp.Got them around 1968 from Radio Shack or Lafayette.
Ed
 
Experienced users seem pretty negative about their ability. But their too cool looking to get rid of. I'd make them into some kind of lighting fixture, maybe sconces. How about a ring of LED's around the edge for a ceiling fixture? (In your 2nd listening room, of course).
 
Tapehead47 said:
Experienced users seem pretty negative about their ability. But their too cool looking to get rid of. I'd make them into some kind of lighting fixture, maybe sconces. How about a ring of LED's around the edge for a ceiling fixture? (In your 2nd listening room, of course).
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How 'bout a lamp base?
 
Good idea, Tarior. Matching lamps for the tops of your speakers. A dimmer control would be a nice touch (old volume pot laying around, etc).
 
Redboy, they would make a nice piece of wall art for the listening room. One facing each way mounted to the wall. Great conversation piece.
 
Redboy said:
If only I knew someone who was dabbling in open baffles! :D
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I do remember seeing those speakers in the Layfayette and Allied catalogs when I was in high school. I used to pour over those things like they were the Sears Christmas catalog......

These were clearly sold back when a consumer would choose the speakers he wanted along with the cabinet they would be mounted in - separate purchases. The looks alone would have sold me along with the Lava Lamp I'd put on the console stereo they would have been hooked up to.

On Open Baffle design, here's a good place to start: http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

Also, google this: linkwitz open baffle

for additional hits.

I've not tried OB approaches but will not be able to until I get into a new house with a garage big enough for the woodworking equipment - or at least find someone who can help me along those lines.

Cheers,

David
 
ejfud said:
Redboy, they would make a nice piece of wall art for the listening room. One facing each way mounted to the wall. Great conversation piece.
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YES ! this is how I put some pegboard in my garage to use :yes:

I have some nice orphan speakers mounted up there till I find mates for them . . . the Celesta's are definitely worthy of showing off :thmbsp:
 
Hanging them up is a good idea. I like it. I won't be turning these things into lamp bases or whatnot until I've listened to them! I just have to figure out how to do that.

No one's come up with the T/S parameters for these yet, huh?
 
The problem with finding T/S parameters for old drivers is most of them existed prior to the parameters being developed. Most of the very popular old drivers have had measurements pulled on them over the years, but very little obscure speakers have had the same fortune.
 
It's not hard to measure the basic Thiele-Small parameters (even to guesstimate Vas by the "added mass" method), y'know?

tsp-f2.gif


It's kind of fun to do 'by hand', too... if you don't have too many drivers to measure :-)

There's a good, old Radio Shack book called "Advanced Loudspeaker Design" or something like that, by Ray Alden, with a very nice how-to. I suspect his much more recent "Speaker Building 201" book discusses it, too -- although perhaps he now just says "buy a 'Woofer Tester II' from PartsExpress and be done with it"!

EDIT: It looks like Karlson-apostle "Freddyi" (as he's known at AA) / "Karlsonkab" (as he's known at Fullrangedriver dot com) used Celestas in vented boxes way back when. You might want to contact him; AFAIK he's not a member here.
 
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