Celestion Ditton 110 crossover re cap

I opted to re cap the Celestion Ditton 110's with Solen metal polyester caps, out with the old electrolytic 10% caps and in the 5% caps. Now they have opened up.

I have had a chance to let these caps burn in and now these speakers have really started to shine. The sound has really opened up in the mid range and high end. The imaging is spot on. Listening to Norah Jones, Come Away With Me and Norah might as well be in my room, that's how clear and precise these speakers turned out.

Current Bliss

NAD Model 30, Braun L1030, Braun L830, Dual CL390, Visonik Euro 7, Braun L830's.

Never will I see a collection like this again, so it must be documented.

Braun L830

Along side of the current Braun L1030's I have had the pleasure of working on and auditioning, these Braun L830's came back with more work to be done. Yet another Deiter Rams design speaker, this version images across the mid range and treble region as well as the L1030 but the bass is not as full due to the cabinet size.

A full re cap with two Solen 47uf, 20uf, 5.1uf and a 4.3uf caps were upgraded, no cheap feat but worth every cent.

These speakers are singing along side the L1030's and with all four speakers being driven by my Myryad amp it is pure HiFi bliss, this audiophile has never heard sound this good except for once when I heard a massive Infinity system with ribbon tweeters ($10,000+) at A&B Sound as a young teenager.

Braun L1030 Speakers

I have had the pleasure in re capping a pair of Deiter Rams Braun L1030 speakers along side of a pair of L830's, probably two of the best vintage audio speakers available in terms of sound and styling.

The Braun L1030's are simply a beautiful speaker with deep tight bass, clear as a bell mid range and spot on sparkling highs.The cabinets are an absolute gorgeous walnut veneer with curved edges. The stereo imaging that comes out of these boxes needs to be experienced first hand, words alone can not describe the sound.

The crossover was re capped using Solen caps including a massive 47uf cap, 10uf cap, 5.1uf cap and a 3.3uf cap, by no means are these caps inexpensive.

Is it worth the investment into this speaker? 100% it is. I would pretty much stop at this speaker if it was a permanent part of my collection, I would be hard pressed to find a better sounding and visually appealing speaker than this model. The Solen caps open up the speaker to new heights with clarity and transparency, it really is amazing.

These speakers are scheduled to be picked up soon and I will cherish every moment that I have with them....

Braun L830 crossover upgrade

I spent the better part of 4 hours recapping two pairs of Braun L830 speakers with a swap of woofers thrown into the mix.

The white pair of Braun's got a full compliment of Solen polypropylene 5% caps and the better aesthetics woofer while the veneer speakers got the other woofers and full compliment of Solen metalized polyester 5% caps.

Let's see what I am dealing with..

 Patients on the operating table....

 Before the re cap..

 After the re cap, those 47uf caps barely fit.

Second white Braun....

The veneer Braun's before they go back together.

Both pair of speakers are now burning in the caps at low volume.

Hanging out in a good crowd, EPI 100V's that just got a make over and the Tannoy Oxford Gold that got a cap upgrade.



Never has the collection been so deep, diverse and exciting.

Tannoy Oxford Gold

Along the lines of the yesterdays British invasion was a pair of well regarded Tannoy Oxford Gold speakers.

This is the second pair of Tannoy's that I have owned and the first real pair of English real pair, as opposed to this Tannoy/API C-6 version that must have been made under license for the Canadian market.

Tannoy is famous for their dual concentric driver units and the Tannoy Stratford, Cambridge and Oxford were the first units to see the separation of the LF and HF units.

The Oxford speaker, according to many sources on the web were used as studio monitors across England and perhaps elsewhere.

I have already installed a new 2.2uf Solen 5% cap in the crossover of which it looks like the woofer is crossed over on a first order basis with the tweeter second order as there are two inductors and only one capacitor.

The cabinets are a little beat and will need some love when time permits. Also the foam grills were not to be found which indicates that they probably disintegrated over time.

So how do they sound? well at 93db efficiency and the amount of workmanship that went into these speakers they do sound pretty damn nice. Bass is solid with 10 inch ported woofer, mid range is present and forward and the highs spot on. Once again this is a speaker that puts you in with the musicians as they paly the music.

The original brochure can be found on this link.

Celestion Ditton 110 speakers

This little pair of English speakers came home yesterday, a pair of Celestion Ditton 110 speakers.

A very nice sounding well balanced and neutral pair of bookshelf speakers, typical British sound that is very polite, with nice imaging.

One dome was slightly dents in and a quick shot with the vacuum cleaner popped the dome back out to the best it will get.

These speakers are not as exciting or in your face like Mission speakers that reside with me but more along the lines of the few pairs of B&W speakers that I have had.

Rotel RX-830 Receiver and Mission 700 Leading Edge speaker for sale

Very well balanced and matched system for sale, Rotel RX-830 receiver at 20 watts per channel and a pair of Mission 700 Leading Edge speakers that have been recapped with Solen fast caps.

$200.00

 This system is one of the best stereo's that I have matched, the sound is like you are right there with the musicians in the room.

Ready to pass this along for $200.00 for someone just starting down the road to vintage audio or who is just getting into vinyl. Local Vancouver sale only.

Or for $200 you can buy this type of future land fill from a local retailer.

Email me at bankofdave@gmail.com

Braun L1030 and L830 project

A regular friend of the blog recently dropped in a gorgeous pair of Braun L1030's and 2 pairs of L830's of which one was featured on this blog a while past.

The intention is to rebuild the crossover on these speakers with Solen caps, I finally got around to opening the speakers up and recording all the cap values needed. Next step is ordering the caps from www.solen.ca
A full write up with pictures will follow.

EPI 100V speakers complete rebuild

Along with the Marantz SR1000 I picked up last week also came a mint pair of EPI 100V speakers.

This pair was in incredible shape besides the rotted foams, I decided that it was worth spending the $50.00 in decent Solen Caps, 12 gauge speaker wire, proper replacement foams and gold plated banana terminals.

If one speaker that I regularly come across and is worth the effort in re building it is EPI speakers. these speakers are really simple but with a few tweaks sound absolutely amazing.

First off here is the speaker upon arrival.

Here is the parts laid out for the rebuild, I have already glued one edge of the foams to the woofer.

 
The original caps ans whimpy speaker wire. These have to go as this is the weakest part of the system.

The original spring clips were bypassed with new gold plated banana plugs.

Inside I have the new Solen 10uf caps soldered in and ready to go.

Meanwhile I finished the re foam of the woofers using a 50Hz sine tone method with my iPhone and an amp. This will center the woofer without cutting the dust cap off and shimming.

Before I put everything back together more dampening material was added to help with the back wave from the woofer.

Now put everything back together and enjoy the openness and musicality of these amazing speakers.

 

Marantz SR-1000 Receiver

Another vintage and a first for this blog is a Marantz product that arrived today.

The Marantz SR-1000 receiver was at the end of the era for the great Marantz and was still owned by Superscope, some say this was the beginning of the Philips days, this product was on the cusp.

Although the build quality is probably not as high as the 22XX series it still has all the hallmark signatures and styling of the earlier Marantz products.

This unit is rated at 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 25 watts per channel at 4 ohms.The power meters peak at 40 WPC 8ohms and 80WPC at 4 ohms.

More on the listening notes to follow.

Included in the purchase was another mint pair of this blogs favorite EPI 100V speakers. These will get the royal treatment including a full internal upgrade to Solen 10uf caps and proper internal wiring to banana plugs and new foam surrounds, the usual for this audiophile.

Update:

This unit has been powering a pair of 4 ohm Braun L1030's and sounds wonderful and is relatively stress free to the half volume level.  This is a very nice sounding 20WPC receiver that would make a great entry level unit for those just getting into vinyl.

The looks are absolutely gorgeous for an entry level unit, ignore what little is said about this unit on other audio sites this receiver is very open and full, the bass, mid range and treble are spot on along with the imaging.

Aurex SA-5000/Toshiba SA-5000 Receiver

This fine Toshiba SA-5000 re branded as Aurex SA-5000 was a recent gem of a find.When I picked it up the guy said a channel cuts in and out.

I opened it up and gave the pots and switches a good blast with De-Oxit and it has been giving me smooth uncoloured sound for a few days now.

Some say that Aurex was up market Toshiba line, I believe it was probably a house brand for a large retailer as there is no difference between the Aurex SA-5000 and the Toshiba SA-5000.

As far as brands go Toshiba was on top of their game in television in the 80's but their audio line is very far under the radar. Toshiba prided itself on quality and it really shows in this receiver.

Aesthetically it is attractive and the 50WPC is warm, detailed and a pleasure to listen to for hours on end.
The sound stage is spot on and works well all my speakers in the collection. What a treat.

Further specs can be found over at HiFi Engine