New SEAS drivers in Ditton 332 Cabinets

[goalhanger]

Hello Guys, 1st post ---have been reading on here for ages .
I have just replaced tweeters in a pair of Ditton 332s with SEAS 0737 and all seems to be sounding fine. But i have another set of cabinets for them and wondered about replacing all the drivers with SEAS parts . I only have the 2 woofers left for them anyway .
I thought maybe it would be easier to make a new Xover if all the drivers are from the same manufacturer !
Any suggestions - or is it a daft idea and would I be better getting the mids repaired and fit new SEAS tweets ?

I thought maybe it could be the basis for a great sounding speaker ???

Cheers

[sreten]

Review | Celestion Ditton 332 loudspeaker | Page98 - February1980 - Gramophone Archive

Hi, sounds like you'd best off repairing the mids and replacing the treble units, rgds, sreten.

All Seas drivers will be expensive, and c/o design very difficult.

[goalhanger]

Hello sreten,

I need new tweeters anyway and 1 mid needs new rubber the other a new cone and rubber so I thought why not give it a try !!! Maybe i need to check the prices a bit closer .
Thanks

[sreten]

Hi,

Different drivers may drop-in or they may not, its an expensive gamble.
Fortunately for you, tweeter changes cause far less problems.
Fixing the surrounds of the mids with a kit is not expensive.
Change the mids and/or the bass and you need a new crossover.
I'm guessing you have no idea what that involves to do properly.

Nevertheless you could use the cabinets to make some great Seas
3 ways, but it would be a highly involved and expensive undertaking.

Take a look at : 3-Way Classic
8" vented should work well for a 10" sealed cabinet.

But TBH IMO your best off with the original units and c/o.

If you want to build some killer speakers use a good design from below.
One possibility is use the cabinets and bass units only as the bass end
for a small speaker and cross them over actively.

There are so many options, could go on for pages ......

rgds, sreten.

undefinition (see FAQs)
Zaph|Audio
FRD Consortium tools guide
RJB Audio Projects
Speaker Design Works
HTGuide Forum - A Guide to HTguide.com Completed Speaker Designs.
DIY Loudspeaker Projects Troels Gravesen
Humble Homemade Hifi
Quarter Wavelength Loudspeaker Design
The Frugal-Horns Site -- High Performance, Low Cost DIY Horn Designs
Linkwitz Lab - Loudspeaker Design
http://www.musicanddesign.

[goalhanger]

Thanks for the info.
You are correct about the crossover, I understand I will need to revise or build new but I am sure I can get help with that. Not worried about the actual work.
I have another set of Ditton 332s which I have just replaced tweeters with the SEAS 0737 and they seem OK so far . May need some tweeks on the Xover later when I have listened for longer . This set of 332s has a much more complicated Xover than the other set I have . This one has 6 caps whereas the other one only has 2 . Obviously updated over the years . So I will be using the older ones for the more expansive 'rebuild' .

I was allowing £40 for the tweeters and £120 for the mids and woofers not so sure about as seen varying comments about the SEAS woofers . So really not so expensive compared to re-coning etc and also the comparative sound vs a new set of speakers .

Anyway enough rambling.

Thanks again.

[goalhanger]

Addition to my last post the later 332s have 7 caps . Have attached a pic for interest as it does seem a bit of overkill when the old ones only have 2 !
I cant find any Xover calculator that gives 7 capacitors for a 3 way !

[sreten]

Hi,

The crossover on the left is from god knows what but its certainly not
the original, could be a Skytronic simplest 4 element 3 way c/o possible,
in other words absolute garbage, completely wrong*, a tweeter killer.
(You can see the studs for the original board, looks the same to me.)

Crossover calculator ? spawn of the devil, see FRD tools in the links I posted.
Also read undefinitions FAQ's. Clueless c/o design is one of my pet hates.

7 capacitors in a 3 way is easy peasy if you know what you are doing.
The board on the right is the right sort of complexity for the period.

rgds, sreten.

So you've got one proper pair working with new tweeters. Tweeter level
may need tweaking for them. Use the proper c/o of course for these.

So spare is a pair of cabs ? pair working bass units ? pair repairable mids ?
..... and pair of budget c/o's.... of little real use in a hifi speaker ....

* Only worse is just having a cap on the mid and a cap on the treble.

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by sreten

Crossover calculator ? spawn of the devil

Hahaha, <3 Sreten. It's true. I'm sure you could take 2x 8ohm resistors and cross them over properly with a crossover calculator, but for making a proper crossover for a real driver that has variable impedance, inductance, sensitivity and phase, you're going to have to take those values and tinker in a real program to see what's really going to happen.

[goalhanger]

So...I could actually get the Mids repaired ( 1 new rubber - I already have available and 1 new rubber and re-cone needed ) and replace the tweeters either with the SEAS 0737 as I have in the others or slightly better , and then build new Xovers using the 'proper' one as a guide .
Or ... I could replace the Mids and Tweets and attempt (with help) a new Xover ( I am tempted by this route ) .

Sounds like I may aswell keep the woofers - 290mm woofers aren't cheap are they !

The Cabs are disgusting black ash so I would like to do a very high gloss black finish and give them to my son for his first house (coming soon ) .

Thanks for your interest . I need to read up now on Xovers - my head hurts thinking about it .

[chops]

Originally Posted by goalhanger

So...I could actually get the Mids repaired ( 1 new rubber - I already have available and 1 new rubber and re-cone needed ) and replace the tweeters either with the SEAS 0737 as I have in the others or slightly better , and then build new Xovers using the 'proper' one as a guide .
Or ... I could replace the Mids and Tweets and attempt (with help) a new Xover ( I am tempted by this route ) .

If you're going to keep the original mids, replace the cones on both, not just one. However, if you're going to get new mids, then don't worry about what I just said.