Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

They look great and probably won’t be trouble as long as the foam surrounds for the drivers aren’t on their way out.

The other thing to consider is the components in the crossover going out of spec but if they sound good they sound good. I would only get them looked at if there was obvious distortion or if one of the drivers stopped working.

You’re much more likely to get a relaxing listen out of something like that than a modern speaker if that’s what your preference is.

I had some vintage Rogers LS7Ts which were very big, fat and warm. Something about the Rogers Bextrene drivers’ composition meant that the surrounds were not prone to perishing so maybe look at that brand.

I've been looking at Celestion Dittons and Wharfedales from late 70s. I don't know what I'm doing. Is this all a complete gamble and should I just buy new retro looking stuff?

I’m going to say yes but no. You’re looking at 50+ year old speakers with foam surrounds. The speakers were good and had that proper correctly-aligned sound. The problem with them is early polymers and adhesives in general didn’t last that long and there’s a pretty good chance the surrounds or the adhesive will have perished [though note that you can get replacement surrounds for a lot of well-respected speakers].

By well into the 90s, in fact, I’m going to say into the early 00s, speaker technology had not changed much and a good-quality big paper driver in a well-aligned box still had that sound. Don’t limit yourself to 70s stuff. There are plenty of late 80s and 90s speakers which will sound exactly the same but the constituent materials are 10-20 years younger and thus won’t need any attention.

If you're gonna get some Dittons get a pair with passive radiators. They've got a floorstanding pair in Dreamhouse Records, and they sound amazing. The sealed enclosure type are a bit thin on bass, which is to be expected.