I’ve been told my old Celestion Ditton 33s are no longer welcome, so I’m looking for something slimmer or possibly wall mounting.
Only used with vinyl through an audiolab 8000. Budget, no idea but not going to go crazy for a load of old punk records. Any juicy recommendations?

B&W, something like these?
http://www.hifigear.co.uk/bowers-wilkins-685-s2-loudspeakers-exdisp.html
Either wall mount or floor stands, a lot less obtrusive on stands than the Dittons.

Kef ls50. Reference speakers at a good price. Look stunning too. I’m really happy with mine, they sound amazing.

I’ve got a pair of arcam muso’s that kick out an awesome sound for their diminutive size.

I’ve been told my old Celestion Ditton 33s are no longer welcome, so I’m looking for something slimmer

Plenty of Fish or Tinder I believe.

V.sharp Cougar. The amount of cycling paraphernalia cluttering the house at the moment, I’m happy to lose a battle over speakers.

Those speakers above are tiny, I thought the quoted size must be wrong at first. Are they really going to sound alright? The room they’re going in is only 4m x 3m. Time for a demo I guess.

Don’t do it. Sell your wife and children. Keep it LARGE.

There are lots of very slim floorstanders around these days which are not quite so In your face as the old Dittons. They may not necessarily sound much better though.

Some nice bookshelf speakers to suit your tastes and a nice occasional table/subwoofer for the wife.

Totem arro?

I have some Dali Xensor 5s that are probably the same height as those Celestions but a lot slimmer. I’m really impressed with them but I upgraded from small Mission standmounts…
Dali Xensor 5

how much for the Dittons per chance?

Are there any wall mounted speakers?

I’ve last the battle and the TV has ended up above the fireplace, which apparently means my floorstanders are no longer welcome either as that would (apparently, not sure how) put them in the middle of the room and in the way.

There are no shelves and stands wouldn’t really solve the problem.

This is why I love divorce – I got the Audikron’s 😆
20+yrs old and still super crisp with enough bass to rattle the arsehole over the back who insists on having 7hr Coldplay marathons with every window and door open or 1am spontaneous parties on a school night.
Mind – last time he turned it down sharpish when the three coppers who live nearby ALL ended up knocking on his door due to being on early’s

I would recommend some sub/sats. It’s a shame you’ve lost control of your living room but I understand that the WAF is an issue for some. I too have felt the wrath of her inside of the doors and had to give up my Martin Logans (for some reason 6 feet tall and 12 inch wide speakers were deemed domestically inharmonious) I have some nice Audio Physics now which are comparatively better sized apparently (still nice and big though!).

I was impressed by the Anthony Gallo sub/sats however for much less money I have put a set of JBL control 28’s and a BK Electric 10 inch sub in my lads room and that works pretty well and goes super loud when we’re not here I expect.

Keep wife, family and speakers and buy a bigger house?

I have a pair of Focal Chorus stand mount speakers. I chose these above some others as they sounded pretty good when pushed up close to a wall or in the corner.

I demoed a pair of the 685 predecessors and while they sounded great out in space I found they got too boomy when close to wall even with the forward mounted port. This was about 10 years ago so they might have totally changed the designed.

I can highly recommend the Acoustic Energy 109 floorstanders.

eBay often has them at a reasonable price, and as anyone who types AE109 into eBay knows the surround repair kits are also plentiful [as demonstrated in “after” pic I took they use for the surround kits :D].

If you can find a set with good surrounds [or are up for a rebuild*], give ’em a listen.
They like a kick up the arse, and an Audiolab is rated for a fair few watts, aye?

*I can send more info/pictures as to how to do it.

Or Q-Acoustics floorstanders, 2ndhand 😀

Definitely Kef LS50s – you won’t find better for the size/price.

I ran AE109’s with my Audiolab A8000LX, but they are not going to keep the OP’s better half happy being floorstanders! Great sound though!

Just done this myself and got Arcam Musos mentioned above. Tiny when compared to my Wharfedale Diamond 9.1’s.
Sound quality is fantastic. Not as bassy as the Wharfedales but work incredibly well in my small room. Build quality is super solid infact its a heavy speaker for its diddy size.

Don’t think I could part with the Dittons, had them forever so I’ll just mothball them for now. Will check out the suggestions; found a pair of BX2s listed locally for a decent price but still open to ideas.

I have BX2’s now, with a DIY sub.

Vs 109’s, umm, clearer, slightly more bloom on voice, smaller/less extension but a bit tighter. Similar treble, actually, though the BX has a clearer sound and I think less treble energy. Definitely more midrange attack and presence on the BX2…though you could also say it’s just a little exaggerated.

They’re not that different, bizarrely. Either that or my Amps are utterly overpowering the sonic signature. A friend hung my 109’s off a really high end amp and said they were improved by it, so, umm… yeah

It’s quite hard to explain, lol.

If you have the possibility of buying both and cannot choose between them I’ll dig the AE’s out and give you a proper writeup, but all I can say is they’re both good.

But, you will notice the lack of bass vs the larger speaker, or if not, then the extra distortion added by the porting on the BX2 vs sealed/ABR designs.

Having said all that, I have still got both and I think they’re both wonderful speakers. My Amps are of a similar spec to the Audiolab, if that helps.

PS, I find explaining to girlfriends that these

are the answer, but they cost the earth, works wonders with this dilemna.

Probably going to pull the trigger on the BX2s, they’re cheap enough that I could flip them on and not lose much if I hated them,which is most unlikely. Floorstanders definitely out anyway, the space they currently occupy is going to be filled by a bigger cabinet, qv my other furniture thread.

+1 for the kef ls50 heard them at the hifi show on Bristol off rega amp and record deck and was impressed…

I had BX2’s, excellent for the money but not without issue when compared to pricier speakers, slightly lacking in real depth and soundstage – at least compared to the Neat Mystique’s I replaced them with (for which im eventually planning on going larger still).

How good are the 33s? I use Kef 104/2s from the 80s which are quite big but fortunately don’t bother the wife.

I tried some Celestion Ditton 44s in the early 90s which I found in a 2nd hand store, paid £30. Thought they sounded a bit coloured compared to the Linn speakers I had at the time so tried to sell them to a 2nd hand Hi-Fi place but they weren’t interested so took them back to where I found them.

I see on Ebay these things go for decent money considering their age.

In the spirit of STW I recommend what I run…

Anthony Gallo’s… really like them…

Brick wall, tiled floor, lots of glass, minimal furnishing. It wouldn’t matter what speakers you had in that room, Gofasterstripes, they’d sound like you were playing through a guitar amp with the reverb and gain on 10.

BX2s reproduce voices very well but don’t have the thump of speakers with more/bigger drivers. I’ve put cushions on a couple of 12″ guitar cabs and they are accepted in the living room as occasional seating.

I can understand you wanting to keep the wife. What’s her issue with the speakers. Is it how they look? Can you not get her a blindfold for wearing in the front room? If it’s size of them, perhaps remove one of the seats so the overall room area is the same.
Compromise is the secret to a good marriage.

Edukator is mostly right… But I have moved now 🙂

bob, we have similar tastes – I have the BX2s as well.

I got mine in the oak finish, which goes nicely with my occasional table: