 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2016) |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Audio |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Headquarters | Ipswich, England, U.K. |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | loudspeakers |
Number of employees | ~50 |
| Parent | Gold Peak Industries |
| Website | Company website |
Celestion is a British designer and exporter of professional loudspeakers.
What became Celestion was started in Hampton Wick (suburban London) in 1924. Cyril French and his three brothers had taken over a plating works and established the Electrical Manufacturing and Plating Company. They were listed as "electrical instrument manufacturers". Eric Mackintosh approached Cyril French for assistance with improving a new loudspeaker he had already filed a patent for (British Patent No. 230,552 on 15 December 1923, issued 16 March 1925). The BBC had started their programme in November 1922 and was building up new senders, public interest in radio broadcasting grew rapidly. But listeners still needed to connect either earphones or gramophone horns to the first radio receivers. Installing a loudspeaker sensitive enough in decorative cabinets quickly made these sought-after pieces of furniture in the roaring twenties. French and Mackintosh perfected the design, the modified French/Mackintosh model used a clamped edge, its conical paper diaphragm was strengthened with strips of Chinese bamboo (British Patent No. 245,704, filed 24 October 1925, issued 14 January 1926). Cyril French became the driving force of the endeavour to start manufacturing it in his company.
The first housed loudspeaker, Celestion, was launched in early 1925. Customers had a choice of oak, walnut or mahogany for the enclosure. One of French's brothers, Ralph, devised the name of the new product. He was also in charge of the cabinet designs and advertising, the two other brothers continued the plating business. A complete range with the models A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 was introduced soon, and a subsidiary in Paris was formed, Constable-Celestion, to export first speakers. In 1927 the Celestion Radio Company and Celestion Ltd. were formed, which grew and became highly successful quickly. The new models C10, C12, C14 and C24 were brought to market, especially the C10 and C12 were highly praised. For many years Celestion advertising would carry the phrase "The very Soul of Music". In 1929 Celestion Ltd. moved across the Thames to Kingston upon Thames, now listed as "Gramophone Works". [1]
In 1931 the C range of loadspeakers were supplemented by the new models D10, D12 and D50. Technological improvements meant Celestion had to stay up to date. The first electrical disc-playing machines appeared on the market in the late 1920s. These electric "phonographs" (since the 1940s known as record players, or nowadays as turntables) became more widespread, later to be combined with a radio receiver. Also in the 1930s receivers became more sophisticated and smaller, loudspeakers now were being built into the receiver cabinet itself, thus a separate unit was not necessary anymore. Many ingenious ideas were incorporated in new designs in order to raise the quality of sound reproduction, such as the Celestion Reetone and Reetone Dual matched speaker units. The former incorporated two equal-sized speakers with a transformer, the matched units were staggered. This eliminated the tendency to "boom" greatly, because the bass could be better suppressed. The latter had large and small speakers built in and a transformer. The two units were so coupled that the treble was accepted by the treble unit and the bass by the bass unit, being essentially a two-way, crossover-less splitting system. In 1932 Celestion brought the Ppm Permanent Magnet Moving Coil Speaker to market.
The business was hit hard by the Great Depression, like so many. Furthermore, in 1934 the British Rola Company, a dependance of the U.S. Rola Company of Cleveland, Ohio, opened in London. Rola being another loudspeaker manufacturer with similar products, the two companies began competing for home and export markets. In 1935 Cyril French resigned from the board of Celestion Ltd, Eric Mackintosh also left in the early 1930s. [2]
With the 1940s wartime restrictions forced Celestion and the British Rola to produce loudspeakers to the same specification, the utility "W" type. Micro Precision Products, later a camera maker, was formed as a subsidiary during the war. British Rola bought Celestion in 1947 and moved production to Thames Ditton a year later. The name of the company now changed to Rola Celestion, with its products sold under the brand name Celestion. The company continued making radio, "high fidelity", and television speakers in the postwar years. In 1949, Rola Celestion was bought by Truvox, a public address system manufacturer.
In 1968 Celestion started production in Ipswich, Suffolk, moving all manufacturing there by 1975. The firm merged with a clothing company in 1970, and the result was now named Celestion Industries, which in turn became Celestion International Ltd. in 1979.
In 1992 the loudspeaker part of the business (Celestion International) was sold to Kinergetics Holdings (UK) Ltd., which also bought the company KEF.
Today Celestion International and KEF together form Gold Peak Acoustics UK. In 2006 Celestion ceased to manufacture finished professional audio systems and consumer hi-fi / home cinema products, and now focuses on the design and manufacture of lead guitar, bass guitar, professional audio and sound reinforcement speakers.
Somewhere around 1969 the Celestion Ditton range of consumer stereo teak veneered floor speakers was unleashed on the British public. The range would go on to include smaller bookshelf models, but initially the lowest model was the very popular Ditton 15, to be renamed the 15XR (see the catalogue from 1978), and the top of the range was the formidable and always rare Ditton 66. Most models, including these two, featured ported cabinets and passive full size Auxiliary Bass Radiators (ABRs) which gave out controlled low frequencies. The 15 had 8" drivers (1 regular and 1 ABR), and the 66 had 12" similarly.
In 1981 Celestion built the hi-fi box model SL6, a compact two-way loudspeaker with a single-piece metal dome tweeter made of copper and a cone-shaped bass unit of PVC with integrated dustcap. Both speaker drivers designed with the help of laser interferometry. Afterwards followed the model SL600, which won worldwide awards in the audiophile hi-fi scene. Instead of wood for the loudspeaker enclosure a rigid honeycomb alloy called Aerolam was chosen, a material previously used only in the aerospace industry. Then followed versions with aluminium dome tweeter, designated as SL6s in standard cabinets (MDF and wood veneer), and the SL6si with an improved audio crossover and woofer surround. Aluminium-domed models using the Aerolam cabinet were the models SL700, and SL700SE with dual inputs. Another of the copper-domed versions, with Aerolam cabinet, dual inputs and improved crossover elements, was marketed as the SL600si.
The speakers of the SL model range were generally well regarded for their natural sound and wide sound dispersion, and a detailed mid and bass range. Their tweeters produced very clear voices, good especially for vocal and classical music recordings. But the copper dome versions were also known for a somewhat "depressed" sounding high-frequency range, due to the relatively heavy material. Later versions used an aluminium diaphragm dome. This lighter and more efficient driver provided an output now more balanced with the mid-range part the woofer presented, which in the first version had lacked of bass to better connect to the tweeter frequencies.
In 1986 Celestion introduced the System 6000, a double-dipole subwoofer system with active audio crossover to complement and enhance the SL series. In 1992 the Model 100, a final variation of the SL design, came to market. It featured a conventional, but highly refined MDF / wood veneer cabinet, dual inputs, updated mounted plates, improved audio crossover and woofer design, and a variation of the aluminium tweeter with an updated faceplate. The Celestion Kingston was introduced in 1995 as an evolution of the SL family. The innovative speaker case is made from Alphacrystal, a stone/resin mould. It tapers to the rear in a way that there is no traditional back panel anymore.
In 1989 the Celestion 3 with metal dome tweeter was introduced. It set new performance standards for low-cost quality hi-fi loudspeakers, highly acclaimed by both public and critics. The later 3 Mark II model was awarded the "1994/95 European Loudspeaker of the Year" by the European Imaging and Sound Association. [3] [4]
According to the company the Celestion Blue, the model G12 T530 driver, was the world's first dedicated guitar loudspeaker. [5] The 1950s emergence of louder guitar amplifiers created a need for a rugged, reliable loudspeaker. Celestion responded by modifying their standard "G12" radio speaker. The tonal character, combined with valve amp circuits of the time, helped to define the electric guitar sound.[ citation needed ] It was rapidly adopted by pioneers of rock & roll and popular music throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1984 the Sidewinder range of guitar speakers were unveiled. These were endowed with a special edgewound aluminium voice coil – a process developed to maximise the ratio of motor strength to mass which resulted in very high efficiency designs.
In 1986 Celestion introduced its B15 and B18 range of double suspension public address systems, with power ratings up to 1,000 Watts. In 1987 the SR (Sound Reinforcement) loudspeaker series with integral aluminium dome followed.
A number of companies use Celestion speakers, including Orange Music Electronic Company, Fender Musical Instrument Corporation, Vox, and Marshall Amps. [6] [7]
In June 2019, Celestion selected Sensey Electronics as its distribution partner in Mexico, to represent its entire range of pro audio and MI products. [8]
In September 2019, Celestion announced the launch of the F12-X200 guitar loudspeaker, the first speaker designer specifically for use with profiling amps, modeling software, impulse responses and other technologies which are designed for emulating the tones from guitar amps and speaker cabinets. [9]
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A speaker system, also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or "loudspeaker", comprises one or more such speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections possibly including a crossover network. The speaker driver can be viewed as a linear motor attached to a diaphragm which couples that motor's movement to motion of air, that is, sound. An audio signal, typically from a microphone, recording, or radio broadcast, is amplified electronically to a power level capable of driving that motor in order to reproduce the sound corresponding to the original unamplified electronic signal. This is thus the opposite function to the microphone; indeed the dynamic speaker driver, by far the most common type, is a linear motor in the same basic configuration as the dynamic microphone which uses such a motor in reverse, as a generator.
Audio crossovers are a type of electronic filter circuitry that splits an audio signal into two or more frequency ranges, so that the signals can be sent to loudspeaker drivers that are designed to operate within different frequency ranges. The crossover filters can be either active or passive. They are often described as two-way or three-way, which indicate, respectively, that the crossover splits a given signal into two frequency ranges or three frequency ranges. Crossovers are used in loudspeaker cabinets, power amplifiers in consumer electronics and pro audio and musical instrument amplifier products. For the latter two markets, crossovers are used in bass amplifiers, keyboard amplifiers, bass and keyboard speaker enclosures and sound reinforcement system equipment.
A tweeter or treble speaker is a special type of loudspeaker that is designed to produce high audio frequencies, typically deliver high frequencies up to 100 kHz. The name is derived from the high pitched sounds made by some birds (tweets), especially in contrast to the low woofs made by many dogs, after which low-frequency drivers are named (woofers).
A mid-range speaker is a loudspeaker driver that reproduces sound in the frequency range from 250 to 2000 Hz. It is also known as a squawker.
A woofer or bass speaker is a technical term for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low frequency sounds, typically from 50 Hz up to 1000 Hz. The name is from the onomatopoeic English word for a dog's bark, "woof". The most common design for a woofer is the electrodynamic driver, which typically uses a stiff paper cone, driven by a voice coil surrounded by a magnetic field.
Bowers & Wilkins, commonly known as B&W, is a British company that produces consumer and professional loudspeakers and headphones.
A full-range loudspeaker drive unit is defined as a driver which reproduces as much of the audible frequency range as possible, within the limitations imposed by the physical constraints of a specific design. The frequency range of these drivers is maximized through the use of a whizzer cone and other means. Most single driver systems, such as those in radios, or small computer speaker designs, cannot reproduce all of the audible frequencies or the entire audible audio range.
Acoustic Research was a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that manufactured high-end audio equipment. The brand is now owned by VOXX. Acoustic Research was known for the AR-3 series of speaker systems, which used the 12 in (300 mm) acoustic suspension woofer of the AR-1 with newly designed dome mid-range speaker and high-frequency drivers. AR's line of acoustic suspension speakers were the first loudspeakers with relatively flat response, extended bass, wide dispersion, small size, and reasonable cost.
A loudspeaker enclosure or loudspeaker cabinet is an enclosure in which speaker drivers and associated electronic hardware, such as crossover circuits and, in some cases, power amplifiers, are mounted. Enclosures may range in design from simple, homemade DIY rectangular particleboard boxes to very complex, expensive computer-designed hi-fi cabinets that incorporate composite materials, internal baffles, horns, bass reflex ports and acoustic insulation. Loudspeaker enclosures range in size from small "bookshelf" speaker cabinets with 4-inch (10 cm) woofers and small tweeters designed for listening to music with a hi-fi system in a private home to huge, heavy subwoofer enclosures with multiple 18-inch (46 cm) or even 21-inch (53 cm) speakers in huge enclosures which are designed for use in stadium concert sound reinforcement systems for rock music concerts.
A bass amplifier is a musical instrument electronic device that uses electrical power to make lower-pitched instruments such as the bass guitar or double bass loud enough to be heard by the performers and audience. Bass amps typically consist of a preamplifier, tone controls, a power amplifier and one or more loudspeakers ("drivers") in a cabinet.
Studio monitors are loudspeakers in speaker enclosures specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate audio reproduction is crucial. Among audio engineers, the term monitor implies that the speaker is designed to produce relatively flat (linear) phase and frequency responses. In other words, it exhibits minimal emphasis or de-emphasis of particular frequencies, the loudspeaker gives an accurate reproduction of the tonal qualities of the source audio, and there will be no relative phase shift of particular frequencies—meaning no distortion in sound-stage perspective for stereo recordings. Beyond stereo sound-stage requirements, a linear phase response helps impulse response remain true to source without encountering "smearing". An unqualified reference to a monitor often refers to a near-field design. This is a speaker small enough to sit on a stand or desk in proximity to the listener, so that most of the sound that the listener hears is coming directly from the speaker, rather than reflecting off walls and ceilings. Monitor speakers may include more than one type of driver or, for monitoring low-frequency sounds, such as bass drum, additional subwoofer cabinets may be used.
Bi-amping and tri-amping is the practice of using two or three audio amplifiers to amplify different audio frequency ranges, with the amplified signals being routed to different speaker drivers, such as woofers, subwoofers and tweeters. Biamping can be done with a single power amplifier if the device has more than one amplifier, as the case with a stereo power amp. Triamping cannot be done with a stereo power amp; a mono power amp would need to be added or a home theatre receiver could be used. With bi-amping and tri-amping, an audio crossover is used to divide a sound signal into different frequency ranges, each of which is then separately amplified and routed to separate loudspeaker drivers. In some bass amplifiers using bi-amping, the woofer and horn-loaded tweeter are in the same speaker enclosure. In some bi-amp set-ups, the drivers are in separate speaker enclosures, such as with home stereos that contain two speakers and a separate subwoofer.
A guitar speaker is a loudspeaker – specifically the driver (transducer) part – designed for use in a combination guitar amplifier of an electric guitar, or for use in a guitar speaker cabinet. Typically these drivers produce only the frequency range relevant to electric guitars, which is similar to a regular woofer type driver, which is approximately 75 Hz — 5 kHz, or for electric bass speakers, down to 41 Hz for regular four-string basses or down to about 30 Hz for five-string instruments.
Bi-wiring is a means of connecting a loudspeaker to an audio amplifier, primarily used in hi-fi systems. Normally, there is one pair of connectors on a loudspeaker and a single cable runs from the amplifier output to the terminals at the loudspeaker housing. From this point, connections are made to the loudspeaker drivers – usually through audio crossover networks.
HD77 is a model name of Marantz 4-way high-fidelity loudspeakers which were produced during the mid-1970s. They were bass reflex speakers, but came with a cylindrical piece of foam which fit into the bass-reflex port of the enclosure if the listener preferred the more accurate bass response provided by airtight speaker boxes. However, they were not fully airtight this way, but rather what is known as aperiodic. They were designed by former JBL Engineer Edmond May. The foam plug in port was in fact a "closed-cell" type which did in fact seal cabinet completely. How it worked was it was cut slightly larger than opening and when inserted, you turned the retainer screw and it would tighten and compress the plug, thereby sealing the cabinet to make the loudspeaker a "suspension" type. The controls on baffle are resistive potentiometers, which changed the response curve of corresponding driver from soft to bright, giving great versatility to adapt within almost any listening environment.
KEF is a British company specialising in the design and production of a range of high-end audio products, including HiFi speakers, subwoofers, architecture speakers, wireless speakers, and headphones. It was founded in Maidstone, Kent in 1961 by a BBC engineer Raymond Cooke OBE (1925–1995).
The Wharfedale MACH series of loudspeakers consists of the MACH 3, 5, 7, and 9. This is an informational page devoted to owners and users of these loudspeakers and those interested in history and construction of electronic sound reproduction.
A keyboard amplifier is a powered electronic amplifier and loudspeaker in a wooden speaker cabinet used for amplification of electronic keyboard instruments. Keyboard amplifiers are distinct from other types of amplification systems such as guitar amplifiers due to the particular challenges associated with making keyboards sound louder on stage; namely, to provide solid low-frequency sound reproduction for the deep basslines which keyboards can play and crisp high-frequency sound for the high-register notes. Another difference between keyboard amplifiers and guitar/bass amplifiers is that keyboard amps are usually designed with a relatively flat frequency response and low distortion. In contrast, many guitar and bass amp designers purposely make their amplifiers modify the frequency response, typically to "roll off" very high frequencies, and most rock and blues guitar amps, and since the 1980s and 1990s, even many bass amps are designed to add distortion or overdrive to the instrument tone.
The Linn Isobarik, nicknamed "Bariks" or "Briks", is a loudspeaker designed and manufactured by Linn Products. The Isobarik is known for both its reproduction of low bass frequencies and being very demanding on amplifiers.
The LS3/5A is a small studio monitor loudspeaker originated by the BBC for use by outside broadcast vans to ensure quality of their broadcasts. The speaker concept set out transparent and natural sound as the goal, and the achievement of the end result is widely acknowledged.
