Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Celestion 100 Speakers by vacuous

Model:	100
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$800
Description:	small 2 ways
Manufacturer URL:	Celestion
Manufacturer URL:	Celestion

Review by vacuous ( Z ) on August 22, 2005 at 22:38:54
IP Address: 64.142.27.2

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I've owned Celestion 100s for about 10 years now. Associated electronics have been a Conrad Johnson MV50 tube amp, a Music Refernce preamplifier, and a Rotel CD player. My first impressions of these speakers were that they were too bright. I was told by friends that they just needed to be 'broken in', but months on they still made me cringe when played loud. I believe the specific problem with this speaker is the titanium tweeters. The tweeters in this speaker is so forward and 'in your face' that it was frequently painful to listen to, except perhaps at low volumes when it was tolerable. Cymbals are the worst instrument to hear through these speakers; they sound much more like a buzz saw than a musical instrument. There is no sweetness to the treble of these tweeters, there is only sibilence. If there is any merit to titanium tweeters, it is that I can listen to news broadcasts at very low volume and hear every spoken syllable.

There is yet another problem with these tweeters, and that's congestion. On completx orchestral pieces or any passage with many instuments playing, the treble gets mashed together into a generalized hash; individual instrumental lines simply lose clarity. In my opinion, titanium tweeters and metal tweeters in general do not reproduce treble accurately or naturally.

That said, these speakers do have some strong points. The box for each speaker is a sealed enclosure, and that has the benefit of producing bass in a tighter and more accurate way than a ported speaker. And these speakers can play bass very well, much better than I expected. I began to buy pipe organ music, and I was more than pleased with how well the Celestions kicked out the deepest tones.

So I started changing my music to accomodate the strengths and weakenesses of these speakers. Led Zeppelin was pretty much unlistenable, as was most loud rock. Big orchestral pieces were out too. However, music with solo instuments sounded pretty good. Rostropovich performing Bach cello pieces sounded fine. Likewise with Rachmaninoff solo piano pieces. Most jazz or light orchestral music was also ok.

I tried to tame the brightness with tube amplification and select cables, but nothing helped. One audio dealer suggested an interesting tweak; painting the tweeters with something like polyeurathane to tone them down. But that's not something that can be undone.

This speaker gets a grade of C- from me. Could have easily been a B+ speaker if only the engineers at Celestion had made a better choice of tweeter.

Product Weakness: In your face treble that's unlistenable at loud volumes.
Product Strengths: Reproduces bass well.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Conrad Johnson MV50
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Music Reference RM5
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Rotel RCD-955AX CD player
Speakers:	Celestion 100s
Cables/Interconnects:	AudioQuest speaker cable; Monster and dealer-made interconnects
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Rock, Jazz, and Classical
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	In your face treble that's unlistenable at loud volumes.
Product Strengths:	Reproduces bass well.