Lucky to find these (almost) brand new! - Celestion 9 Series Speakers Review

These are Celestion 9 series speakers. I found these for £120. I thought they sound pretty good and worth a video. If you still own or listened to these before feel free to leave a comment!
Also I would love to know what sort of music you would like me to include in my video as I always on the lookout for new music. Thank you!

Transcript below:
These are Celestion 9 series. Celestion doesn't make HiFi speakers anymore except Pro Gears like guitar speakers. But I was lucky to find a pair that was basically brand new for £120. For their age and build quality. I was certainly surprised by how well they hold up compared to modern speakers.

This Unit Range came after the famous SL series and DL series as they resemble each other visually. The Unit Range goes from Celestion 1 being the smallest, odd-number jumps to 11 being the largest of the range. And only 9 and 11 are 3-way speakers. The only differences between 9 and 11 are the size and the bigger bass cone in the 11. I would presume they share a similar sound profile.

On paper, the specs seem quite ordinary. However, you should pair these with a decent amp. Some budget class D amps will not give enough power. I have a topping VX3 supposedly rated 35w@4ohm. It can drive the Focal Chora 806 but not these Celestion 9. It will just turn itself off.

For my test, I used Marantz Cinema 70s. SimAudio PW4000 in conjunction with Topping D50s and Wiim Mini. And The music will be from Tidal.

Let's get the cons out of the way. Even tho these standmount speakers are not compact, but they don’t have much sub-bass. Put on Eye for an Eye by Rina Sawayama, the impact just isn't there. The most I will put thru these speakers will be Suck My Kiss by RHCP. While there isn’t a lot of bite to the guitar, Each beat, kick and hi-hat of the drums are quite snappy. The slap bass sounds aggressive enough thanks to the solid upper bass. So if you listen mostly to hard rock, heavy metal or bass-heavy music, these speakers might not be for you.

For my taste, they have just enough air and borderline lean sounding. Put on Significance by Keiichi Okabe to experience the vastness of space that these speakers can create. The sound stage is quite expansive. With Tank! By Seatbelts the display of each instrument can be accurately heard. Each hit of the bongo can well be heard through the two sections of the saxophones while they counter each other. The acoustics guitar doesn’t take the backseat while accompanying the double bass during the verse.

The strength of these speakers is the mid-section. Listen to Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones, her voice sounds very warm and intimate. The lead section of Deja Vu by Natalie Prass, the separation of the synth and guitar throughout this track is excellent. The reverb of her voice lingers quite well too.

Even tho you can’t expect chest-pounding bass from these, put on Earfood by Roy Hargrove, the presence of the double bass is still fairly full and boomy. They still can do a decent job at the bass department.

And you should feed these speakers with good quality recordings too as they will show the flaws of it. During my test with All My Life by Foo Fighters. The popping of the vocals can be heard in the intro. The popping wasn’t as pronounced with the Focal Chorus 806.

Within their capability, they can do quite well. Especially if you are into instrumental, light music or classic rock. They are not the most resolving speakers, the realism is not quite there nor have the presence like the Focal Chora 806. But the fact they are from the late 80s and they pick out enough details to entertain. I honestly didn’t expect these Celestion could even come close to any decent modern speakers. I hope you like my video. Please leave a like and subscribe and I will see you in the next video.