Upgrading the Celestion Ditton 44 Binding posts

This time, a rather ill Nick, adds binding posts to his Celestion Ditton 44 speakers. Find the link in the description for these specific posts.

AEC BI-104GG Short Slimline, Insulated, Gold-plated Brass Binding posts

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AI-generated video transcript:

Hi guys, Nick from Hi-Fi Collective here.

Today we’re going to have a play around with these — Celestion Denton 44s, three-way speakers. One of my favourite vintage speakers. They genuinely kick ass: great bass and a proper old-school, fat sound.

I use these a lot — if we’ve got a bit of a party going on, these usually get switched on. I have actually blown one of the speakers before… not this one, the other one — but that’s another video entirely.

So, today’s video is all about changing the binding posts on the back.

As you can see, you’ve got this plastic rear plate — nice little detail here: Celestion Denton, Made in England. The original terminals are a bit of a pain because you have to wrap the wire around and then screw them down again.

I’ve lived with these for years. I even made up a cable with a loop and BFAs on the end so banana plugs would fit, but they splay out and it’s not great. So, we’re going to remove these and replace them with something better.

These are AEC binding posts. They’re similar to the old Audio Note slimline posts — slightly shorter, quite compact — which is perfect because space here is limited. They accept a 4mm banana plug from the top, and about a 6mm opening from the side for bare wire. They’re ideal for this job.

So, let’s take the originals out.

First things first: make sure you’re using the correct size screwdriver. You can see these screws have already been chewed up a bit. They do come out quite easily though.

We are going to reuse the screws, so try not to lose them — which is normally what I’d do.

Right, that one’s out. Looks like they’re using T-nuts on the inside rather than self-tappers, which is good. These ones are already loose, which explains why they came out so easily.

Okay, all out. Everything inside is fine — it’s just that once they lose tension, they pull straight through.

You’ll see here I’ve marked these internally as A and B. I’ve upgraded the crossover and internal wiring previously, so A is negative and B is positive. I’ll just mark that on the sticker so there’s no confusion later.

Now we need to desolder the internal wiring.

Trusty soldering iron… solder pump… and that comes off very easily. Pop that to the side.

So this is what we’re working with.

Let’s remove the rear plate — two flathead screws. This one’s a bit stubborn… if in doubt, give it a gentle tap. There we go.

Right, we don’t need any of the original terminals now.

To fit the new binding posts, we’re going to need to drill the holes slightly larger. I want to reuse the original washers, so let’s measure the shaft diameter. Looks like just over 6mm, so I’m going to go with a 6.5mm drill bit.

Always best to step up gradually when drilling — less chance of cracking the plastic.

Go slowly… and that’s perfect.

Now, when tightening these up, to stop the binding post spinning, I just pop an Allen key through the top like this. That holds it steady while you tighten the nut from the back.

I want the posts oriented so the wire can come in neatly from the top if needed.

Tighten it up — snug, but don’t go mad. You don’t want to crack the plastic.

That’s the positive one done. Now the negative.

You’ll notice I’ve ditched one of the washers — it just doesn’t really cope well here.

And there we go. You can clearly see positive and negative, and the connections are accessible from both the top and the side.

Now let’s wire them up.

I’ll mark the negative with a bit of black tape just so there’s no confusion.

I’m using Duelund DCA 12-gauge wire internally. Strip it back, and we’re going to form a loop — I always prefer having a mechanical connection as well as a soldered one.

Positive first — loop it round and solder.

I’m using Mundorf silver-gold solder, which needs a fair bit of heat. One elephant… two elephant… three… four… five… and you can see the solder flowing nicely.

Now the negative. It’s a bit stiff because there’s already solder on it, but we’ll bend it round, loop it in place, and solder again. Same process — plenty of heat, let it flow properly.

That’s done.

Give it a moment to cool — you don’t want to melt the foam inside the cabinet.

Now refit the terminal plate. When you’re putting the screws back in, don’t push — just let the threads catch naturally and screw them in gently. The inserts are already there, so no force needed.

Before tightening everything fully, it’s always worth doing a quick continuity check.

Multimeter on resistance… and we’re reading about 7.6 ohms, which is absolutely spot on.

Now tighten everything up fully.

And that’s it.

I think you’ll agree — that looks much better than the originals. It’s always a shame to change original parts on vintage speakers, but usability-wise, this is a big improvement.

Thanks very much for watching.

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See you later.