If you're looking for a speaker that replicates that true Vintage sound, then this is THE ONE!
Take a deep breath.............This is an interesting (and long!) story that originally came about several years ago when I took an old Vintage Celestion Greenback out of an early Marshall 12" Quad cabinet and took it to Victorian loudspeaker manufacturers, Lorantz, the company who took over the old Plessey plant. Plessey was the company who in turn took over the ROLA plant. (Rola-Celestion is the original manufacturer of the Greenback and other vintage speakers which were also tied in with JENSEN speakers in the USA)
Why I have mentioned all this is that now Lorantz is owned and operated by the original speaker designer and head engineer at the old Plessey plant, and all the original equipment, including cone molds, are installed at the Lorantz factory. It is now a husband and wife "boutique" business, very high in integrity and true to the business ethics of earlier times when things were more about quality and reliability and less about cutting corners and maximising profits.
What I wanted was a replacement speaker that would tonally sound as close as possible to the Celestion Vintage Greenback. After testing and plotting the old Greenback Lorantz came back to me saying that the only way that they could get this type of sound was to use a old style nomex copper wound voice coil. Considered to be out of date technology, which would only have a power rating of 30 Watts. (Seemingly ridiculous in this age of high powered speakers) Why on earth would anybody want a low powered speaker that sounds like an old Celestion???
My reply was "Do it, and I'll order enough for a production run"
So they did, and a great speaker success story was born.
True vintage warmth and fullness like the old Celestions but with the added advantage of superior efficiency resulting in a louder volume level for the same input power....not only that, but if you do cook 'em, they can be cheaply reconed. They follow the frequency plot of the original Greenback virtually indentically....within 2dB!!!
NOW WE HAVE THE 10"
Everybody that has used these speakers has loved them, including all Melmusic staff...every one of us here use Lorantz in our personal rigs and we've all had the choice of whatever speaker we've wanted to. We just cannot recommend them highly enough!!! - Brad Coates Mng Dir. MELMUSIC
A short but necessary note: Please don't email or call us asking whether this would be suitable for your particular amp...we really cannot say. Sound and tone are subjective things over which even the most expert opinions differ. Please read the spec. sheets and decide for yourself. We can tell you however, that if you like the old Celestion Greenbacks then you will like these because they are as close to the tonal qualities of the original as is possible.