Celestion 700's for HT, or what?

I own the SL12si's. Dragged them out of storage while my DIY speaker project takes form. I've always loved Celestion monitors. Mine are over 10 yrs old. Are yours the ones with the aluminum honeycomb enclosure? If they are then definitely keep them, IMHO. If you go out and buy some a new set marketed for HT, I can almost guarantee they won't stand up to the 700's. Look, I don't do HT. Speaker are speakers. Anyone can split hairs and say these new HT speaker are design for the clearest repro. of voice, etc, which is why so many are D'appolito or MTM arrangments. The most important difference in HT speakers is the bass. Movie soundtracks are recorded with an inordinant amount of deep bass, like the sound of the T-REX footsteps in Jurassic Park.
OK, back to the subject. Unless you want better speaker for music, keep the Celestions. For a center channel, you could pick up another pair used and use one for the center. That's actually a pretty inexpensive solution. You could use a 12, an SL12 right?. but I wouldn't. it's a different speaker, different crossover. If you ever need to replace a tweeter, etc. That can be done through the mail, buy the part and install yourself. I recently did that with mine. If you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer them. I have enough technical speaker knowledge to answer most if not all of your questions without any vested interest.

Thanks! Yup, mine have the Aerolam cabinet and they're in great shape. I kinda came to the same conclusion you suggest after I posted this thread.

Went to Sterophile's archives online, and found a review of the SL700's by John Atkinson (9/88) in which he compares/contrasts with the SL600's, which he also owned and used as a prior reference in his high end rig. To my untutored eye, his impedance and 1/3 octave response graphs of the 700 and 600 together seem to support his opinion of sonic similarity from the low end to the cross-over point (crossover was at 3k). The construction of the boxes is the same, but the tweeters and cross-overs in the units are different (copper in the SL600's, aluminum in the SL700's). In the graphs, the SL600s roll-off more gently on the top end, but at a lower amplitude.

Then in '89 and '92 he reviewed the SL600si's and did some comparison/contrast with the 600's and the 700's.

From the above reviews, I get the sense that, in the Celestion line, my best shot at a relatively seamless system will be with the SL700's (or maybe some SL700se's) as fronts, with SL600's, SL600si's or SL700's as a center and surrounds. I'll try a Velodyne ULD-18 monster that a good friend is willing to sell as a sub for HT. It's big enough to double as a coffee table.

Seems like I'll get killed selling what I've got and then trying to buy a set that will provide equal musical satisfaction. I'm glad that my Audiogon ad to sell my SL700's expired. Thank you Stereophile and Mr. Atkinson!

All-in-all, it was enough for me to post Wanted ads here for the SL600's. SL600si's and SL700's here. I really do agree with you (tho' I am really pretty new at this): I'm going with speakers I really like for music, and I'll match them up for use with HT, rather than vice-versa. Wish me luck.

Thanks again for your input!

Mike