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My first pair of Mission speakers -- Mission 700

Mystery

Mystery

constantly upgrading...
Like I need more speakers, but couldn't resist. :sigh:
Grill cloth has metal grills and 4 silver wood screws are screwed on the baffle to hold the grill. I don't think that was the original way. :scratch2:
One woofer has dustcap pushed in, plastic bracket on one L-pad is missing and few nicks/scratches on the wood.
My short session found them sounding very good and have more bass than their size.
The surrounds are inverted on the woofers similar to OLA's.
Also, these are my first pair of speakers with tweeter below the mid driver. :scratch2:
Are these original woofers?
Thanks

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Nice find. I have never heard anything bad about Mission speakers.
Had a set of 700/2's and they sounded way bigger than the diminutive size would suggest, nice tight bass.

Sold them a while back and regret it.
 
I have a much more pedestrian pair of Model 70 MkII's.

Those look EXCELLENT. I'd love to hear them.
 
I have a set of 70 Mk.IIs that must be fairly early production - they have the more sophisticated crossover like the mk.I version. Excellent little buggers, I'd love to hear more Mission speakers to compare with what I have.
 
I had a pair with the wood screws like that, and my drivers looked identical.

I regret letting them go, they are very nice sounding.
 
Mystery said:
Like I need more speakers, but couldn't resist. :sigh:
Grill cloth has metal grills and 4 silver wood screws are screwed on the baffle to hold the grill. I don't think that was the original way. :scratch2:
One woofer has dustcap pushed in, plastic bracket on one L-pad is missing and few nicks/scratches on the wood.
My short session found them sounding very good and have more bass than their size.
The surrounds are inverted on the woofers similar to OLA's.
Also, these are my first pair of speakers with tweeter below the mid driver. :scratch2:
Are these original woofers?
Thanks
Click to expand...

You have stumbled across one of the best budget speakers of the past 30 years or so. The British HiFi magazine "What HiFi?" used to recommend these or AR18S (proving there's no British bias) as the best budget speakers to build a system with. And they won't disgrace any higher end equipment either, I heard a pair of these back in the 1980s at a HiFi show with the classic Linn Sondek/Ittok/Assak combo and a Mission pre/power amp.

The original grills were foam, and are probably long since gone. I'd use them without grills anyway, why cover up those drivers. Since the baffles are already drilled, you could make some wooden frames, cover them with cloth, and then get some proper grill pegs from Parts Express.

The woofers look to be original. Take one out, and post a picture of the back, they should be made by Siarre or someone like that, not sure of the spelling. You could try getting the dented dust cap out with a vacuum cleaner, or maybe carefully using a pin.

Nice find!

Lee.
 
My 2 year old loved nothing more than pushing in dust caps. I had a lot of success with duct tape. Tear of about a 6 inch piece and stick the middle right in the dent. You want extra on each end. Be gentle, but get it good and in there, dont be afraid if you end up pushing in the dust cap a touch more. Give the tape's glue a minute or so to set. Now grab those hanging ends and pull, kind of in an "out and up" motion. The dent should pull right out, and you didnt have to poke a hole in it with a pin.

if the dust cap is really mashed in there it may take two or three times to get it all out.
 
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Thanks for comments.

leesonic said:
You have stumbled across one of the best budget speakers of the past 30 years or so. The British HiFi magazine "What HiFi?" used to recommend these or AR18S (proving there's no British bias) as the best budget speakers to build a system with. And they won't disgrace any higher end equipment either, I heard a pair of these back in the 1980s at a HiFi show with the classic Linn Sondek/Ittok/Assak combo and a Mission pre/power amp.
Click to expand...
Nice to know. :music:
The foams look good, no tear, no crumbling.
Tweeters are perfect cosmetically.
Will they sound better if I flip them upside down with tweeters above the mids? :scratch2:

deadphish said:
My 2 year old loved nothing more than pushing in dust caps. I had a lot of success with duct tape. Tear of about a 6 inch piece and stick the middle right in the dent...
Click to expand...

Even I'm tempted to push them sometimes. :D
I never had success with tape or vacuum cleaner or pin on those pushed dust caps.
It could be because the dustcaps were very sturdy that none of those methods got a grip.
I'll use rubber glue and stick a toothpick or something and then pull out the dustcap. I can trim the toothpick afterwards or use something to dissolve the glue :scratch2:.

I listened to them this morning and they are really nice sounding speakers.
The highs have more resonance (or reverberation???) and imaging that kinda reminds ribbon tweeters.

Here is a pic with grills on. They look better without grills.

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Mystery said:
Will they sound better if I flip them upside down with tweeters above the mids?
Click to expand...

Noooooooo! They were designed to work that way. Several Mission speakers used the "upside down" approach, saying it stopped the bass from bouncing off the floor. We could argue that logic until the cows come home, but most of us aren't speaker designers...

Mystery said:
Even I'm tempted to push them sometimes. :D
I never had success with tape or vacuum cleaner or pin on those pushed dust caps.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those dust caps made of a mesh like material? If so, using a pin to pull them out won't make a hole that's not already there. Try heating a pin up with a gas flame, and bending it at 90 degrees, that will give more of a surface area to pull the cap out with. If it doesn't come out easy, I wouldn't pull it too hard in case you rip the cap. Replacement caps are available, if the foams ever go bad and need replacing, you could fix them then.

Lee.
 
leesonic said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those dust caps made of a mesh like material? If so, using a pin to pull them out won't make a hole that's not already there. Try heating a pin up with a gas flame, and bending it at 90 degrees, that will give more of a surface area to pull the cap out with. If it doesn't come out easy, I wouldn't pull it too hard in case you rip the cap. Replacement caps are available, if the foams ever go bad and need replacing, you could fix them then.
Lee.
Click to expand...

I put the grills on for now.
Will play with dustcap pulling techniques when I feel like working on them later.
The dustcap is cloth/mesh type that doesn't have big holes.
Last time I tried pin bent at 90 degrees on JBL CF120 and it tore the dustcap when pulled out. :(

They'll go to my speaker/guest room for now as living and bed rooms have more than enough speakers.
I'll rotate them into living room in few weeks and decide where they belong. :music:
 
Update:
These are really wonderful sounding speakers.
I'm listening to these more than other speakers (even bigger Polks :)).
These sound very nice and smooth in low volume.
I have to crank other bigger speakers to hear full nice range but these are perfect for low/normal levels. :music:
 
i want to get a pair of mission 700s, wait for the first rainy day, then crank up "Mission in the Rain" by the Jerry Garcia Band...

uh-oh, was that an overshare?
 
They have been in my dining area for over a month and they still amaze me with sound.

Found some specs online and would like to have them here.
They have frequency range of 35hz-25kHz and bass is nice, soft and enough. :)

Mission 700 specs are as follows:
Frequency range 35Hz-25KHz
Frequency response 60Hz-20KHz +- 3DB
Recommended Amplifiers 15W-80Watts/Channel
Impedance Nominal 8 Ohms
Sensitivity, SPL at 1M, 1W pink Noise 89dBA
Tweeter 19mm Ferrofluid Dome
Woofer 205mm Plastiflex Cone.
 
Just dissolve the glue around the caps, fix the dome and reapply new glue.

The pushed in dust caps don't influence performance not even slightly but they annoy when you know they are messed up. I know the feeling.
 
Oh yeah, had a pair of those myself, had to sell them to "provide for the domestic tranquility", my collection was starting to pile up. I chose to get rid of them because I knew I could get decent money for them, an excellent speaker. I had the foam, but I always played them with the foam off, I think they look cool.
 
they are under the radar around these parts. I have Argonauts and listen to them regularly. They are 4 ohm and are very efficient.
 
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