Topic: are Mission speakers any good

[Ed.]

never heard anyone talk about them here, but amazon has 50% off all of their mission speakers...thought i'd post it here so more people would see it...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/578735/102-8288565-5821737

[Nick in Edinboro]

FWIW, I remember "What Hi-Fi?" magazine (UK mag) having rather good reviews of a good number of Mission speakers.

[BobW]

I'm not overly-thrilled with my M52 small towers.
Definitely going to be sold during my upcoming move.

The get a tad grainy at high SPLs and have very tight bass with poor extension.

If I kept them, I suppose a Sub would be a solution for both ills.
I am not enthusiastic about subs.

[sygdwm]

probably great speakers for the price. and free shipping. hard to beat.

[BobW]

OK, I'll recant a bit. Now that I'm sitting in front of them, listening to Leo Kottke.
Vocals and beautifully recorded 12 string is knocking my socks off.
Top-end is smooth and extended, yet not "hot".
The soundstage with a tube amp driving them is commendable.

The failing is in bass below 70Hz on the M52s.
With a very tight solidstate amp I had issues.
Listening to the DVD-A of American Beauty, Phil was all vapory subsonics and string ticks.
With the tube amp, Phil is present and sounds more normal, but slightly down (probably closer to the intention of the mix, I'll guess).

Construction on the M-series is very heavy, thick MDF and quality drivers.
Those prices are seriously good !

I would say that if you are seriously into rock with heavy kickdrums and big bass, you may find them lacking.
Feeding them with a tight SS amp, you may not be happy.

Overall, I think that you are dead on, in terms of "bang for the buck."
Missions have a serious following in the UK, I am told.
Maybe someone from the other side of the pond can jump in and let us know if that's just sales hype.

Don't ask me about the 5.1 systems, tho'. 
Not my bag.

[zowie]

I have one of the Denon/Mission "executive" system in my office, and have briefly tried the speakers with other gear.  I heard larger models in stores, but that was a number of years back.  My view -- classic polite British sound.  Should mate well with lower end solid state electronics or recordings made with 853s.

What Hi-Fi has given Mission good recommendations for years, but I think their standards are somewhat different than the U.S. publications'.

I should add, that while I haven't heard the models listed on Amazon and have a strong aversion to buying any audio gear that I haven't auditioned, if one of those speakers fit the bill for what I was looking for, I'd have a hard time not buying at those prices.

[Ed.]

interesting info, yeah, i don't think i'm going to be picking any up, but thought i'd pass along the info if anyone was interested.  i don't know what i'll be gettting speaker wise in the future, but i don't think those will be right for me based on the bob's review.  plus, i don't really have the cash right now anyway.