Mission Freedom Speakers: any Good?

[chiroacademy 852]

A friend gave a set of old Mission Freedom speakers.  I think 770 but I can find anything to let me know a model number.   They sound very good. The speakers are in great shape but the grills are torn up.  Are these worth anything?  Would I consider adding them to my system?  Sell them?

 

My System:

PreAmp: Sunfire Symphonic reference 

Amp: Caver M-500t (x2) soon to be MKII

Speakers: Von Sweikert VR3 

[Gene C 1,753]

Never heard of them before but that doesn't mean anything. How do they look and sound? There are different versions of the 770's, post a photo so we can see what your working with. Grill cloth is real easy to replace, will make the speakers look brand new depending on what shape the cabinets are in. See a pair of 770's on eBay with a BIN of $149.00, not sure if those are in better or worse shape than yours.

 

 

[chiroacademy 852]

The cabinets are perfect shape  but they are grey.

[zumbini 6,153]

Those are the "V" version of the 770 released in 1986. Here is some info I found:

 

Mission Freedom 770 V (circa 1986)

Size (H,W,D)	62 cm (24 in) x 26 cm (10 in) x 32 cm (13 in)
Weight	13 kg (29 lb)
Frequency response (±3 dB)	35 Hz - 20 kHz
Low frequency roll-off (-6 dB)	28 Hz
Sensitivity	91 dB (1W/1M)

Background

Introducing the last iteration of the Freedom loudspeaker Mission stated, "Following the extraordinary success of the original Mission 770, inferior copies flooded the market to such a degree that at Mission we decided to move on"^[8]. The Mark IV 770 was reduced in size slightly and fitted with the Mark III bass/mid driver to become the Mission 737 Renaissance or 737R. The 770, meanwhile, became an entirely new loudspeaker designed to meet four specific goals:

Firstly, we [i.e. Mission] wanted to ensure that the frequency range offered greater extension. Secondly, our design team felt that the bass response could be tighter, more articulate, with more transient attack. Thirdly, we wanted to increase the dynamic headroom so that all non-linearities, compression, and saturation problems were eliminated. Finally, we wanted to enhance sensitivity and efficiency for the era of digital masters^[9]

Design

The brand new cabinet was based around the transverse folded technique. Cabinet size was increased still further but remained a stand mount speaker (albeit now a very large one). As in earlier iterations, purpose designed stands made of vinyl covered particle board fitted into slots in the speaker's base.

An unusual baffle design was used which mirrored other innovative approaches used elsewhere in the range, e.g. the Mission 700 Leading Edge and the Mission 707 Loudspeaker. The baffle was constructed out of two MDFpanels sandwiched together, with the outward facing panel wasted away to create a 1-inch (25 mm) time alignment 'step' such that the woofer stood proud of the front face. The word Freedom was printed along the top edge of the woofer protrusion in red or white. A strengthening brace was included internally between the bottom of the time-aligned section of the baffle and the multi-cellular reflex port below. The cabinet was part filled with acoustic wadding and the interior faces had a visco-elastic damping material applied. Externally, two parallel feature lines were routed into the cabinet all the way around, approximately 25mm back from the front panel and 20mm apart. Finishes available were black ash, light grey and walnut. The grille remained as fabric stretched over a frame (an injection moulded polypropylene composite identical to the tweeter horn) which then plugged into six fittings on the front panel. Removing the grille markedly improves the detail presented by the speaker.

An unusual feature of the new 770 Freedom was the tweeter which, like the time aligned baffle, eschewed normal practice in domestic loudspeaker design in favour of a feature more common in the professional audio sector: Horn loading (see horn loudspeaker). This design feature affects dispersion (and thus stereo imaging) and sensitivity (with the potential to reduce distortion). The Freedom's elliptical horn was designed with home use in mind, the ellipse providing the desired dispersion characteristics for a typical domestic setting.

This brand new double-chamber, impedance transformed super-elliptical tweeter is designed to offer extraordinary smoothness and realism - eliminating the remnants of typical dome tweeter sibilance and offering uncanny dispersion characteristics. The mathematics of impedance transformation uniquely ensures structural form integrity to the polymer dome under severe transient conditions. The unit is then oil cooled to avoid temperature related performance aberrations and increase saturation thresholds.^[10]

The horn was paired with a more normal 'direct radiator' dome tweeter, rather than a compression driver. The horn itself was injection moulded polypropylene reinforced with natural mineral fibres (this being the same material used to make the injection moulded frame for the grill covers as well as the baffles of the 707 and 700 Leading Edge models). The face of the horn also featured moulded 'whiskers' to reduce diffraction effects. The added sensitivity and efficiency offered by horn loading enabled the mid/bass driver to crossover to this drive unit at an unusually low 1.9 kilohertz. This avoids the more typical range of 3 to 3.5 kilohertz at which the ear is most sensitive to thephase anomalies that normally result.

The mid/bass driver used a homopolymer mineral-loaded plastics material and was a derivative of the Mark IV Freedom variant, losing the ridges moulded into the original. It featured a large voice coil to aid power handling, distortion, thermal efficiency etc., and a narrow natural rubber surround unlike the wide inverted surround of the Mark I, II & III driver. The surround represents a radiating surface and the source of considerable distortion at low frequencies, thus minimising its width minimises the area of this unwanted radiation, thus helping to reduce distortion further^[11]. The front face of the unit was finished with an inverted dust cap (of the same homopolymer material) with the mission logo printed in white text. The drive unit has a cast magnesium basket structure and is built to very high quality standards. The drive units are marked on the back with 'Argonaut' and two of these units appear in the flagship (780) 'Argonaut' speaker which is based on the Freedom design.

Mission themselves described the unit thus: "The cone material is carefully optimised for mass, rigidity, compliance, and 'Q' to offer hitherto unattained low frequency extension for a system of this size. The brass-plated pole piece with special geometry, together with high temperature voice coil materials and ventilation, increase motor output and power handling"^[12].

Sound

Mission described the performance of their latest model as follows: "When measured, the Freedoms are capable of extraordinary behaviour. The on-axis response is smooth, off-axis measurements exhibit minimal aberrations, and driven at 90 dB the midband distortion is close to 0.1% - approaching amplifier specifications!"^[13]

These speakers were described as 'state of the art reference monitors'^[14] . A long time favourite of many reviewers, these speakers were judged to have a very clean and smooth sound, with accurate stereo imaging ^[15]. A high sensitivity of 91dB (1w/1m) gives an emphasis on speed, attack and dynamics yet despite their high sensitivity they also have a wide frequency range. Indeed, the bass is unusually extended for a system of this size, with 35Hz occuring at -3dB ^[16] and in-room responses considerably lower.

Mission's tagline for the design was, "Of the 770 we have always said, '...and when you switch over to the 770's you will smile and say - that's Magic!'"^[17].

[Gene C 1,753]

Those are actually not bad specs for those speakers.  

[kingman 663]

They look pretty Kool....

[chiroacademy 852]

Do you like the grey finish?   I was thinking I would have to refinish them if I were going to keep them.