Mission 733i or 751f?

733I These speakers a absolutely fantastic in a small to medium sized room. I have owned a pair for eleven years now with no faults at all. there a good all rounder i like acoustic gitar music and Tracey chapman so vocals are clear and open.The depth of base is very good because of the size of the forward firing port.Highly recommend an audition.

Regards Waynio.

IMO the 752fs are not 'great' speakers. They look good and sound 'value
for money' in the mids and highs (I'd agree they are very good here).
However, the frequency response is _far_ from flat, even compared to
other speakers, the mid-upper bass has been tweaked to 'enhance' the
sound (I've seen an independant osc. chart).

This can make them sound very boomy in some rooms and very lacking in
deep bass in others (like our eyes, our ears work by 'relative volumes'
not absolutes). The better speaker of this range to get would be the
750se IMO, which has the same quality drivers, then get a REL subwoofer
and tune it. I fink Stuart Pinkerton has burbled on similarly at some
point.

Everyone and his dog goes on about the Audiolab8000S as 'the' amp for
these speakers but personally I'd go for an Arcam Alpha 9 or an old
Delta 290 if you can find it. Listen to a Naim Nait 3 as well.
Mike

I think I just discovered the secret to being a successful hi-fi salesman.
Let the customer audition his shortlist, leave him alone for long enough,
and wait for him to ask to hear something in the next price bracket "just
out of interest". From that point on there is no going back and the cheque
book is doomed.

I went to listen to the Mission 733i's and 751f's this week. I liked the
warmth and solidity of the former, but loved the clarity and precision of
the latter. There just happened to be a pair of 752f's sitting there
looking extremely elegant in their oak veneer finish, so I asked to hear
them "just out of interest" - big mistake financially; smart move
sonically. I was hooked within about ten seconds. I left the store over
??200 lighter than I had intended although it could have been worse as I got
a discount of ??50 on the wood veneer model. Needless to say, I have been
ecstatic since I got them home. All I need now is some suggestions for
suitable combinations of amps and surround sound decoders to sit between
the speakers and my Marantz CD67 SE.

Steve Silverman

Steve Silverman < <01bd04c5$4e2d4520$3c3fa8c2@lonss2>...

I spent some time narrowing down my choice of speakers too, and the
Mission 733i's were in the shortlist, along with the KEF Q35s, and the
eventual winners - the B+W DM602s. I think you may find that the B+W's
have a better midrange and top end than the Missions, which is better
for classical music I expect.

I have heard the Bass on the 602's described as slow before, but
it's not been noticeable to me - and it's pretty strong considering
the size of them - certainly not shy of the Mission 733i's.

I've had them running extremely impressively in a small room
(3m x 3m ish) and they can even hold their own in a large room (about
20-25m x 20m) and don't worry about jacking up the volume as another
poster commented with the Missions - I've never hit the end stops on
the B+W's, and I've had my amp reaching it's limits in the big room
(yes, it was VERY loud... We were pinned against the far wall! ;-) ),
and it's not a puny amp either (Pioneer A605 - 75W RMS/channel).

Have fun.

Matt.

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# Aston University, Birmingham, | Phone: (+44) 121-359-3611 x4552 #
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housmates nts from

I know what it is and what it can do to your mind in extreme cases,
which is why I *occasionally* put the music up high (as I said in my
article). By this I mean playing *one* CD loud and only doing this
once every few months or so. Normally my music's quiet. I get
complaints from my housemates if it's too loud, but my day-to-day
listening level is less than the level that aggravates them - I don't
like it loud 99% of the time. Even if they're out it's not really
audible outside of my room (unless you consciously listen for it).

Thanks for your concern anyway.

--
Ian Rawlings - ** decode anti-spam address to contact me **

I've got a pair of Mission 752f's (floorstanders) plugged into an
Arcam Alpha 9, fed by a CD67SE. The missions are great, with the only
problem I've had being their inability to handle loud, low bass. My
favourite track has extremely low frequency parts that make the
missions rattle against the magnet if the amp volume control is
cranked close to the 12 o'clock position. At this level though, the
music's very loud so it's not a problem I hit more than once every 3
months.

I took them back to Richer Sounds in Reading (great service from these
guys BTW) and we spent about 4 hours trying to rectify this problem,
but out of all the speakers we tried, the Missions suffered from this
problem the least. We tried some floorstanders with three large
drivers that were supposed to handle heavy bass, but they rattled more
than the missions too. All of the other speakers we tried (most of the
Richer Sounds range in the 500UKP range) weren't as good as the
missions IMHO, so I returned home with the missions and felt even
better about them. I got the Rosewood ones (no extra charge), they
even look good!

This track is the only one I have problems with though. You can see
the cones undulating slowly, so I think there may be 15-20HZ signals
at high amplitude on it. It's an Ambient track with big swooping
frequency changes, from high-end all the way down to the sub-woofer
ranges, in fact some parts of it sound like they were produced using
the signal generators I used to mess with in Physics at school
(They're actually Moog synths in this case though). Not really a
problem for a classical buff. Beethoven's 9th loud on my setup is
wonderful! I'm intending to get a better recording of his 3rd, my
favourite, as now I have the kit to do it some justice. (BTW I've only
got about 4 classical CDs, and about 120 Ambient CDs - good quality
stuff, not the 90% of junk that gets labelled Ambient).

Note that all the way up to this rattle point, the amp and speakers
give a totally clear, stress-free sound.. I've never really listened
to music this loud before as I've never had or listened to a system
that could go as high without getting harsh - the Arcam has no problem
and the missions are faultless until the bass hits the ends. The bass
doesn't boom, the treble doesn't scratch, the mid-range stays
sweet. The room and my ribcage were shaking, so the rattle's not all
that surprising. The fact that it sounded no worse than at lower
levels still amazes me.

If the speakers you're after are anything as good as these 752s are,
go for them! My room is about 4mx6m at a guess, the bass only booms
when I lay back on the bed, and that's because my head is then about 6
inches from the window, which is parallel to the speakers. Moving
forward about 6 inches gets rid of the booming. They're sited about
1.5 feet from the back wall and about 2.5 feet from the side walls,
bi-wired to the Arcam with thick, good-quality speaker cable.

Reading more of the quoted text I've got from the original article
(which didn't appear on my server) I'd recommend the Arcam as the amp
to match the CD67SE - the Arcam is supposed to be a little harsh and
the 67SE a little mellow, an arcam amp and cd player sound a bit
harsh, but the 67SE and the Alpha 9 are great together. This is the
first hifi kit I've bought, so I made the choice I have with little
experience, but have heard nothing but good things about the
combination I~ve got - this obviously makes me very happy! My music is
Ambient and Classical, so I don't want heavy bass either.

In case you're wondering why I'm going on at such great length here
about how great my kit sounds, it's because I'm listening to it now,
slap-bang in the middle of the stereo image, and loving it. The whole
cost was about 1,500 UKP, for that price I think it's hard to beat.

The only downside is that I can now hear how badly produced some of my
ex-favourite tracks are :-(

--
Ian Rawlings - ** decode anti-spam address to contact me **

I've owned a pair of original 734s since '95 and have had them plugged
into
a multitude of bits..
1. Technics AV amp- not enough juice
2. Sherwood thing- hmmmm,
3. Harmon Kardon AVI200- sounds good, but harsh (still needs more
juice)
4. MF A220- little harshness, seriously good bass (deeper than the HK)

Other tip bits:
1. Keep them away from the wall, 20cm min, this stops boom
2. They may be '90dB' but get an amp that can drive them
3. 73x series are a little lazy on dynamics..

".. little requirement for cavernous pounding bass" and what is wrong
with
pounding bass??? eh? You'll be missing it from the anvil chorus and
those
kettle drums..

Nick.
--
Nicholas Kitchener, Software Engineer, Logica UK
<mysurname><myinitial>AT<myemployer>DOT<com>