Mission 781 Floorstanding Speakers Reviews

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Audioadvisor.com

Summary:
These are a great speakers, I just love how they sound and look. They can sound very good, they just disappear and give a huge and dynamic soundstage where it’s easy to hear every instrument precisely placed, some voices are portrayed in a very realistic mode. They can transmit the emotion in the music, if you put behind them a good system they sound very delicate with lush, solid and dynamic mids and highs. The bass is good (specially the mid bass) and defined but not as extended, dynamic and present as the Dynaudio’s Contour 1.3 (four times their price). These speakers are good with almost every genre of music, but if the music has complex bass information like some electronic music, they tend to congest the sound, if you spend most of the time listening to this kind of music look elsewhere. I used to use a cheap dvd player as cd player, and yes it can be a bad experience to listen to music through this on these speakers, they don’t dissimulate the system’s weaknesses. I don’t know any speakers like this under $ 1000.00 (for my taste), I’m not a reference but I had listened to similar priced brand lines from: Infinity, JBL, Bosse, B&W, Totem, Epos, Dynaudio (Audience 52 ROCKS!!!!), Klipsch and some studio monitors before I bought these speakers.

Strengths:
Well made, real veneers, very good sound, price.

Weaknesses:
no one for the price, but it can be revealing.

Similar Products Used:
Audible Illusions M3A (pre). Musical Fidelity A3CR (power). Marantz SA-14(source).

Price Paid:  $800.00

Summary:
Fairly good looking and compact. But nothing exceptional to shout about. Makes good for casual listening. Sounds pretty impressive at the beginning, however, becomes a little "dull" over time. It lacks the punch and fun.

Strengths:
Good clarity with the bass and the highs. Response is good.

Weaknesses:
Lacks punch and fun. It does not give as much as what it is touted to give.

Similar Products Used:
Naim, Tannoy

Price Paid:  $600.00

Summary:
I did some research and listening and, like many, probably read this site before purchase. I got the 781 and the 78c as one package. The brightness that others have mentioned can be tempered or alleviated by allowing the speakers to have some burn in time (approx. 100 hours in my case). The speakers are visually appealing and are heavy with bi-amp capability. Qualities you expect from more expensive speakers. I have these set up in a home theater environment along with the 78c. Bottom line here: exceptional sound from moderate price speakers. The center channel configuration allows for the most exceptional clarity I've heard from a center channel speaker.

Strengths:
exceptional build quality strong dynamics perfect for H/T solid bass, clear hights, nice punch in the mid range

Weaknesses:
brightness can be tempered by a "burn in period"

Similar Products Used:
too manny to list

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Carlton Audio Visual

Summary:
In response to some of the earlier reviews about these speakers being bright and harsh, maybe these people might want to let thier 781''s run in properly first. Yes, when I first hooked up my pair they were very bright but after a long run in period the harshness had smoothed out. Although they still are slightly on the bright side they are not unlistenable for long periods of time as one reviewer put it. At the end of they day everyones listening preferences vary. These are awesome speakers for home theatre and can certainly hold their end up during 2ch as well. They have great mid range transperancy and amazing bass for a stand mount that is always tight and pretty fast as well. The only other speaker I considered for this price range was the Monitor Audio Silver 5i, which was an excellent speaker in the Midrange to Highs but struggled in the bottom end. This was were the Mission won out in the end. My 781''s are wired up with Audioquest Granite cable to the Onkyo TX-DS989.

Strengths:
Bass, Transparent Mids, Smooth, Well built.

Weaknesses:
Long run in time (approx 300 hours until they start to peak), The Australian distributors customer service is abosolutly woeful, no e-mails ever replied to or requests for product literature forfilled, for all those I had to contact Mission direct in England.

Similar Products Used:
None at this price

Price Paid:  $750.00 from Discount HiFi

Summary:
This pair, mission 781, is bright at first but i has a little faith that the bright will go away or pipe down a bit because the mission 772 now provides me wonderful sound which also has the same problem.
Now after a little more than a month, the sound keep improving tremmendously. The high is extremmly smooth and airy, the mid is wonderfully transparent, and the bass is very tight and powerful(far more than i ask for from a bookshelf speaker. The sound stage is extremmely wide open.
The sound track from the Red Shoe Diaries is just seemingly beautiful. The voice, guitar, violin and cymbal were just so smooth and details. It's just very realistic and liveliful. Every note and sound are so intinctively separate, but still give a wonder smooth mellow sound. i have to compare this pair to the b&w nautilus 805 which i just got also less than a month. The mission has more bass and better high but the mid is still a little bright than the nautilus 805.
When watching matrix(my favorite movie,) the sound just seemingly stunning maybe something about the super beautifully wonderful mid and high. i'll take the mission center speaker, 78c, over the b&w nautilus html 2 because it sound much louder, clearer and a little more bass than the b&w.

Strengths:
extremmely airy and transparent mid range, and wonderfully beautiful supper high (i have to say these speakers produce the highest pit that i heard from any speaker)

Weaknesses:
a little bright

Similar Products Used:
mission 772, b&w cdm 1nt(i return this pair for the B&W nautilus 805) and b&w nautilus 805