izools

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $30.00 from eBay

Summary:
Purchased these of eBay for a meagre £30.

Dance music (Creeps (Your giving me) Freaks) is repoduced faithfully, with rich, clear, well defined bass which extends further than one would expect for a speaker of this size. It's hard to judge the ajility of these speakers with Dance music, as Dance by it's nature is a bit all over the place anyway. But faithfully reproduced with these speakers. 85%

Jazz (Pat Metheny) is reproduced with good accuracy, with clear seperation between the bass and trebble. There is a very small amount of "Boomy" bass with certain very low stringed instuments however I believe this can be tackled with better speaker placement. It is clear that these speakers were not designed with Jass reproduction in mind but they make a very good effort nonetheless. 70%

Female vocals (Norah Jones) is a plus point for these speakers. The airy qualities of her voice are protrayed very well with these speakers, althuogh I am left with the feeling that there is more life in her voice than these speakers suggest. The piano and stringed instruments are portrayed with very good tonal balance in her "Come away with me" classic, and these speakers allow these intruments to be present with the exact amount of balance between the vocals and the backing band, with neither over powering the other. Good show. 78%

Electric (Enya (Only Time Collection)) is where these speakers really shine. Immediately at the very first note of her "Watermark" piece the notes are portrayed in a beautifully warm, and inviting manner, with the soft vocals in the bacground melding with the piano perfectly. I was a little shocked that these speakers were capable of such subtle accuracy. The ability for these speakers to faithfully reproduce the femail voice and their suprisingly good base response allows Enya's Boadicea piece to be brought to life. Very warm throughout this song. Her classic Sail Away was another piece where the femail voice was brought very much to life, but once again I am left with the feeling that there is a very small room for improvement in this area. 92%

Classic (Gustav Holst - The Planets) a reasonable effort. There is a certain amount of subtlety to these pieces and there is definitely good dynic range. I feel there may be something missing from the top end here, possibly that the tweeter takes over long after the bass driver has reached it's -3dB point? It's definitely listenable and enjoyable but somewhat lifeless. Again this may be to do with speaker placement so I shan't be too judgmental, I feel these speakers can reproduce classical music fairly well but if this is what you intend to listen to above any other genre it may be adviseable to look elsewhere. 65%


All in all a 78% score by my book, which I think is nothing to be sniffed at for something that cost £30!!

I would put these on a par with the modern equivelant Mission MV2 speakers; which stands to reason given the MV2 are indented as a direct replacement for these.

I will soon be testing these with a NAD 3020 amplifier (currently using a DENON UD-M31) and post back if this classic amp is able to spring more life into these speakers ability to reproduce classical music.

Strengths:
Bass is taught and has good extension for size
Ability to reproduce Dance and Electric music is very good indeed
Jazz music is reproduced suprisingly well for a speaker this cheap and small

Weaknesses:
The high end is albeit light, airy, and un-fatiguing, somewhat lifeless and dull
I think these speakers are fussy about placement and I'll be playing around with that side of things soon to see what can be done.

Similar Products Used:
Denon/Mission SC-M50

Price Paid:  $160.00 from UK

Summary:
I bought a NAD 3020 and some Mission 700 LE speakers about 15 years ago. In all that time I blamed the amp for the excessive sibilance, brightness, and general lack of coherance that was my daily listening experience (Wisdom at the time said that the NAD 3020 was supposed to be "bright"). I recently bought some Tannoy Revolution R2's. Stunning speakers, beautiful to listen to, completely natural and balanced sound.. (I have posted separate review on these). So now the NAD is forgiven, and elevated to "classic" status. The Missions??.. Maybe I will use them as plant pots, after forcibly removing the drivers. Total rubbish.

Strengths:
Apart from durability, none

Weaknesses:
Where do I start? Bright, sibilent, lack of depth, muddled soundstage, lack of balance or timing, dreadful little boxes.

Similar Products Used:
Tannoy R2's. Listen to a pair, they are a revelation, these Revolutions..

Price Paid:  $50.00 from RICHER SOUNDS UK

Summary:
Due to Mission not making them anymore Richer Sounds are knocking these out for £50 at the moment(£70 off)....I thought I'd try them with my bedroom set up, a room about 15ft x 12ft....and wow....for speakers at this price they are simply superb. I have auditioned / owned many bookshelf speakers in the £100-£150 price band and these destroy the competition. For a relatively small box I cannot beleive the bass they give out and vocals sound superb. I use them with a Cambridge audio A5mk3 and Nad 521i CD and when you crank up the volume they handle everything you throw at them. They may get lost in a much larger room but for a bedroom / small living room they fill the space superbly with clear vocal, crisp highs and the bass is suprisingly good. I have to say upon hearing them and running them in fully I would have paid full price for them, no problem at all. A very impreeive little speaker.

Strengths:
Impressive bass for the size. pretty to look at and well made.

Weaknesses:
for fifty quid !! nothing at all!!

Similar Products Used:
Mission 731, KEF Cresta1 / 2 Mission 771, B&Wdm1,Eltax monitor3

Price Paid:  $6.00 from estate sale

Summary:
Purchaced at an estate sale for 6.00. They are the earlier 700's.Sound quality is very accurate and flat.Nice staging and a sweet speaker for jaz.Great bass for the size, for $6.00 i have a clean sounding garage ran from my $10.00 Rane ma-6 amp,,along with my $20.00 Citation 7.0 Processor,,,,Not a bad setup for $36.00 "gotta love these estate sales" :)

Strengths:
Bass, clarity,staging, size

Weaknesses:
Cabinet cheap looking,,cheap terminals

Similar Products Used:
B&w 601's Klipsch kg 2.5 "sucked"

Price Paid:  $119.00 from ubid

Summary:
Bought these to hook up to a 125w/ch Nakamichi because they fit on my bookshelves and the company generally gets good reviews on it's products. They are very good. The bass is surprisingly good for the size. Classical is excellent in the range that these speakers reproduce. I no longer have the spec sheet but it sounds like they go down to about 50hz or so, based on the sounds that are there or missing from music that I am familier with. I have some more expensive stuff in the movie room, and even though I haven't compared them in a strictly controlled environment (i.e. same room, same placement, same ... everything else) these sound better for music than the tower/surround movie setup.

Strengths:
Surprising bass for the size. Good clarity.

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Marantz/Advent combination, Denon/Wharfdale (not too good a combination), quite a few other fair-to-good but not top end setups.