PhilNZ

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I bought my 782's second hand in London, after getting some Mission 780 bookshelf speakers at a Hi Fi show in Bristol. I loved the sound of the 780's and wanted to expand the set to become my Home Cinema / Listening room setup.

The 782's have been awesome and despite their size, fill my room quite nicely for sound and movies. I dont have a Sub - but have never really needed one.

The positioning is tricky, and the bass can be a bit dissapointing if setup incorrectly. My primary bugbear is that the MidRange drivers stopped working for no good reason. So I replaced them both only to have my wonderful children knock one damn speaker over and smash the magnet off the driver. So now I'm onto my Third set. I think I need to make a wider base as thats the second hole in the wall created by the speaker falling over (they're heavy and make a big hole).

I've found that the 780's suffer the same problem, and the voice coils in the main driver have blown on these twice now too. Its getting annoying. You'd think the replacement drivers would have addressed the weaknesses in the design. I'm thinking of repairing these and trading them for something a little more robust.

Aesthetically the 782 speakers are very pleasing on the eye, and had you asked me before I'd had to have so many repairs, I would have said - they are the "ones". Now however I would think twice before buying them.

I'm going to give mine one more chance (if they didn't look and sound so good they'd be out the door yesterday).

turist

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I have owned these speakers from new for atleast 5 years. I have when the speakers where working liked the sound they produced. I have not over powered these speakers either by amp species 100wpc or have I listened to them too hard, the truth of the matter is. The midrange speakers DO have a FAULT, I also noticed another reviewer noted the same issue. I have replaced multiple sets at my own expense. Now, at the moment with them not working once again I have no choice but to consider replacing the speaker units for another brand. The anoying thing is that these speakers came highly recommended but if I had to evaluate my listening pleasure for my buck, these speakers are I feel greatly over priced. Also after being told by a supplier that the midrange speakers do have a fault I emailed the new Australian importer with my issues, after resending the message twice got a email back saying that they can supply replacement midrange speakers at the standard cost, YES very helpful. I am not one to write reviews on items that have not impressed me, actually this is my first. But in this case I felt an obligation to fellow users of these types of reviews to assess whether or not they should buy these speakers and my advice for you is simple " BUY THESE SPEAKERS AT YOUR OWN RISK"
I must add that I have had all these faulty speakers tested and the report identified the cause of the damage not to be due to running them at extreme levels. To be honest upon inspection of all the failed speakers I noticed what looked like "the best way to describe it" a very noticable coffee spill stain on the voice coil material, which the speakers still working didnt have. I believe this to have something to do with the speaker failure.

Strengths;
Compact
Looks
Bass
Clear & Precise Vocals

Weakness:
Midrange speaker constant failure - as noted above
Lack of after sales support- "Australia " may differ in other countries.

Price Paid:  $230.00 from ebay

Summary:
i agree to an extent with northerner,, the 782's are a bit bassy!.especially as im driving them with a mf 1000a which as i've found out dont like low positioned bass speakers. nore need them. in fact it was more controlled with my tannoy e11's although they could not keep up. ive decided to move to a pair of quad 21l's. which having heard on a rotel amp which was very modern and light felt a little weak on bass. i'm hoping the mix will be a 'proper job'.by the way, the musical fidelity 1000a is amazing.no many amps can destroy missions, but these do.probably the best amp ever built bar none.the 782 spkrs are very good though, i tried them with a mates quad amp and they sounded much better.

Strengths:
beautiful spkr and great mid range .superb clarity in acustics and vocals.

Weaknesses:
the bass units are to low to the floor, and dont like pure class a amps with a lot of current to spare.

Northener

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Ebay

Summary:
I was looking for a sonic upgrade to my trust-worthy KEF Q35.2's, which have served me well over the last 6 years. My system comprises of a CYRUS III Amp, Marantz CD63 MKII KI SIG CD player hooked up with QED Biwire. I was looking for an advancement in soundstage, bass response, treble quality and overall musicality. I've been wanting some Miission 780se's for a while now and when I saw a pair of 782's in perfect condition for the same price (320 Euros), I took a leap of faith. Having heard the 780's and been mightily impressed with their weight and scale, I thought I'd be getting more of the same only with maybe a dollop of low end extention. I got more than I bargained for.

Now, my room is not tiny, at 5x7m and the KEF's sound fine, with no real trouble with bass distortion or booming. Attatching the already burned in 782's was really a shock. A tight compressed sound all round, splashy treble and flat mids. Bass extention was extensive and tight but at the expense of cohesion with the mid and upper levels. I experimented with all kinds of positions, trying to find a sweet spot for the low mounted bass woofer, facing to the wall, facing in, but to no avail. A couple of hours in, and I couldn't listen to them anymore. Maybe I'm impacient (although it took me all of 15 mins to fall in love with the KEF'S 6 years ago), but after switching back to my KEF'S, heaven retuned and I was greeted with what I now describe as a broad soundstage, total tonal cohesion, no sweet spot problems and a level of 3d realism that cannot be compared. The proverbial "chalk and cheese" sonic experiance.

Now, I'm not bashing these speakers. The build quality is excellent, they have a weighty, solid feel to them and look pretty cool. I think what it comes down to is what works best for you. There are many reviews here that say these speakers are fantastic. I believe them, just in my room, with my set up, they simple don't work.
My amplifier is also (probably) not powerful enough to reign in the bass drivers and keep them under contro, or to deliver and kind of midrange or topend lovelinessl. In my opinion you need at least 100 Watts RMS into 8Ohms to run these puppies. I got a spankin 50-60 and it aint enough. A PSX-R upgrade might help out, or a smartpower, but I can't see the difference being that substantial. It came down to the room more than anything.

My advice is not to rely on reviews and reviews alone. Trust your own ears, and try before you buy! What you like and what somebody else like are two different things. A bargain may seem like a bargain at the time only to realise you just wasted a lot of time and money. I listened to the Quad 11L's recently. Rave reviews everywhere. My opinion, the KEF Q1's or the Wharfdale Diamond 9.1's are better at half the price. Can you feel the slight bitterness in my tone >;O)

The search for pure sonic nirvana for me is over for now. My stereo sounds bloody good as it is. So for now, all the missions can do is sit back and weep while my KEF's blurt out music the way it should be done. I'll upgrade the next time I have three grand to spare...or when I move into a smal,l disused, city hall.

Strengths:
Build Quality
Design
Looks
Diminutive size

Weaknesses:
Tonal cohesion
Flat mids (totally opposite to the 780's!!!)
Sharp, splashy trebble
Too much bass, ploddy and slow
Need serious amplification (then maybe I'm totally wrong on all accounts...doubt it)
Positioning
Need room

Similar Products Used:
KEF Q35.2 (Sighhh...)
Magnepan Flatpannels Various
Mission 760's (corkers)
Accapellas

Porsche_Fanatic

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.18 of 5, 17.00 votes

Price Paid:  $415.00 from EBAY

Summary:
In a word..INCREDIBLE! I don't pretend to be a audiophile but I know what my ears like and if you want to hear what you've been missing in most of your music I can't think of a better pair of towers in this price range that I've had the pleasure of auditioning. The sound is simply crisp and the soundstage created fills my living room. The midrange is everything I've always wanted and it fills the void that I've been complaining about. The bass won't blow your doors off but that's not why you should buy these for in the first place. These speakers replaced my Polk Audio RT1000P's as my main listening speakers for music and Home Theatre use. i don't have any idea what these might have retailed for new, and if anyone could point that out to me I'd appreciate it, but for 400 dollars I couldn't be happier with the units. I wish I could throw some technical jargen in here for you but I can't. Believe me if you are used to Best Buy or mom and pop audio store sound these will blow you away. If you are a Audiophile there are likely better out there at a higher price point but we have other obligations and priorities to spend out money on.

Strengths:
Clarity Price Size

Weaknesses:
Bass isn't as powerful as some may like but Frank never sounded so good :-)

Similar Products Used:
Polk Audio RT1000P Mission 703 Mission 704