Excellent clarity in the treble area.

Disapointing bass, but debateable.

(Bearing in mind I listened to this in a shop)Good little speaker if you can afford it, £300 (UK). But definetly not for people with a love of bass. Vocals are excellent, and instruments such as the guitar a reproduced brillantly. I would probably buy the M72 at (£170) than the 780, but would have to listen more to give my full opinion.

Clear, control, well-balance sound. Easy matching with amplifier.

no deep bass (you shouldn't expect from this tiny speaker anyway!)

I accompanied my friend to shop for his home stereo equipment. He intended to buy B&W 602S2 and we spent hours listening to the B&W driven by NAD amp. The B&W sound was big, open, and detail. After that, the shop owner switch to Mission 780. To our surprise, Mission was a real gem. It sounds neutral, well-balance, focus, detail, and has much more authority than the B&W for the same price. Of course, this tiny speaker cannot match the B&W 602S2 in term of bass. But it is a truly audiophile item while B&W still sounds like mass market speaker.

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test against B&W 602S2

Excellent choice for a small room and for people that enjoy differents kinds of music.

Need to be mounted on heavy stands (More a fact than a weakness)

Theses speakers are perfect for a small room like mine (10' X 15'). They are great with all kinf of music: Jazz, Pop, Classical, Electronica, etc.
I strongly recommend to buy heavy stands. By the way, they look good in rosewood with Mission's stance. I've used them with a vintage Luxman (40 watts) integrated amp, and a Marantz PM 7000 (95 watts). With the Marantz, they sure don't lack bass. Although, I'll probably add a sub soon, specialy for movies.

Excellent haut parleurs très polyvalent en terme de musique, efficace particulièrement avec un amplificateur relativement puissant (plus de 60 watts). Il est conseillé de se procurer les supports Stance de Mission et de les remplir de sable.

My system:
Amp: Marantz PM7000
CD: Nad C541
DVD: Toshiba SD1600
Tuner: Luxman T33 (Vintage)
Cables: Rega
Interconnects: Qed

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B&W 602S2

Very detailed, exceptional imaging and soundstage.

Sound much less open with the grilles on. -Take them off!!

On the basis of glowing reviews from What HiFi and other Brit magazines, and the recommendations of an enthusiastic dealer, I bought these speakers (in the BEAUTIFUL Rosewood finish). I've lived with these speakers, paired with an Arcam Alpha 7, Marantz CD-67se, with kimber cables, for most of a year, and have enjoyed them. Recently I started thinking about upgrading things, and so I sold all my components. To make a long story short, in the course of auditioning various pieces of gear, just for curiosity, I swapped out a $3000 pair of Totem Tabu's for the Missions.
NO, the Missions did not outdo the Totems. I was, however, amazed at how good the 780's did sound, with $5000 worth of electronics (Camelot CDP and McCormack amp).
The conclusion: these have the ability to sound GREAT, certainly outperforming their $400 price. To get the most out of these spkrs, match them with quality, well-selected gear, and do experiment with placement in you room -it makes a big difference!
My conclusion: while these outperform the models listed above, these aren't the ultimate speaker. They do, however perform at a level far exceeding their cost.
4 stars for absolute performance; 5 stars for value.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 600 series; Monitor audio bronze, silver; Totem Mite

transparent, detailed, refined treble, good soundstage

not enough bass for some music

System:
Audiolab 8000A Integrated Amp
Marantz CD53 CD Player
Marantz ST6000 tuner
Technics TR 272 Cassette Recorder

After purchasing these speakers about 6 months back, I have been spending tons on audiophile cds! I began buying instrumentals, jazz and other audiophile material like there's no tomorrow!

These speakers have a very clean, slick sound. The treble is very refined and a pleasure to listen to. Vocals are rich and clear but not weighty enough The bass is deep and tight, but never heavy. Prodigy's "Smack my b up" pounding bass which I heard on the JBL, is sounds rather thin on the 780s.

I will be upgrading the CD Player to a Marantz CD6000KI and the cassette recorder to a Pioneer PDR 509 CD Recorder (I preferred the 609 but its not available in Singapore)later and buying new cables and interconnects to see how in can enhance the sound.

But I must conclude that the sound is well worth the money!

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JBL TLX60

Price versus performance

lack of bass

Sweet, musical sound in so small a box! Transparent speaker that lets you forget about the hardware and enjoy the music.
A Warm, musical and round sound with a great soundstage, imaging and detail. You must pair it with a sub so be prepared to spend the money. But when you do you'll have a great front end. A good match is the Denon 3801 and 4800 Receivers, both of which I auditioned with the speakers. Looking to purchase the back surrounds now and maybe a center speaker. Using Mirage OM14's too and they sound great. I like a warm, laid back sound. So many speakers ssound so bright and hollow, I guess to stand out in the store. But if you take the time you'll discover this great little bookshelf speaker.

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Paradigm, Mirage, Martin Logan, B & W, etc.

Mid band clarity, Controlled bass, detail

Need to be mounted on heavy stands

I have had the Mission 780's for two months now and they just keep getting better and better.
They are a very detailed speaker that bring out the best in vocals over the other speakers I tested above. The paradigm have a very warm sound with a huge bass output that was somewhat boomy in my lounge no matter how I positioned them.
The Rega's vocals were good but did not stand out from the music as did the 780's.
The 780's have a reasonable bass output, which is much improved when mounted on some good heavy stands positioned around 20-25cm from the rear wall.
Then bi-wire to open up the sound stage. Fantastic
The 780's are a well made product with a great sound for the size of the unit. Rave and bass lovers should look somewhere else, but if your into the classic's, jazz, acoustic or any good vocal music then you can't go wrong with the 780's.

Similar Products Used:

Kef, Paradigm Mini Monitor V2, Rega

Good control of bass, fine treble sound. Sounds good with any type of music.

none

I found the mission 78 make the music come alive, the grip
that they as of bass for there size is impeccable. Ok they might not be able to fill a large room, but as far as a average size room they are more then able to fill it with
accurate sounding music that leanes you wanting to listen on and on.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer,Kef,Wharfdale,Linn,Castle

Musicality in every kind of music, in the appropiate room.

None, that I realize.

It is the first time I write to you, I expect not the last.
You have tempted me with your invitation to write the first review, so that I bought finally the speakers, and I am now very pleased with.
Not only because of that, but because I wanted a substitute my old Shelf Vietas (sp. trade mark), for something more modern, I could use later in other conditions.
The Mission 780are absolute shelf speaker, in the real sense of the word. I have them in my office, in a shelf, with an heterogeneous, residual equipment together, which I gathered beginning 35 years ago with an amplifier Grundig SV 40 M, 24 W 6 Ohm, and a couple of Yamaha's objects, a Tuner TX-550 and a CD CDX-550E.
As I work alone longtimes, I listen classic music, not very loud, because my entourage, and in any case, not as much as I could do it with my actual chain.
There is some points, I would like to discuss: type of music you like, what do you understand for musicality, how big is the speaker, and how big is the room, where you listen to.
I like classic music, and I like the "english sound": that is my 80 %. The other 20 % are folk jazz, afro, latinamerican musicand so on. Here could one prefer the "american sound", but I guess, this distinction is better for greater equipments or rooms.
My office is an elongated room of 20 sq. m., so that "my music" sound half this room, but in an adequate possition could sound very loud in a more square room of 16 sq. meter. If I say very loud, I say more than what I listen usually at home, and of course in my office.
If you take the external measures of these boxes 28*16*26, their capacity is around the 10 l. This conditions a general kind of sound according to the listening room. I should have never try them in a room over 30 sq m., not even because of curiosity. Don't care about the possition because of the rear port: they sound quite perfect in any possition within the shelf. Stander are not necessary for a good sound.
My old Vietas are some 20 year old, and since that, I hadn't bought any other shelf speakers. Loudspeaker are the most difficult thing to acquyiere in this business. Nevertheless I made me a criterion form your reviews of similar articles, and also from the different audio magazins.
Than was the question, how good the sound, how expensive. They are not cheap, but I think their price is fair. They can reproduce well the "american sound", and about the plastic "japanese sound", we don't want to waste our time.
So they are excelent for "english sound" of the classic music: I say symphonic, instrumental, camera, opera and operette. You can try battle music, and the Beethoven Wellington's Victory is a good test. Metall is metall, and the drumsticks sound after leather. You listen the strings as strings in the classic music, and even you can go to Eric Clapton with "Unplugged" or to the african music with its rich percussion.
Now is the question with the deep low sounds. I think they have "low sounds" deep enough, provided you want "music". For deep bass in "ammerican sound" I should go for JBL in a bigger room. But you get a clean, powerful american sound in the room I described you.
You have to pay a plus because of the limpid musical sound of these speakers, but is a question of taste and money. Another question: you will know really these speakers at home, not in the dealers office. You cannot avoid a small risk, looking for an exact impresiion, with another chain, other surrounding sounds, height of the ceiling and so on, and so on.
Still a question: the first afternoon I tested my new speakers with my old equipment, the right speaker did not sound well: I was crazy: what, the implifier doen't function any more with these modern speakers, why don't I hera well from the right side? I thought the speaker wires and contact were not capable any more. You know what was the problem? The next morning I took the covers of thespeakers off, and the thick phallus of the centre of the woofer was missing!! I phoned to the dealer, and at noon I had a couple of new ones. Now I am happy. Five Stars!!!

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My old shelf Vietas, twenty years old.

Very clear sound, amazing high frequecies

not enough bass

I am using this Mission 780 for my home cinema set. I have 4 of them (both as front and rear speakers)and the sound very very clear. They produce a very clear sound even at high volumes and they do not "scream". The speakers are controled to prodcuce the clearest sound especially at high frequescies.
I am missing a bit of bass, but I guess the 781 will have that.
On a very good stands, the sound is even clearer.
I am looking forward to the 78 center which will complete the set.
System:
ONKYO TX-DS 676
Pioneer DV-525
4 Mission 780 + 4 Atacama stands SE1000si
Rel Quake