I picked up a second-hand pair of these speaks about six months ago. Luckily I was able to get the pair for $90. I am currently powering them off of an Adcom power amp that pushes 40 watts/channel. The clarity of these speaks is impressive however the sound is not as thick and full as I would like. I use an Energy ES12 sub to provide deeper bass. If you have a small room and listen to music at moderate levels these speaks will be good enough. However, if you like cranking up the volume, these are probably not for you. If you like clarity, tight (but not so loud) bass and are on a budget, go take a test drive.The 731i's retail for about $249 US.

I brought a MISSION 731LE for HK$1800 last year.I have try to make a AB test between it and a KEF Coda 7SE

I found that the MISSION give a much more musical tone and image than Code7SE.
The tone of 731LE more sweet and natural in treble.

Finally I love such of this low price speakers.

We use a pair of 731i's since we've got 2 little kids crawling on the living floor. My homemade transmission line floorstanders have temporarely been moved to the attick.Amplifier is Quad34 + 303 (yes, with large output capacitors...)
The sound of the 731 is direct, with decent bass and nice high. I have them placed in a Lundia-bookshelf, which is probably not the best place because the bass is a bit "on the foreground".
I think the 731 performs best on (semi-) acoustic music (Joni Mitchell, Ry Cooder, etc.) but also heavier music (try John Hiatt - live in Budokan - great bass and dynamics) sounds good.
The only drawback I think is that with some CD's the music will not entirely come "separated" from the speakers.
All in all very good value for money and definitely worth a try if you're looking for small, decent speakers.

FH

I owned 2 pairs of 731s. One pair is the older 731 with the older tweeter. The second pair is the 731i with the new silk dome tweeter. They cost me well below the retail price of $ 249/pair. These are not perfect speakers, but at the price range and compared to hundreds of other name brands from the not so high-end audio stores, these speakers are excellent.
Power these speakers with an entry-level power amplifier (in my case a Rotel 980), it gives you a combination that is difficult to beat unless you are willing to spend $5000 or more.

I got a pair about 2 and half years ago to use in the basement. It was powered by an onkyo receiver. They make some decent sound. That's about it. No sound stage, no highs, no lows. But I Never expected too much from it either.
Last weekend, I bought an used Golden Tube Audio SE-40 from someone over the net. Out of curiousity, I hook up the SE-40 with the 731. The result: Day and night.

The high is not that harsh any more. And there's pretty good sound stage which never exist before. Bass is pretty tight and audible. Female vocal is very sweet.

Guess what I want to say is, don't give up on the 731. Get a decent used tube amp (I paid under 500 for the se-40), you won't regret it.

Of course, your friends listening to his 300B SE + horn won't think your 731 worth listening. But hey, the money you saved buys you tons of good quality CDs. Isn't that all about: Listening to your music, not just audio.

Happy listening

several great qualities for a speaker this size with a pricetag so cheap, durable

bass response critical to room configuration, high end speakers barely sound better since these babies have me spoiled.

After repeatedly being asked to return my mothers 3 way yamahas back to her system and hooking my wimpy realistics back up, she surprised me with a pair of 731i's for my birthday. Not knowing a lot about this stuff at the time, I questioned their ability when i saw the box size. But gee wiz, they really packed a punch and excellent sound quality right out of the box and everything but the bass was better than the big yammies.

I drive them with a several-year-old pioneer sx301, 65w/ch. The mids and high are quite well balanced in my carpeted 13' square room but the bass does leave a little bit to be desired- can't expect to be thrown out the door with a ported 5.25" woofer but it hums along very fast and effortlessly until the knob is just about ripped off.

Believe it or not, i had a friend stand in the sweet spot and she asked me where the subwoofer was...lol. Then again, the kitchen cabinets rattle when i get on it hard enough... So there is decent bass and it goes pretty low to the ear if you happen to be in it's way but you won't *feel* any of it. The imaging seems to get better as they're turned up unless you happen to be handy with an equalizer.

My 731i's are over 4yrs old now and still privide a rewarding sound. I plan on adding a sub to this pair, making them an excellent entry level setup or small room arrangement.

I have a pair of Mission 731's paired up with a denon dm10 mini system(they came packaged with the system from the factory- big mistake).
The sound of the 731's is missing realistic imaging. They sound fairly colored
and the bass seems to drown out the high end. I hooked up a pair of PSB Alpha's
that I borrowed and decided to pay the extra $250 for the Alpha's. The Alpha's
had a clear full range and separation, a more true sound with much better balanced bass response and crisp high end. The Missions may sound better with other systems (my suspicion is that they are less efficient and need more
powerfull amping- the denon has a 40w amp). One thing I did since I was stuck with the Missions was flipped them upside down, and they actually
(as I suspected) sounded much better.
There was much better separation and you could hear the high end.
Why turn them upside down? Mission decided to be creative and put the woofer
above the tweeter, which I believe is why the tweeter gets drowned out.
So upside down they sound like a regular speaker.
I still prefer the Alphas by far. The two are the same price
(around $250) but I would value the missions at about $100
and the Alphas at $300.

Product: Mission 731i 2-way bookshelf loudspeakers,front-ported, plastic front, simuli black ash housing,
$250-280, wall-mounting brackets available at $40-50.

Last weekend I had a short chance to audition the small
Mission 731i bookshelves again, as I had to deliver them
to a colleague. Please take note that these were brand
new, and had not played at all when I tried them first;
expect sound to mellow a bit in the first weeks of use.

My initial impressions were: seeminly deep and tuneful,
detailed bass, big sound, ragged and coarse and the
mid and higher ranges. Well, when compared to my own
Quad ESLs, that is. Now you may think "Ya snobbish elitisht bashtard"
And you're right: it is unjust to compare a budget speaker
to the king-of-neutrality (naturality?). So in the end I
found the Missions enjoyable, and their owner (my colleague)
also is happy and impressed with them.

I used them shortly with my own Quad amps, and then a
Yamaha RX-395 receiver and 555 CD (part of the package too),
free-standing as well as hard up against the wall. Neither
amplifiers nor positioning made much difference, which makes
the 731s easy to drive and easy to position.

Recommended if you come from an all-singing-all-dancing
mini system, but certainly not the wonder-speaker as
was hyped in a recent Stereophile. But then, one should
have known that from before ...

These 731s are stunning! I bought some because they were CHEAP, to replace my extremely old previous speakers. All I wanted really was more bass, because I had none. Well, I certainly got that, but I also got better detail, tonal balance, clarity, soundstage, and basically everything. They look cute, sound incredible, and are alsolutely top value. If you crank them up to party levels and position them well, you'll get bass like you wouldn't believe from such small boxes. I can practically make objects fall off tables in my room! Get em and rock away!

I have the LE version of the Mission 731 speakers - originally used as effects speakers (with 733's and a 73C) in my home cinema system. On setting up a listening room in my house I moved them for use for music - in Target HM60 stands. In this role they perform pretty well - about as well as anything I've heard at the price. They don't suit bass heavy music however, due to the over-emphasis that the lower octaves are given. They do however work well with classical and acoustic recordings.
Used with Arcam Alpha 1 CD player, Arcam Alpha 5+ Amplifier, Kelvin K2 interconnect, Cable Talk Talk 3 Bi-wire speaker cable all on a Target B5 rack, with the speakers on Target HM60 stands.

Conclusion: Recommended for Classical and Acoustic - for dance and rock others are better.