Mission 752 752f Freedom

The Mission 752 752f Freedom are awesome quality, had mine for 11 years and I swear they sound better everyday.

Excellent sound quality, good speakers however these are dated. Worth picking up second hand. Overall, Mission speakers are good value for money

A review of Mission 752 752f Freedom Stereo Speakers - Managed to pick up a lovely Technics pieces on ebay to satisfy my separates upgrade bug. Su VX700 amp, sl1210 turntable, rs tr575 top spec twin cassette deck and a mint sh 8055 eq, 12 band with spectrum analyser and the red light in each slider . So far so very good. Then I made the terrible mistake of buying some Eltax concept 400 speakers brand new. Seemed like a good idea. They looked good and powerful plus cheap, should known better. Set the lot up with top QED and Cambridge interconnects, QED Silver Anniversary 2 speaker cable and gold air lock banana plugs. Fired her up and then.................... nearly cried !! A dull and bland sound came back at me. Couldn't work it out, so I checked my wiring, no problem there. Maybe my expensive cabling and interconnect were dampening the treble and clarity. So.. I reconnected using standard wiring etc. No better. A mate came round sat down to listen to some beats, told me straight - Set looks the business but is the eq working as I cant hear and top end really, well it ain't crisp he said. Blimey I thought maybe the eq's knackered. Anyway to cut a long story short I sat and pondered and came to the conclusion that all the Technics bits are great so the weak link has to be the cheap Eltax speakers. Spoke to a colleague at work who said if I liked good treble, nice clear detailed mids and deep bass then it had to be Missions. He had the gigantic 705's which were just to big for my room so I searched and came across the 752's. Read the very favourable reviews and managed to source a pair a lady was selling via a very nice hi fi store in Maidstone, £250 was the price but we negotiated £160, in black which matches all the graphite Technics stuff I have. Anyway couldn't get them home quick enough. I had to know why my set sounded rubbish ! I re-connected all the good quality leads / cable etc, switched on and grabbed a burning Spear reggae album in anticipation. Let me tell you !! from the instant the needle hit the vinyl I knew I'd spent the best £160 in my life ! What a complete difference - from Woeful to Wonderful in one move. The sweet treble, the mid and vocal, the detail and bits of percussion jumping out at me in the nicest possible way, great stereo imaging. I could hardly contain myself. In an instant my set had been brought to life and sounded more top end than I could have ever hoped for. All I want to do is play music just to listen to these speakers they are excellent as far as i'm concerned. I'm not surprised they are award winners. What a sound from a couple of not so big speakers in an average size box - brilliant !!

This review is of the 'Improved' Mission 752f Freedom versions.

These speakers cost £580 new. The Mission 752f have so many remarkable features that it is difficult to put them in an order of greatness - so this review is really a list of notable things they do really well & one very minor criticism.

These compact floor standing speakers have a real wood veneer, mine are a sort of light golden oak colour with black faux leather which even my girlfriend is unoffended by(!!!) and with the grills in place they simply blend into the back ground, which doesn't seem that important but compared with floor speakers of old (a couple of huge boxes the size of sideboards plonked in your lounge or something resembling a 'Black-ash' clad bachelor pad from the 80's - mmmm nice) this is important. Anyway they do look great & come with a small heavy metal plinth attached to the base of each speaker which, along with the carpet spikes that screw into the plinth, help keep them very stable.

The sound these 752f's produce is fantastic, The mid-range is incredible - female vocals impress greatly by just hanging in the air between the speakers & even at low volumes the bass is very deep, but not really punchy - ie: You feel it vibrating through your sofa before you actually hear it, this is definitely not a complaint merely an observation. This is what I would call a natural bass line. It does NOT over emphasize the upper bass frequencies because of a lack of deep bass - as sometimes the case with small stand mount speakers. Being front bass ported they don't need to be exactly positioned to get fantastic stereo imaging - they don't sound 'boomy' if they are used close a wall or room corner for example.

The ultra light 'Aerogel foam' main driver with fixed position phrase plug & inverted surround really is the absolute business!! The main speaker unit produces a highly natural uncoloured sound & is also used in the £1400 754f. It does seem to be a shame, to me, that the silk dome tweeter (or maybe the crossover??) is a little tame by comparison. There is nothing overly wrong with the high frequencies, they are amazingly neutral they just lack that last bit of sparkle compared with the main speaker. The two drivers do integrate perfectly where they cross from low to high, but I just feel that there is a tiny bit of 'presence' missing from the very top. Some listeners to these speakers will really like the way they will never offend or make them bleed from the ears even at building destroying volume levels, but for me a touch more crispness right at the frequency extreme would have given them 10/10. Don't be put off though - this is only in my opinion!!!

I've used the Mission's mainly with Cyrus & Marantz to start with & eventually with a Denon 'Lifestyle' system. They are ideal for the musical Denon as it has tone controls (unlike the Cyrus & Marantz amps) so I can give it a little more treble and be happy - though they did also sound fantastic bi-amped with a couple of Cyrus 'Power' amps in my main set up.

All in all the Mission 752f's are a great pair of quality speakers & I highly recommend them for someone who enjoys listening to music, especially for long periods, and is looking for neat compact floor standing speakers which are well made & look & sound wonderful.