Mission's newest floorstanders feature side-firing drivers for a better soundfield
Mission's 79 speakers are dressed to impress
Mission doesn't introduce a new speaker range very often, so it was with excitement that I auditioned this 5.1 array culled from its recent 79 series.
These are currently the most ambitious and costly speakers available from the brand (apart from its Pilastro towers, which are a high-end one-off and aimed at affluent stereophiles). Yet, at under £2,400, I feel this system is far from overpriced.
For that money you get an array of cabinets that are strikingly designed – not always a phrase associated with loudspeakers. The enclosures are slim and faceted at the front, to encourage a broad spread of sound.
They make extensive use of curved panels, reducing internal symmetry and resonances, and the inverted drive unit layout makes it possible to use a shorter enclosure as the tweeter can be just below ear level.
Build quality is excellent, too. Three types and densities of wood are used in the construction, which helps reduce structural resonances thanks to mutual damping. The main side panels (top in the case of the centre speaker) have a multiply construction, which is an unusual elaboration.
Booming
With the grilles removed, these Missions look like they mean business
There are three finishes available: black (pictured here) or white gloss, and a rosewood option for those who prefer something more closely associated with trees. The plain finishes are applied in seven layers, each of which is rubbed down before the next is applied, the result being a deep, attractive gloss you can see your reflection in.
New drive units
Mission has crafted new drive units for its 79 series. Mainstay of the whole range, subwoofer apart, is a tweeter with an ultra-lightweight impregnated textile dome.
The unit is fitted with powerful rare earth magnets, and decoupled from the speaker enclosures using something Mission calls 'closed-cell gasketing', though the brand fails to explain how exactly it works in its literature. The bass drivers use a recently-developed resin-cured fibre cone material which is low in weight, and high in strength.
The front floorstanding speakers are the most unusual, as they also have a side-firing bass unit. The enclosures are built in mirror-image pairs, so you can chose whether the side-firing driver faces inwards or outwards. You can decide which by trial and error, but the former is preferred in most rooms.
Voice
The rears, centre and front speakers share the same midrange and tweeter design
The subwoofer is fairly conventional in layout, with a downward-facing driver that makes positioning not very critical. Unusually, however, it uses a Class AB amplifier, rather than a digital amp, the cheap and easy expedient preferred by many designers. Phase, level and crossover settings are readily accessible, and can be operated by remote control, making it almost too easy to mess up the internal settings.
Sound quality
My main platform for testing this Mission system was the Anthem D2V, P2 and P5 pre-power combo, with Denon's Blu-ray transport acting as principal picture pusher. Other electronics, though, were also used, including cooking-quality Denon and Onkyo amplification and a NAD DVD player, to confirm driveability.
What they showed was that this Mission system is not hard to control. Low-cost amplifiers are quite effective at squeezing useful levels of sound from the enclosures, though somewhat optimistic sensitivity ratings from Mission confirm that you need rather more power than you might expect.
On the other hand, these speakers don't have the internal headroom to cope with anything like full power output from the heavyweight (in every sense) Anthem electronics. At moderate volume levels, or even what might be described as moderately high volume levels, it all sounds very well poised and in control.
But go beyond a certain point on the volume control (the actual level is dependent on the source equipment and the source material) and it quite quickly deteriorates into an untidy-sounding mess.
However, despite this, Mission's 79 series still goes more than loud enough to exceed normal comfort levels in most rooms, and for most people. The levels it can generate without audible compression or distortion are estimated to be around the 100-102dBA level, but as usual this number is frequency dependent.
And relax...
This brings me to the more important question, namely how it performs qualitatively. And I was impressed.
One part of my audition involved the latest James Bond opus in lossless format from Blu-ray, Quantum of Solace (007 can always be relied on for an exciting, high-octane opening sequence, and this one is no exception), and the Missions coped well.
Serious Looking
Mission's 79 series would surely be Darth Vader's surround speakers of choice...
The balance of the opening sequence is such that you don't really need too much power to make a satisfying impact. Apply too many Watts and you'll get a rather muddled, shouty midband, which has nothing to do with any problem intrinsic to the speakers, but which makes uncomfortable listening.
Uncomfortable is a very un-Mission 79-like quality. If a single word could be used to sum this system up, it is easy or relaxed. In its natural state, the system is unusually clean and transparent – you may quickly forget you're listening to speakers. There is nothing hard or aggressive about the system midband and neither is the treble grainy. The overall qualities are of clarity and openness.
Another useful attribute of the speakers is their stereo imagery, which is precise and provides a firmly located image even for listeners seated to one side. This is no surprise given the narrow faceted enclosures, whose geometry is all about controlling imagery.
The three satellite speaker designs (front, centre and rears) are broadly physically comparable. All sound consistent with each other apart from the centre speaker, which is normally oriented at 90 degrees from the others and tends to punch through the middle, giving a more positive, and in some ways more articulate, dialogue quality.
The subwoofer has to be treated on its own, of course. It has good detail and limited overhang. Again it is not the most muscular design of its type, but there is almost no detectable box signature, and bass depth is good, though it will only generate moderate volume levels. It performs well, bolstering special effects tracks replete with explosions and other noises, but it can sound underpowered with the bass track on some music discs.
Serious ambition
This is Mission's most ambitious system for a long time, and one payoff is a more sophisticated and transparent sound than you might expect. Another powerful payoff is the superb aesthetics; these Missions are almost in a class of their own at the price.
The system just looks wonderful in the black finish submitted for test, and the white option is arguably even more striking and contemporary-looking. This is not a package for those who judge speakers by how loud they go, but it makes good sense of difficult or muddled soundtracks. Highly recommended.
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