Mission 770 Freedom V photos.

Update: I love these speakers!

They were stained an ugly greenish gray (an original 80s offering) when I got them. I don't like taking before pictures, so the top picture is a Photoshopped 'before'. I spent a few hours stripping them down to their natural colour and sanding. They're not perfect, but much better.

Just arrived. Mission 770 Freedom V.

I had a pair of these in August, 2008, when I was starting this blog. They hada completely smashed corner, and I made them my first veneer project. That pair sounded great, but the tweeter diaphragms showed some deformation. The drivers in the pair I brought home today are in perfect shape. The wood veneer cabinets are finished in a grey/greenish stain, very mid 80s, and quite awful. I'll be stripping them over the holidays.

I've spent a couple of hours listening, and am pretty happy (I didn't have as much time as I would've liked with the last pair). I've been using a Kenwood KA-3500 40 watt/channel integrated amp (my wonderful sounding, powerful Marantz 1152DC started to distort and go weak in one channel after 3 blissful days...I hope to have it back where it belongs this week), which I find a little bright, and I know these speakers can sound much better than I've heard so far.

I bought a pair of little Mission 760i speakers last week that I didn't mention, because they're from the early 90s. They have 5 inch woofers and Mission branded Vifa tweeters (like in the last pair of 737Rs that I liked so much), and I like them so much that I ignored the Yamaha NS-690s and other awesome speakers for a couple of days, and just basked in their lively musicality.