Mission 753

[tonistefanovski]

Dear all,
I own an excellent pair of Mission 753 (not a Freedom model). Could someone know something about tuning up their performance?
Regards,
Toni,

[sreten]

Hi,

I'd say the only thing you can do is investigate swapping
the tweeter, or tweaking the crossover to the tweeter.

I think the first version was a bit relentless in the treble,
and the later version somewhat more laid back.

A minor tweak would be stuffing the centre one of the
three ports, may or may not suit your room better,
if it does you will get slightly deeper and faster bass.

/sreten.

[greenie512]

I owned a pair of 753 (late 90's) for about six years and was happy with high and mid ranges but never thought they went low enough. Adding a sub helped a lot but always thought they missed that “magical” something?

Also found they couldn’t cope with complex electronic music like The Flaming Lips – Yoshima Battles the Pink Robots – that just freaked them out.

I tried some minor tweaks but Mission probably got the best configuration anyway. I then splashed out and built the Seas Thor Transmission Lines and these made the 753’s sound like a bag of potatoes??????

[sreten]

Hmm....


The 753's I've heard made a much better job of boogying along with
the music than a lot of other speakers, without being hypercritical of
the quality of the source.

Really low bass is given up for higher volume capability further up,
and with the high overall sensitivity, good volume with modest amps.

Having said that I think I've only heard the Freedom version.

It is true the basic limitations of the bass/mid driver means
that they can't be tweaked to provide audio perfection.

But I found them a very enjoyable speaker, with good bass
timing, and capable of playing a lot louder than any small
5" bass/mid+tweeter loudspeaker.

Possibly investigate floor coupling, blutacking them to
stone / concrete slabs to improve bass and stability.

/sreten.

[greenie512]

Sreten - I'm not saying the 753 were a bad speaker, overall I enjoyed mine for 6 years - you wouldn't keep a pair that long if they didn't do something right. At the time of buying they were the best I auditioned in that price range and I listened to a lot of models.

No, it was just I wanted to move up in quality from the 753's and to seriously improve on them I'd have had to spend a huge amount at retail, so I built myself the Thors.

Now the clarity and presentation of Seas top of the range drivers is “stunnin” and make everything else I’ve heard sound “veiled” and “slow”. Now some people do not like the Thors for various reasons and say they are a “hard” sound – but with my environment, setup or ears I do not hear that so I’m absolutely sold on these speakers but they are merciless on badly recorded CDs. However no speaker is perfect and in my bass light room I need a sub woofer to fill in the very lows.

My 753 were pre the Freedom models and I never heard the newer versions so perhaps they were even better.

[Iron-Wizard]

Some almost free upgrade for your 753 is to take the drive units out and all the foam linning and varnish or paint the enclosure on the inside, you can even use a glue neat if you like, after that you can use that butimus stuff, its just black tar in a sheet forum.

You can get better quality componets on the cross over, up grade the wiring as well.

This will cost you very little and give some improvement in quality, you could also fill the base with sand or lead short if you like.

We had a pair of Freedoms in the garage for years, very nice sound considering what they cost us.

[sreten]

Originally posted by Iron-Wizard
Some almost free upgrade for your 753 is to take the drive units out and all the foam linning and varnish or paint the enclosure on the inside, you can even use a glue neat if you like, after that you can use that butimus stuff, its just black tar in a sheet forum.

Hi,

IMO the cabinet of the 753's is so sturdy a single layer of bitumen will have little effect.

To really have an effect you'd need around a 10mm layer - not really practical.

/sreten.

[Iron-Wizard]

Hi,

At the time the whole street outside the garage was being retarded with bitumen asphalt type material, we asked one of the workers if they would tar some pacthes in our yard and they said no problem, it was then I got him too pour some into the Mission enclosures, the drive units were blown at the time and i was waiting for replacement from the UK, the boxes almost doubled in weight after that and they stunk for a while but it made a difference in the focus of the lower mid bass, i know you can buy the bitumen in pellets and melt it in a old pot and do the same thing, the pads that are sold buy hi-fi shops are like a cheaper version and dont bond as well as the hot liquid version.

If you do melt the bitumen pellets in a pot do not even think about doing it in your home or your wife or partner will kill you!

[phase_accurate]

AFAIK bitumen has some nasty properties. Don't let them dry (or better outgas) for one month ... rather let them dry for two months !!

Regards

Charles

[drywall34]

i have dug out my old 753's from the loft and the tweeters dont work.. suprise, suprise. I know that the 753's tweeters were very prone to blow as they are the second set ive had in mine.i have bought a second hand pair with working tweeters but tatty looking. my question is as follows. Should i replace the tweeters or should i replace the crossover aswell to be on the safe side as i think the ones i bought are a later model. many thanks dan.