Consolidation is a key component of the Mission technique— the company continually seeks to strengthen its range but does not necessarily achieve this through the introduction of brand new models; much less expensive in design terms, and just as profitable in the marketplace, can be a revision to an existing design. Such a re-think will typically involve new materials or manufacturing methods which allow the final product to perform a little more closely to the drawing board ideal. A case in point is the 760iSE which Keith so enjoyed. The original version of that was released in 1990. It was followed by an "i" suffix model at the end of 1991 and by the "SE" in May last year. Introduced in 1991, the 780 has now been similarly re-thought to produce what is in effect a new model, although the basic design parameters remain the same. Apart from the baffle, which I'll come to in a moment, the 8 litre cabinet is made entirely from real wood veneered 19mm thick medium density fibreboard (MDF) which in panels of this size produces a remarkably rigid enclosure. The rear panel is fractionally inset (about 1 mm) and carries a large plastics input terminal tray which sports four socket/binding posts, now gold-plated. As supplied these are twinned by heavy wire links for use with conventional two-wire cable feeds. Above the input tray a label displays the model information and serial number.

The baffle is a reinforced polypropylene injection moulding which is let into the front of the cabinet and projects some 28mm from it. Front mounted into this are the two drive units, a new, much more capable 130mm bass/midrange unit with significantly larger magnet and a "plastiflexed" paper cone terminated by a high-Q rubber-roll surround, and a 19mm polyamide ferrofluid cooled and damped dome tweeter. As is Mission's custom with their small loudspeakers, the tweeter is sited below the LF driver so as to equalise the distance from their effective radiating source points to the ear of a seated listener with the cabinets set on normal height stands. All things being equal, this can have a quite dramatic effect in the clarity and coherence of the sound in the crossover region where the two drivers share the work. The effect has to do with relative phase and is sometimes called time-alignment. Stepped baffles have been used to achieve the same result (one famous example being the 1970s B&W DM6, a fine loudspeaker whose striking looks earned it the somewhat unfortunate nickname of pregnant penguin) but this simple driver inversion is an elegantly simple alternative. If for some reason the loudspeakers have to be sited higher than usual the cabinets should be set upside down or even tilted to achieve the same effect.

The crossover is a simple 'hard-wired' six-element second-order network centred on 3-5kHz. It is mounted in a set of neat, purpose-shaped compartments on the reverse of the input terminal tray. High quality components are used, with an air-cored inductor and a film capacitor in the HF pole. The wiring to the drive units is high quality, high current capability multi-stranded copper.

Mission have come up with a clever arrangement for the protective front grille: it is also a polypropylene moulding into which an open-weave fabric is very neatly integrated. It is a tight push-fit into locating slots on the baffle and when in place becomes all of a piece with it, supplying rounded corners which help reduce diffraction effects at the baffle edges. It should be left in place.

Performance

Mission advise running-in their loudspeakers for 24 hours, which is certainly good practice and especially important for units brought indoors from the cold. They will perform well below par until they have reached room temperature and have been 'exercised' in this fashion. The 780SE is tailored to give optimum results when placed on rigid stands close (100-200mm) to the rear wall and set facing straight ahead, not toed-in. (It can also be used on a bookshelf or on Specification wall brackets, but the fixings would need to be very firm or the sound quality will be compromised.) When used on stands the top of the cabinet should be visible, for the reasons elaborated above.

To be truthful my first hour with this loudspeaker was spent more in labour than reward. It was only the incentive of having the loan of an early production pair which led me to persist with it there and then. Some experiment with the siting and setting up of all loudspeakers is important but in my experience never more so than with the 780SE which can otherwise sound rather coloured in the lower midrange. I remember its forbear getting a rough ride over this in a review in one of our contemporaries three years ago and my first reaction was that the problem must be familial. Fortunately this is not the case.

Careful attention to positioning, support (rigid stands are, I would say, mandatory) and ancillary equipment (it benefits significantly from the control exerted by a superior amplifier) transform it from the merely 'routine' into a remarkably transparent and lively performer, whose outstanding features are tremendous detail and sharp imaging. These are the most prominent characteristics of what is topically known as a 'fast' response, where very little acoustic energy is stored in the cabinet and where the loading is 'tight'. The bass, though limited in extension, is crisp and clear and it conveys a clear sense of pitch, which is a parameter often lacking with small boxes.

The 780SE presents a straightforward load and has a quite good sensitivity of 89dB/m for 2.83V (which, misleadingly I feel, equates to rather more than the standard 1 watt into this nominal 6 ohms load). It is also quite beautifully finished. Loudspeaker design is a complex juggling act involving a bewildering number of parameters and the equation becomes more complex still when the dictates of a strict budget are included. With the 780SE Mission has come up with another impressive, if slightly pernickety, performer. It is certainly another star turn in the show.