Up/Re Secondlifeing

[Mr Gus]

Mission / Cyrus was my game back in the day, which models you talking about?

[Bugtownboy]

Mission 780 bi-wired to a Pioneer A400X amp with Pioneer Pioneer S801 CD player, Tibo DAB and Pro-Ject turntable.

[Mr Gus]

OK, you are likely referring to the heavy mdf & veneer shelf speaker (rather than the latter modern version)

The D-19 tweeter ever been hand tightened / a new compression gasket put on it?
Ditto the LF-U.
& tweak the x-over screws at the back whilst at it.

The BAF wadding sometimes sits forward, poke it back with a screwdriver to the back wall of the cabinet, it was essentially folded to sit there but project slightly forward at the bottom (support)

the grilles if still perfect are designed to be slid carefully off by the fins (ease it forward with utmost caution)

The bitumen absorbers will be sitting in place still (left & right sides respectively, if you poked about)
looking at the rear, any smooth heat affected plastic will oft (top right as the bi-wire connectors go) will be a result of hard driving usually super heating capacitors etc, they are hot glued in position (just cast your eye)

What always concerned me & something I got changed was the hot-melt glue which early on showed signs of going brittle over time so I insisted on a more flexible one for all production thereafter, it results in some instances the baffle dropping forward, air leak (not good for sound) & worst cases horrible vibration, this could be bodged by a new type hot melt glue flood retrospectively (always a "regardless of warranty" fix) ..a lot of customers liked the added grounding this repair offered.

The singular baffle bass reflex port on these I never liked, it was an overlooked area, & produced "chuff" so I used to ask customers the rundown (often blaming it on bloody what hi-fi as a result of their bad recommendations for pairing kit, the AX-400 rings a bell (but it has been SO long) as to pairing sensitivity.

Anyhow, recommend you get some medium grit, fine grit paper & reach in to smooth the flat plastic moulding at the back of the port out to lessen chuff (small cabinets can only achieve so much) ..did you ever get a mary black mission cd? it was one of many I used to check i'd knocked enough sharp edge off a port tube.

Thankfully the 752 & 753 ports were far better mouldings & much larger air volume cabinets so way smoother output, but I used to have polite running battles to get changes in various ranges.

My favourite small speakers were the 761i (early 90's) utilising the same lfu's as the 753 (they were beasts) ..& as mentioned previously pushed the use of aerogel doped cones with the nose cone cap (very different back then) ..it was superb for the 752 & the 750 LE ..both which I wish I still had.

Your 780's would have had the standard mission speaker cable before it got cheapened, on the x-overs.
If you need to source a replacement tweeter they were "peerless" & clipped out, the ferro fluid may well have dried up & if driven hard gone a bit gritty (pan fat with bits in) ..they were cheap & simple to replace, you'd need to solder in.

If performing maintainence, please be careful of the cone centre of the LFU so it doesn't go off centre, the adhesive for the rubber went straight to metal & may have started lifting, OR, lift if you tighten the screws & it is sitting against the screw (it was a fine balance, time will have made it harder) ..but the sound will obviously be "flappy" (as it lifts) to a NEW set of ears.

I'm just thankful you didn't say the mid 90's "73" series, budget, & no end of problems, didn't make them properly too budget conscious, thin walls, nasty.... "you f***ed the brand & our customers" as I used to rail at management & show them the estimated cost & warehousing of spares anticipated for a 20 year product servicing. GRRR!

[Bugtownboy]

Yep, the v heavy ones. Would think 10-15Kg.

Thanks for the extensive info - they’re fine to my ears, so I’ll probably leave well alone

[Mr Gus]

Think they were 12.5kg per pair

Audio screws "allegedly" should be checked every 40 hours of use, ..whoever got that out there is talking ollocks, once every 18 months generally enough (& there were AROUND 40 on a 753) ..at least check your D19 tweeter, if that has worked loose i'd consider a hand screwdriver just to tweak em all.

I was listening to music up to 80 hours per week, from my office kit, & lots of playing with others. (used to sleep in my anechoic chamber)

Dare I ask what you play?

(We likely had 50,000 mary black cd's printed, it was no BS that Henry developed the 780 around her voice / recordings, & it as a very good reference for me, to this day I still use it) ..it does highlight the port issue to me which is why I made noise, in those days I used to curse W.Hi-Fi for their reference audio recommendations, ...a bunch of advertising based spend revenue "star givers" waxing lyrical, & lazy tossers.

The least credible but most read mag

[pudding]

I don't think I've ever checked any screws on any of my speakers over the years?! Might get the screwdrivers out and have a little look-see, or would it be obviously audibly if one/some were loose?

I started off reading and fantasising over the What-HiFi mags and recommendations back late 90's/early noughties, abd buying mainly from Richer Sounds, before I really started using forums and the internet. Now everything I buy is really influenced by AVForums, and particularly what is selling second hand on there. Very happy with my system now.

[Mr Gus]

There is a lot of utter waffle at the lower end of the hi fi market, the older guys hi-fi choice et al were a lot more credible and approachable, the WHF crowd were swing door tits in the main (so much that latterly when one was given a job to write, I had to do it all for him) FFS ..because he knew dick & could write even less (it was in essence a copy & paste range instruction manual & the blurb on early 2000's web pages, wastrel.

Without Richer catalogue in the middle they'd have been royally screwed at WHF towers.

(A mark of the people there was, they never picked up the phones, they never gave kit back till I tackled them, you've got to remember that some of the beardstokers Audiophile reviewers had so much kit they could have been crushed & never found again, ..for some unknown reason our lovely salesgirls (one scared the hell out of me even, an eye-browless skin-head as was) couldn't deal with the jammed files of loaner review stock that really needed accounting for, ..as with any sale, approach prepared, (made work for my own back doing that, ..stupid gus) very few reviewers live in spacious mansions after all.
"any kit getting seriously in your way that you've finished with or need for longer comparisons, need any boxes & protectors" ..is all it actually took, ..of course I was in exactly the same boat, my workshop was rammed, the meeting table couldn't chairs had speakers on em, I never sat down for years. tidy neat office space? no chance.

[Mr Gus]

I don't think I've ever checked any screws on any of my speakers over the years?! Might get the screwdrivers out and have a little look-see, or would it be obviously audibly if one/some were loose?

I started off reading and fantasising over the What-HiFi mags and recommendations back late 90's/early noughties, abd buying mainly from Richer Sounds, before I really started using forums and the internet. Now everything I buy is really influenced by AVForums, and particularly what is selling second hand on there. Very happy with my system now.

I'd notice, & i'm deaf (thing is a sweep is easier to do than cue up music that makes kit act funny)

If anyone has screws into a plastic moulded baffle go easy when resistance is felt, & for screw ups there are matchsticks & hot-melt, a likely reviver of most archival kit that has become "irksome"