Cyrus 782 Loudspeakers

[Robert]

782p


Landed a pair of these a few days ago. (not my pic but same finish)

There were three models in the Mission Cyrus original range introduced I believe in 1989. The little Cyrus 780 which was a souped-up version of the deservedly very popular little Mission 760, the Cyrus 781 and the 782. The two larger models use the same drivers, a single 7" bass driver in the 781, twin units in the 782. However the latter has a larger, heftier cabinet and is, crucially, closed box.

And it's quite some box.
I've said on here many times that I dislike MDF 'speaker cabinets.
Well thankfully Cyrus agreed with the 782 since while the baffle is 1" MDF, the rest of the cabinet is high density chipboard, cross braced, bitumen damped and well lagged. Each 782 weights in at 13kg.

Sensitivity is surprisingly high at 91.5dB, however the 8 Ohm bass drivers are wired in parallel and therefore this is a 4 Ohm load, dropping to 3 Ohms minimum in the upper bass. That said I've encountered no problems driving them with a 70s vintage 25w Marantz receiver or a tiny 13w cap coupled Pioneer amp.

The sound is not what you'd necessarily expect from a Mission/Cyrus product.
It's rich, deep and very sweet through the upper mids. The overall tonality is more classic Spendor/ Harbeth than typical Mission. Great vocal quality.
A clue as to why can be seen in both the Stereophile measurements and my own quick and dirty room plot. A subtly down-tilted response with a distinct presence dip - what many refer to as the BBC or 'Grundy' dip.

However, the bottom end is decidedly not cast in the BBC monitor mould.
It's tight and agile, bouncing along nicely when the programme demands. It doesn't go super low, but the roll-off is mild and the inevitable room gain gives a reassuring weight to grand orchestral pieces. Not a trace of one note boom.

These days I'm super critical of 'speakers using cones in boxes, having been spoilt for several years now by Quad ESLs. I immediately hear the box tuning, the cone colourations and the grain/rasp in the crossover area on voice reproduction. So far I haven't had the urge to remove the 782s - indeed they are turning out to be proper little charmers.

So well worth the punt for £75.
The drivers are perfect and unmarked. Sadly the cabinets appear to have been dragged through the streets, and while structurally fine, cosmetically they are a mess. I'll re-veneer these if they stay.

Stereophile loved them overall - though they reported a slightly lean low end which I find odd given how mine sound and the measurements. Probably a room thing.
My measurements, made at 1m on the tweeter axis with the 'speaker raised and pulled to the middle of the room, correlate closely with the Stereophile result.

....and just look at that pair match - yes that's two traces overlaid. Not bad for 25 year old 'speakers!

Stereophile link: https://www.stereophile.com/content/mission-cyrus-782-loudspeaker



1m on tweeter axis. Pair. In room clear of boundaries and smoothed:
782 pair match

 

[NeilR]

My brother still owns a pair of the Cyrus 781 single driver version that he has had from new since the late 80s. I always thought they were great speakers and much more refined than the more budget Mission models.

As you say, the cabinets are extremely solid and well made.

 

[Werner]

Lovely. One of the speakers I lusted for as an impecunious student.

 

[Werner]

Lovely. One of the speakers I lusted for as an impecunious student.

 

[cj66]

The 781 was one of the very few products from the house of Mission/Cyrus that I actually liked.

 

[Robert]

Lovely. One of the speakers I lusted for as an impecunious student.

As a fellow ESL user, you'll appreciate the difficulty adjusting to cones and boxes. These 782s make that task easier than most. Worth landing a pair.

 

[Tony L]

Never heard of these let alone heard them, though a Mission/Cyrus speaker without a hole in the cab is a very rare thing so worthy of a look! Is the tweeter any good? Response looks surprisingly decent, though I guess you've used a lot of smoothing.

I really liked early white-faced Missions, the 700, 770 etc, though haven't heard any Cyrus speakers that have impressed. I haven't heard many at all, and most have been either real budget jobs, or slim floorstanders (which are a whole genre I tend to dislike). The ones I've heard tended to be small, bright, forward, lean and boomy all at the same time, i.e. as far from a BBC balance as one could imagine! I understand some of the more expensive stand-mounts were rather better though.

 

[Robert]

Never heard of these let alone heard them, though a Mission/Cyrus speaker without a hole in the cab is a very rare thing so worthy of a look! Is the tweeter any good? Response looks surprisingly decent, though I guess you've used a lot of smoothing.

I really liked early white-faced Missions, the 700, 770 etc, though haven't heard any Cyrus speakers that have impressed. I haven't heard many at all, and most have been either real budget jobs, or slim floorstanders (which are a whole genre I tend to dislike). The ones I've heard tended to be small, bright, forward, lean and boomy all at the same time, i.e. as far from a BBC balance as one could imagine! I understand some of the more expensive stand-mounts were rather better though.

Mission/Cyrus are all over the place when it comes to a house sound.
The early white belly stuff was designed by co founder Farad Azima and he did the voicing. Later stuff was designed by industry names such as Robin Marshall (Epos) and Peter Comeau (Heybrook and onwards). So you tend to get a sprinkling of rather nice designs amongst the plethora of mediocrity spanning 40 years. Scary isn't it - Mission must be celebrating their 40th birthday about now!

Other notable Mission speakers IME are the little Mission 70 from the mid 80s (another closed box) and the 750LE 25th anniversary model - a lovely little stand mount designed by Marshall.

The tweeter in the 782 (and 781) is a textured fabric dome rather than the plastic domes used on some cheaper Missions. It has a Mission designed face plate with a shallow waveguide but I suspect the unit is built by Vifa or Seas. Sounds very nice in this configuration. Cyrus in the late 80s was still owned and run by Azima, and I can hear similarities between the old 770 and 782 in the midband voicing.

 

[Werner]

As a fellow ESL user, you'll appreciate the difficulty

Actually I haven't used my 63s in years. My ProAc D40s are much better. Lasat week I got the ESL-63s out again, preparing for (an attempt at) selling. Didn't change my mind.

 

[Robert]

Actually I haven't used my 63s in years. My ProAc D40s are much better. Lasat week I got the ESL-63s out again, preparing for (an attempt at) selling. Didn't change my mind.

They look great and I bet they sound lovely. Mind you for £6K+ I should hope so!

 

[RustyB]

[

The tweeter in the 782 (and 781) is a textured fabric dome rather than the plastic domes used on some cheaper Missions. It has a Mission designed face plate with a shallow waveguide but I suspect the unit is built by Vifa or Seas.

I would put money on Vifa.

You may be able to make them even better with some crossover/wiring tweaks.

For my money Mission's finest effort was the 753/753F.

Weighing in at 22 kgs, the cabinet was built to a standard way beyond the norm for a speaker selling for less than 800 quid.

They are fast, punchy, efficient and communicative.

The original 753 had varying levels of tweeter attenuation (all wrong!), but once that's fixed, they are fine.

Other notable successes were the 70.2, ,original 770, later 737 Renaissance, and the 760/780 twins.

Mission also produced a pile of dross obviously informed by the marketing department.

 

[Robert]

[

The tweeter in the 782 (and 781) is a textured fabric dome rather than the plastic domes used on some cheaper Missions. It has a Mission designed face plate with a shallow waveguide but I suspect the unit is built by Vifa or Seas.

I would put money on Vifa.

You may be able to make them even better with some crossover/wiring tweaks.

For my money Mission's finest effort was the 753/753F.

Weighing in at 22 kgs, the cabinet was built to a standard way beyond the norm for a speaker selling for less than 800 quid.

They are fast, punchy, efficient and communicative.

The original 753 had varying levels of tweeter attenuation (all wrong!), but once that's fixed, they are fine.

Other notable successes were the 70.2, ,original 770, later 737 Renaissance, and the 760/780 twins.

Mission also produced a pile of dross obviously informed by the marketing department.

Yes definitely agree on the 753 and heard them often when current. Never got to audition the F version though. IIRC I attended a dealer sponsored Mission event to showcase the 75 series back in the day.

I owned the little 751 from the same series for a few years and that was also excellent IMO.

 

[flatpopely]

Other notable Mission speakers IME are the little Mission 70 from the mid 80s (another closed box) and the 750LE 25th anniversary model - a lovely little stand mount designed by Marshall.

I got a pair of these for £30, drivers were all perfect. A bit of a strip down, clean and reassemble and they sound lovely on the end of my JVC A-X3.

 

[YNWOAN]

Blimey, those foam roll-surrounds are in good condition!

 

[Tony L]

There was a fashion in a part of Smithdown Rd Liverpool to stack Mission 70s, top pair upside down to keep the tweeters together. IIRC they considered two pairs of Mission 70s the best speaker at that price point (I was never convinced!).

 

[flatpopely]

I heard 70s for the first time at the Last Drop Inn at Bolton show.
Truly gobsmacked at them, they still sound good now if not quite how I remember them!

 

[Robert]

I heard 70s for the first time at the Last Drop Inn at Bolton show.
Truly gobsmacked at them, they still sound good now if not quite how I remember them!

They sound really tight and coherent. Very expressive through the mids.
In fact they major on the flat earth attributes so I can understand why you like them.

I recall the cabinet design being the focus of some attention back in the day. The way the two halves press together shobox style.

 

[RustyB]

AFAICR the 70.2's were a bit better.

But in any case the 70 was a clever bit of lateral thinking cabinet-wise, and one of those rare speakers where the end result greatly exceeded the sum of their modest Vifa parts.

The original 70 had the woofer direct coupled, I think the 70.2 had a more conventional crossover.

Vifa had a knack of making inexpensive paper cone mid-bass units that could punch way above their weight (eg 753).

The most extreme application of this is the Living Voice range, where Kevin Scott used very cheap steel-framed Vifa C17's with increasingly exotic Scanspeak tweeters as you move up the range.

The M18, a driver that retailed for US$50, found itself used in some pretty high-end designs, such as the Ruark Equinox and Totem Tabu, inevitably paired with tweeters costing much more.

 

[flatpopely]

Yes the cabinet is a clever idea.

 

[Robert]

Ah, particle board, usually a better sounding choice than MDF IME.

Lovely simple design, sometimes that's best.
They sound a bit AR18-ish which is no bad thing