richards13
pfm Member
What British made speakers for £1350 look like good value to you, any you can recommend? ATC at that price have cabinets from the Far East?
New Mission 770!
- Thread starter Ptah
- Start date
What British made speakers for £1350 look like good value to you, any you can recommend? ATC at that price have cabinets from the Far East?
sunbeamgls
pfm Member
Not at all. The originals were very thin walled cheap and nasty chipboard with a cardboard tube for a port (and I say this as an admirer of the way they sounded back then). The new ones are a very different beast in terms of design philosophy, cabinet rigidity and materials, build quality and likely driver quality. There is essentially no direct comparison.
Nah, I’m shallow and reject them on the basis that they look like What Hifi group test runners up from 1989 in the ‘up to £150’ category…
I inspected the Mission 770 in the flesh when I went to collect my mains power cable at the store yesterday. Although the build quality is decent, overall they look cheap to me especially the cabinet. I don't blame the price as the cost of new hifi has increased significantly throughout the years. They look more like £1,000 than £3,500 to me but then everyone needs to make a profit and things are getting expensive these days so the price tag is comprehensible.
I didn't listen to the 770 or any other speaker in the showroom as I have no interest in new hifi anymore other than cables and accessories.
I was about to say pure nonsens
Would appreciate if you can clarify which part is regarded as nonsense? Is it about the 770 looking more like £1,000 than £3,500 or the MSRP has taken into consideration profits?
The real wood cabinet of the 770 looks like vinyl wrap to me and is certainly a step below the quality of say Harbeth/Graham.
eevo1969
pfm Member
I believe he’s saying the price is pure nonsense but I could be mistaken.
My first thought because you considered them 1/3 or less looking value, in the same sentence you say price is comprehensible ?
That sounded nonsens but wouldn't be offensive against you.
IMO these speakers are crazy expensive for what you get.
Right, thanks for the clarification. So it's supposedly the contradictory statement I've made. Comprehensible is not the same as accepted. I can understand why the MSRP may be priced to a certain level, but my thoughts remain the same in that the speakers look rather cheap at their asking price, to me around £1,000. Perhaps they sound spectacular and £3,500 may be fully warranted.
Exactly what I meant.
The speakers are probably very expensive of several reasons:
1. They are assembled in UK
2. Brand has good reputation and #770 edition bring good memories to potential customers
3. Profit demand are getting higher these days, - while manufacture cost already have reached their minimum, due to changes and savings in manufacture, - higher retail prices added.
sunbeamgls
pfm Member
They're nothing like the originals in terms of build quality and sound quality.
It IS a branding exercise to invoke nostalgia, but they're still several leagues better than the originals in many ways.
Tony L
Administrator
The 770 was never a starter speaker, I’m sure it cost at least as much as the equivalent sized BBC box from Rogers, Spendor etc. There was a whole range below it (700, 707, 737).
I don’t think the pricing is out of line with the rest of the market, it is priced about the same as a Harbeth Compact 7, Graham LS5/9 etc which are what I’d assume were its prime competitors. It is a lot, but UK made niche-market audio kit is never going to be cheap.
PS It is always unwise to compare UK, US or Japanese made kit with the highly distorted market of kit manufactured within the Chinese communist dictatorship. That is hugely subsidised by cheap labour and state influence.