Mission 752 Freedoms - Advise Improving Them - Better Cross Overs Etc

[RobbieGong]

Looking for some advise from the learned brethren. Does anyone have experience around fitting better crossovers, internal wire etc as a way of improving a stock speaker. I'm thinking about this with my Freedoms - What are the things to look to change / replace ?
Oh ! I may also be looking for someone who knows what they are doing, who would be willing to do as a paid mini project :)

[Reffc]

Hi Robert

if the 752s are of original vintage then they could well benefit from some crossover upgrades by now. Caps in particular would probably do with replacing as Mission used a combination of Polyesters and Electrolytics. The latter may have dried up by now and it'd do no harm to replace the caps with polypropelyne ones such as the Claritycap ESAs for reasonable money. The crossover for that speaker is mounted to the inside of the terminal block so not a difficult job to remove and upgrade. As long as the drivers are sound and nothing else needs doing, this could freshen up the sound for a modest sum and come resale time might even improve used values too as its a like for like value replacement (I would caution against messing with crossover value changes as Mission knew what they were doing). The internal wiring could be improved too although it's unlikely to reap many benefits. Happy to help if you could get them to me!

[DSJR]

The Freedoms had three drivers as I recall and although there was nothing particularly wrong with them (as there was in the hugely compromised [IMO] original 752's - cab volume maxed out too much and 'that' tweeter!), they never really 'got it together' for some reason.....

Bearing in mind what you'd get for them second hand, you could try seeing if there are any electrolytic caps in the crossover (I never saw inside a pair) worth changing. By this time, the internal wiring should be more than good enough and maybe you should experiment with positioning, bass units firing in or out too, to see what differences you can make - far more I suspect than bodging them ;)

Me? I'd flog 'em and look for some Spendor S6's, 'E' or not, both are in a different league IMO...... the reproduced music far more convincing :)

[RobbieGong]

Thanks Paul / David, Info and comments much appreciated guys :) The Freedoms are two way - silk dome tweeter and Aerogel mid bass driver. The silk dome on the 752 Freedoms is nice and much better to the ears than the metal dome tweeter of the original 752 which I and others found to be bright, tizzy / waspish and dominant. The mid / bass driver on both is the same and produces very good mid range. I hear you re: the maxed out cab volume which i've heard before. I do think it's time for me to move on from these as I've upgraded my Techie big time amongst other things and feel the speakers have been left behind a bit. I've read good things about the Spendor S5e's and the S6e's as a good step up from the Missions so I'm tempted to try and get hold of some S6e's. If they were good I'd prefer black finish but cant seem to see the S6e's in black :scratch: I like what I've read about the 6e's though as I do like standout / quality mids....

[sumday]

as my 752's were getting on I opened them up to do the "rotate the bass driver" thing.
looking inside I noticed mastic damping panels on the walls behind the driver but no sound absorbing wadding.
as I had some 1 1/2 inch synthetic wadding knocking about I thought I'd add some behind the driver and see what happened.
the end result was a slight improvement in bass definition and control at high volume.
give it a go..see what you think.
the bass unit is a close fit so try not to damage the leatherette finsh on the baffle!!!

[istari_knight]

Can only echo what others have said, pop one out & take a piccy Robert :thumbsup:

[DSJR]

I must have been thinking of the 782;s, sorry!

The Aerogel driver may work better into a smaller cabinet volume - Mission used the maximum volume possible according to Robin Marshall (Epos) and this driver cone was a bit floppy and underdamped, the bass going all over the place depending on the room and an object lesson in how not to load a bass driver (passive vs active be damned here under these circumstances). The suggestion about filling may well help a lot I think and at least this is reversible :)

[RobbieGong]

I must have been thinking of the 782;s, sorry!

The Aerogel driver may work better into a smaller cabinet volume - Mission used the maximum volume possible according to Robin Marshall (Epos) and this driver cone was a bit floppy and underdamped, the bass going all over the place depending on the room and an object lesson in how not to load a bass driver (passive vs active be damned here under these circumstances). The suggestion about filling may well help a lot I think and at least this is reversible :)

I totally hear you Dave - I find the detail, imaging and mids are a plus on the 752's as is the silk dome tweeter. On the negative, Bass is a bit undefined and fluffy at times, as oppossed to tuneful and tight.
Pity you guys are all a bit far from me. I'd love someone who knows what they are doing to fit better cross overs / caps and a bit of damping for me as I feel that would reap some benefit and cheaper than trying to find funds for some Spendor 6se's :)

[Audioman]

The caps on 752 freedoms should be OK (they aren't really old enough). I have the original 752 and they are generally considered better. MD tweeter once run in is not overly bright and they had the sloping baffle dropped probably for cost reasons - also isn't the tweeter below the mid/bass on the freedom ? - therefore not at optimum height IMO. Bass is tight rather than fat and woolly on my models but can be fuller with the right amp. I don't know if they messed too much with the original design with the Freedom to be honest but the original was a Henry Azima design (before selling off the company to concentrate on the Next development) and Mission did know what they were doing at the time. I compared mine to bigger and more expensive concurrent designs and I would judge they beat most up to around £1K at the time. I'm pretty sure would have to spend at least £2K on new speakers to get a really worthwhile improvement. I think they suit smallish rooms and near wall positioning (18 inches) and may prove disappointing in a largish space. Also benefit from bi-wiring.