Mission 700 Leading Edge Speakers

I picked up another pair of Mission speakers this week, a pair of 700 Leading Edge.

These are smaller a than the original Mission 700's I had and the Mission 700S model also.

This pair is much smaller and has the 7 inch woofer from the Mission Model 70 and the Vifa D19 tweeter.

The speaker is acoustically suspended and is much smaller than the original 700's, yet larger than the Model 70.

I opted to re cap the crossover with a polyester film cap with the same value. It was a pretty easy operation. I left the old cap in place as it was well glued in.

The sound is typical Mission, very alive and forward. The mid range is detailed and the mid and highs surround you and if you are right there in the music. Unlike sitting in a seat with a concert in front of you.

Mission speakers from the end of this era are exciting speakers to listen to. They are not as polite as other British loud speakers. Almost like British sound meets JBL.

These speakers remind me of the Model 70 with more bass due to a larger cabinet. These are great budget HiFi speakers that can light up any room with a great sound stage.

I did pair these with the Realistic STA-84 but found that the mid range was to dominant as this receiver is very detailed in the mid range. I was happier to listen to these speakers  with a recently acquired JVC R-S33 receiver, it was matched up way nicer.

Realistic STA-84 Receiver

I stumbled across a 1977 Realistic STA-84 receiver that was in mint condition with the original owners manual still taped to the unit.

This receiver was rated at 25 watts per channel and has a cool glide path FM in the tuner and quadraphonic sound

It was exceptionally clean when I opened the beautiful real wood veneer cover. Just a bit of dust was scattered when the compressed air hit it.

It appears to be a really well made Japanese receiver with a pretty heavy transformer and two 5600uf caps neatly in place.

The amplifier rail has Sanyo electronics installed so I wonder if Sanyo had made this to Realistic spec?

This unit shows no scratches in the face plate of the veneer case, it is absolutely mint for it's vintage.

I cleaned the pots and the volume slider with contact cleaner, this removed the scratchiness from the unit.

I also found that the "Perfect Loudness" was really muddy in the bass region and the unit sounds best when the bass and treble are at this setting.

So what a bout the sound? Well this is the second Realistic receiver that I have owned and I was impressed with the System-7 that I sold off about a year ago.

The sound from what little information there is out there that it is a warm tube like sound and that the 25 wpc are a little understated.

Once I got the system up and running I was simply astonished in how good this unit sounds. The STA-84 as I had set it up had the perfect amount of bass that was clean, very clean. Where this unit really shines is in the mid range and how well the transparency is in the music. The highs where spot on with out being brash or harsh.

I managed about 5 hours of listening time since Saturday and have run the receiver with speakers that image really well already but this amp kicked it up the sound stage to a new level. 

So far I have run mostly 2-way speakers including the B&W D5, Mission 770 Freedom 4's, Audio Spec Perseus (which are a harder pair of speakers to drive.) the EPI 120C'c (wow) and the Advent 2002's

To be honest I will have to do a side by side with the Myryad T-40 and see which one sounds better, it is that good for Realistic.

This receiver will definitely be sticking around for a bit. There is plenty of music and speaker combinations I want to explore with this unit.

The Realsitic STA-84 probably flies under the radar of most Pioneer, Kenwood and Marantz aficionados and therefor can be had for a reasonable price. This unit is well worth picking up if you come across one.