Hypothetical Question - Refurbish Mission 753 - Mainly to Use the Cabinets

[Benedict_Arnold]

So I guess like most 'er indoors's, my 'er indoors doesn't like speakers because they're usually big ugly black boxes. Speakers with decent wooden cabinets, i.e. real wood (or at least real wood veneer), over here cost an arm and a leg. In-wall speakers are out because I'm not hacking into the plasterboard to fit the speakers, let alone ripping out the ceiling or hardwood floors to run the cables.

Mission 753 speakers always had luverly [in best "Mockney" just to upset whats-his-name who doesn't like Lock Stock etc. ] cabinets. I used to have a pair of 752s before I first moved to the US 13 years ago. It struck me that buying a pair of used 753s with mint cabinets and cream-crackered [Mockney again] internals, replacing all the internals with more up-to-date stuff, rewiring with decent speaker cable, etc. etc. might do the trick, i.e. decent sound, nice cabinets and a price that won't have her reaching for my manly bits with a chainsaw.

Plan would be to use these in the family room with half-decent but ultimately run-of-the-mill AV gear, still planning on something new (probably ProAcs studio 140 Mark 2s or thereabouts) when I get the cash together to buy another Cyrus setup (he dreams)...

Anyone done this? How did it turn out?

 

[andyjm]

So I guess like most 'er indoors's, my 'er indoors doesn't like speakers because they're usually big ugly black boxes. Speakers with decent wooden cabinets, i.e. real wood (or at least real wood veneer), over here cost an arm and a leg. In-wall speakers are out because I'm not hacking into the plasterboard to fit the speakers, let alone ripping out the ceiling or hardwood floors to run the cables.

Mission 753 speakers always had luverly [in best "Mockney" just to upset whats-his-name who doesn't like Lock Stock etc. ] cabinets. I used to have a pair of 752s before I first moved to the US 13 years ago. It struck me that buying a pair of used 753s with mint cabinets and cream-crackered [Mockney again] internals, replacing all the internals with more up-to-date stuff, rewiring with decent speaker cable, etc. etc. might do the trick, i.e. decent sound, nice cabinets and a price that won't have her reaching for my manly bits with a chainsaw.

Plan would be to use these in the family room with half-decent but ultimately run-of-the-mill AV gear, still planning on something new (probably ProAcs studio 140 Mark 2s or thereabouts) when I get the cash together to buy another Cyrus setup (he dreams)...

Anyone done this? How did it turn out?

Very likely to be much more trouble than its worth. While cabinets look like random shaped boxes, the combination of cabinet / drivers / crossover are a finely balanced combination. I am sure you could get something that makes a sound, but whether it would sound any good is different question. You would probably do better to try for fleabay or similar for cheap used speakers and stick veneer on them.

If you want to scare yourself with the complexity, there are a number of homebrew speaker websites to check out. Try this to start:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/