Mission 700

[What Hi-Fi?]

Mission’s second retro-inspired model provides an interesting alternative to the established class leaders.

Mission 700 : Read more

 

[FJmack]

The review says “Let us get one thing straight. These are not the Mission 770 on the cheap… the two speakers don’t share much of the same character”. Ouch! That will hurt.

The 770s cost £2000 more. Much of that will be because they are made in the UK whereas the 700s are made in Mission’s factory in China so more people will be able to afford them.
So why is Mission, a Chinese business, deliberately increasing its costs with the 770s? The review of the Chinese built 700s gives them 5 stars for build and says “fine build” so it’s not to improve the product.

I think it’s because the 770 is intended as a statement product. They could make it perfectly well in China for probably less than half the price and sell lots more but that isn’t what you do with a statement product. A statement product is something that you deliberately put a ridiculously high price on. It’s about brand image. And you pander to peoples’ prejudices, in this case unjustified prejudices against Chinese manufacturing. You don’t expect many people to be naive enough to actually buy them as they are hugely overpriced, poor value for money - even Mission has said that production of the 770s will be “limited”.

What you do want is people to buy the cheaper versions believing that you get most of the benefit of the statement product for a fraction of the price. Mission is not alone - car companies produce absurdly expensive models to show off on Top Gear etc. but almost no one buys them. They are not meant to.

Then the What HiFi review says “the two speakers don’t share much of the same character” well – ouch!

 

[infotrad]

Back in the early 80s, my B&W DM4s were stolen. I bought a pair of Mission 700s. They sounded horrible compared to the DM4s.

 

[Sliced Bread]

I hope they revise the 78 range.

I loved my 782s’.