Old Speakers vs New

[paulyboy233]

Hi All,

I have a "friend" who's looking at getting some new speakers after owning a pair of Mission (780's we think) for the last 18 years.

His question to me is: will buying a new pair of similar speakers give gains in performance, as when he bought them they were in the midst of the cd age, now getting some new boxes for the digital age, would that be such a difference?

 

[CnoEvil]

Back in the day I owned some Mission 770s, so I have some idea of what he has at the moment.

To give a meaningful answer, we need a little more info:

- What is the partnering equipment?
- How much is he prepared to spend?
- What sort of music does he like?
- Size of room and how it's decorated?
- How he likes the music presented? ie. warm/bright/lean/detailed/smooth/exciting etc
- Standmount or Floostander?

The short answer is it should be possible to get an improvement without spending a fortune.

 

[lindsayt]

If your friend does find a pair of modern bookshelf speakers that sound better than his Mission 780's it will be down to the fact that the better sounding speakers have better quality drivers, or are better executed in their design or balance of compromises. It will have nothing to do with them being new. It is just as likely that he could find a pair of older or same age speakers that he'd prefer to his Mission 780's. There's very little correlation between age of speakers and sound quality.

 

[jonathanRD]

I still use my 780's on Atacama stands, with a Rega Apollo CD player and Rega Brio amp plus Chord Crimson interconnect and Chord Carnival Silverscreen biwire speaker cables. The 780's were purchased many years ago when we moved into our current home. They were ideal for our dining room which is 3.7m x 3.7m.

However, after buidling an extension, (the new 'music room' is 4m wide by 5m long) I felt that I needed floor standers to do the room justice and I assumed that new speakers would be great.

I home auditioned Tannoy DC6T's and Rega RS3's which while I liked both, (I will probably eventually get the RS3's) both my son and my better half commented;

They both agreed that the demo'd speakers sounded great, but were they really worth an extra £800 over the Mission 780's?

Because the rest of my equipment is relatively new, (the Brio being the oldest) the Missions are my next obvious upgrade and then the Brio - but how do you reconcile whether spending £1200 is worth it?

I'm happy with my 780's, but I will upgrade when I have the cash.

But as always, you need to set a budget and then research and demo, demo and demo.

 

[lindsayt]

With hi-fi, if you are in any doubt about whether a component justifies the extra cost over what you've already got, then don't buy it. Wait for something that sounds better and will cost you nothing after you've sold your existing kit, or wait for something that leaves you in no doubt whatsoever that it's worth the extra money.