Whoa, it's been a while, I hope all is well.

Quick update: I have new speakers, or more accurately, two pairs (new to me, anyway). Both sets are from Mission and one led t'other, as it were. I shall explain.

A while back I began modding a pair of cheap-as-chips Acoustic Solutions speakers, I got as far as building new crossovers for them plus I installed some better drivers. This turned out to be an unmitigated disaster in every conceivable way. The resulting Frankenspeakers are very difficult to drive and sound as soggy as a hog wallowing in a mud hole.

Stung by such a paltry reward for all my efforts, I did what I should have done in the first place and cast about on eBay for a small, used pair of speakers to hang off my FX Audio chip amp and it's associate Bluetooth dongle. I came across a tidy pair of Mission m70's for 25 quid plus £8 p&p and snapped them up! Long story short, I was so impressed with how 'big' the tiny m70's sound that I also bought a used pair of Mission m71's, the m70's slightly bigger brothers, to try out in the main system and they've been there ever since.

None of the components in the main system are particularly exotic (I am Mr Budget Buy, after all), and yet as a whole, the music presentation is now cohesive, accomplished and so utterly effortless that I just switch off and listen, for hours. So, if you have been wondering where I've been. now you know

It's always worth the journey, Dave, even if you had failure along the way.

Good finds on the Missions.

A tiny Gnome might consider them floorstanders, Chris, but not I 

Nah, the model is Acoustic Solutions little AV21 infinite baffle jobby which cost me all of twenty five quid new, IIRC. They were fun to play with for a while but ultimately weren't worth spending any more time on. The cabinets, being small, are actually pretty solid, and especially so after I damped and braced them internally. I may go back to them sometime in the future but for now I have found my White Whale so I am a happy chappy 

White whale?

Great - can't wait!

Hello everyone, this is the new, improved Dave. Hopefully Dave 2.0 is less of a stress head than the old one, a problem I blame on driver incompatibility. There is a LOT to discuss, so let's get down to it.

I recently discovered that we lost a seminal figure of the British hifi scene last year in Richard Dunn. I wronged Richard and he never let me forget it, a response I thoroughly deserved. Unfortunately I placed myself betwixt two angry dogs, so it was no surprise that I ended up being savaged by both of the gentlemen concerned. My one regret is that I never met Richard in person (rather than in the pressure cooker of an internet forum), because I had a lot of respect for the guy, although some may find this difficult to believe, which I completely understand. Anyway, the world is not the same without him and as such, he is sorely missed. God bless, Richard...

Now, as I mentioned in a previous post I have rediscovered Mission speakers, or more saliently, their excellent M series. Over the years I have owned (and still own in some cases) some very good speakers, new, classic and vintage, from the likes of KEF, Celestion, B&W, Monitor Audio, Realistic (Minimus 7's), Heybrook, Wharfedale and ART. All these speakers have either moved on or are in storage because they did not operate nominally within my system or my listening space. I still have the QUAD 306 and these days I stream music almost exclusively from a Huawei tablet via Bluetooth to the system, which is convenient for me and absolutely hassle free. I have subscriptions with Spotify and Prime Music, plus I occaisionally dip in and out of Tidal, although I do find this service to be a bit pricey.

My collection of M series Missions is growing: It began with the M70's, they spawned the M71's and the most recent addition are a pair of M72's. The most expensive of these were the M72's at eighty quid, and all are in excellent (if not 'as new') condition both functionally and cosmetically, and they sound FAB!, caveat being, in this room and attached to these components. Speakers with large woofers (8" or above) do not seem to work well in this listening environment, the bass seems to get lost in translation somehow. Downsizing to smaller speakers appears to have resolved this issue to the point where the M72's, in particular, deliver music with authority and agility, which is a first for me. it must be good because I can sit and listen to music for hours, whereas before a couple of albums in and I was done...

The M70's & 72's will be staying whereas I will be selling the M71's and my B&W DM2's. If you are interested in either of these speakers please let me know via a PM and we can discuss it further. Incidentally, at some point I intend to beef up the amplification to a QUAD 606, which I have been assured is a 306 on steroids, so if you have one for sale let me know, perhaps we can do a deal with one of the speaker pairs

The Skibo's were gorgeous things but they totally overpowered the room. A friend bought them off me and they sound incredible at his gaff, his listening room is far bigger and therefore better suited to them. I waxed lyrically about a lot of things back then, mainly to save face. I understand our room acoustics better now which makes choosing speakers a whole lot easier, anything with a woofer larger than six inches in diameter is a definite no-no.

I don't seem to have much to say these days which is probably for the best as Twitter has turned me into a grumpy, Trump-hating old git. 

For changes to occur in my system these days the planets need to align and the hallowed giants in charge of the Earths' tectonic machinery need to be woken from their troubled slumbers... So, stare at the heavens and hold onto yer hats because I've bought myself a single-ended EL34 based 'toob' amp, and it's pretty darned good. Oh, and it's new... 

Gonna need some advice on tube rolling from you 'toobie' types because I am a complete ingoranus when it comes this stuff...

It is a little gem Mike, it really is. Can't go wrong for £220 plus 90 quid shipping. Granted, it's only delivering 6 watts a side, however, it has no trouble driving my Mission m72's to quite insane levels in this tiny room. It is built like a tank and is entirely point to point soldered, what a bargain...