[Trippynet]

My sound system has had a complete refresh in the past year. My dad (now in his mid-70s) has been downsizing a bit, so as he didn't use his old hi-fi any more, I managed to liberate it from him. He spent quite a lot on quality/audiophile components back in the early 80s, so my amp is now a Sugden A48 Mk2. Sugden are still going today and are a low-volume manufacturer of high-end gear (their current amps start at £3k and go up from there). This one is solid state, but with a pure Class A pre-amp (a rarity these days). Sound quality from it is just beautiful, and to be honest I dig the orange strip on the front.

Got to admit, I like the nice touch that the manual for it includes a complete schematic of the circuitry

The "new" turntable is a Dunlop Systemdek transcription turntable with a custom Infinity Black Widow tone-arm. From what I've read, this is considered on a par with the legendary Linn Sondek LP12. I did replace the old Goldring cartridge/stylus it had with my existing Ortofon OM30 from my previous turntable after doing some comparisons and finding the Ortofon to sound better IMO (it was a £260 stylus when I bought it ten years back).

Lastly, the speakers are a pair of early Linn Isobarik Saras. Apparently the later ones declined in quality, but these earlier models certainly blow away the Goodmans Ministers I had before. The Isobarik chamber in them means they produce amazingly deep bass for a speaker of this size, and the treble is pretty crisp as well. The original front grilles had sadly disintegrated through age, but I found a guy online who manufacturers replicas that match the look/design of the originals, so these have been replaced. Cabinets were spruced up simply by gently rubbing the walnut with linseed oil to hide the odd scratch they'd picked up over time.

As a child, I remember growing up with this amp/turntable/speakers in our house and remember the great sound the setup made. It's a nice, nostalgic feeling to now own them 40 years on, still sounding as awesome as I remember from my younger days. My dad is also pleased to see his old kit being brought back into life and appreciated decades later.

   
   
   

[Irinikus]

Very nice setup!

I also like to look of the orange line on the front of your amp, it gives it a nice retro looK!

One of the first to implement the Isobaric concept

[Trippynet]

Indeed, it's an interesting concept sticking two drivers in parallel into a sealed chamber, but it does mean a remarkably punchy low-end for a mid-sized speaker unit. I'll not lie, you can get modern units that will definitely beat these for sound quality, but as a retro speaker they still sound remarkably sharp to my ears.

[Irinikus]

The latest edition to me hi-fi collection are a pair of MISSION 753's.









These speakers have significant nostalgic value to me, as hearing a pair of them in a local hi-fi shop left quite an impression on me as a kid!

So it's a pair of speakers that I've always been on the lookout for, and it's also interesting to review them now that I've come of age!



What I've done is fitted them into my system with the Classe CAM-600's (600 Watt Mono-blocks) driving the mids and woofers and the Ayon Spirit III Class A Tube Amp driving the tweeters, with the crossover point on the Torus Infrasonic Generators set up to match the bottom end of the low frequency output of the 753's.

They're sounding pretty decent in this setup, obviously they're not comparable to the B&W 802 D2's, but for what they are, they're really impressive little speakers, and are a welcome addition to my collection.

The crossover setup for the 753's is very interesting in that they're bi-wirable, but they've chosen to pair the low frequency units with the midrange units and have the tweeter driven by its own input:



The interesting thing here is that if I mute the Ayon Tube Amp while the music is playing I loose up to 70% of the information that system's outputting! I've always known that tweeters can play down low, but whats really surprising here is how much of the information that the speaker outputs is actually output through the tweeter! (I've never witnessed this before and will make a video demonstrating this in the future.)

The 753's crossovers themselves are kind of cheesy, in that they feature ferrite-core inductors, electrolytic capacitors and sand-cast resistors. (All the Bad Stuff!!! So there's much room of much improvement by rebuilding the crossovers with high spec components - air-core inductors, polymer capacitors and high quality resistors.)

Here are some example pics of the crossovers found in the 753's (Not my pics!)





The type of crossover you'd expect to find in a pair of speakers that cost £699 new in 1993!

The 802's in contrast are also bi-wirable speakers, but they've combined the tweeter and the midrange unit to one input and the low frequency units to the other.





Here are some example pics of the crossovers found in the 802 D2's (Not my pics)







These crossover units are obviously built with far better components.

[vishnu]

That looks like a 5-inch HEAT round!

[Irinikus]

That looks like a 5-inch HEAT round!

It's a 68mm SNEB Rocket.

[vishnu]

That looks like a 5-inch HEAT round!

It's a 68mm SNEB Rocket.

Oh wow, cool! 

As I've posted here before, I'm a lifelong gunner, I co-hold five United States patents for novel gun propulsion technology.

[Irinikus]

That looks like a 5-inch HEAT round!

It's a 68mm SNEB Rocket.

Oh wow, cool! 

As I've posted here before, I'm a lifelong gunner, I co-hold five United States patents for novel gun propulsion technology.

I know that you’re an applied physicist working for BAE Systems, and that you’ve been working on the capacitor banks and pulse forming network for their rail gun project!

[vishnu]

I've always said that as long as we're going to recruit 18 year-olds, who, let's face it, don't know any better, to join our military and fight our conflicts, that we're obligated to provide them with the best materials and equipment to accomplish those missions. So you can argue all you want about policy and position, but those teenagers need the very best we can supply them with