MISSION SX5 -Floor Standing Loudspeakers

Mission loudspeakers have always been known for their elegance and stunning aesthetics, both in critical listening tests and for the Mission iconic style. Aiming for perfection in musical performance and in the design aesthetic, we have created a range of loudspeakers that are capable of achieving a level of sonic accuracy and realism appropriate to the Mission heritage.

Every speaker in the Mission SX Series is designed to deliver maximum sonic performance for minimum outlay in a practical design that’s purpose-built for modern living. Every model is specifically designed to work well in a variety of placements, even when positioned close to a rear wall, making the speakers easy to position in typical rooms. The Mission SX Series promises to bring a new level of musicality and is engineered to deliver a balanced sound both on and off axis, aided by an integrated treble waveguide that optimizes dispersion, thus ensuring great sound wherever the listener is seated.

Some of the innovative improvements for SX Series include the composite alloy based diaphragms of the midrange and bass units which provide detailed sonic performance and extremely low distortion from the driver dues to the stiffness of the material. The tweeter is made of light but very rigid Titanium which reproduces high frequencies with astonishing clarity and purity. With years of expertise built-in, the SX’s are able to once again showcase the iconic Mission sound – truly a great example of modern design married with a powerful sonic performance.

SX loudspeakers feature a sleek and fashionable look which is in keeping with Mission’s customary design focus, coupling keyed tonal graduations with a choice of Black piano and Rosewood piano real wood veneered finishes, enabling them to slot neatly into any domestic environment. They are practically guaranteed to give the lucky owner years of sonic and visual pleasure.

The Technology Behind SX Series
For the SX Series Mission engineers pulled out all the stops to design brand new drivers that incorporate the latest research in composite metallic material technology.

To generate a wide bandwidth driver that reproduces all frequencies from 30Hz to 4KHz, a span of 7 octaves, is no mean feat. Nevertheless that is the target that Mission engineers set when designing the SX MC bass/midrange driver.

In order to accomplish this astonishing span of the critical audio band, a new cone composite was investigated incorporating the very best in fibre and metal substrates. In the SX MC driver a fibre cone, utilising a selected combination of pulp and aramid particles, is bonded to a precision formed alloy ‘voice plate’ which forms the front face of the speaker.

This composite cone reacts with astonishing precision to the musical waveform delivered to it. The fibre and alloy composite possesses just the right level of rigidity and self damping to quell break up modes and damp unwanted resonances whilst ensuring pistonic cone movement for low distortion. As you would expect from such a rigid cone, bass performance is outstanding, but what will be a surprise is the lucidity and realism delivered throughout the midrange.

This is all thanks to a micro-dynamic performance that reveals every item of musical detail that is often lost in the ‘noise’ created by drivers that work in a non-linear fashion. To further enhance the dynamic performance of the SX MC driver it is housed in a cast-aluminium shell that is mounted securely on the die-cast front baffle.

In itself the die-cast front baffle would provide an ideal base for the SX MC driver but, even here, Mission engineers went one better. The die-casting is set into a multi-layer cabinet sub-baffle with a system that securely clamps the driver to both, thus ensuring that the desired mechanical stability is fully achieved. In this way the full dynamic range of the music signal is faithfully reproduced to thrilling effect.

Normally mounting a treble unit on this composite baffle system would expose it, too, to the extreme forces generated by the SX MC motor system. But here Mission engineers have been even more cunning.

The SX TD treble unit is, in itself, a work of art. An extremely light and rigid Titanium dome is fitted with a phase correcting plate that surrounds the periphery of the dome to ensure a smooth and extended response from 1 kHz to beyond the levels of audibility. This assembly is then housed in an elastomer chamber that isolates it from low frequency vibration while still providing the mechanical stability necessary for superb dynamic performance.

Combining the SX MC and TD drivers is a crossover that easily enables the seamless performance necessary for the SX loudspeaker to behave as a coherent source. Thanks to the smooth, wide bandwidth responses of the drivers, it is only necessary to create the correct electrical filtering to provide a phase perfect and ruler-flat crossover transition. Then hundreds of hours of painstaking listening refine and tune each element of the SX speaker’s performance to give the breath-taking results you would expect from a Mission product.

Finally each speaker is hand veneered by Mission cabinet makers and lovingly polished to a top quality furniture finish. The Piano Lacquer option reveals the full colour and grain of the figured real wood veneers by using seven individual coats of lacquer, each polished and buffed to mirror finish. The result is that Mission SX loudspeakers look as beautiful as they sound.

Specifications