Mission 70 Mk IIs (1983–1985)

A 90dB British bookshelf speaker, the last Mission built in Britain, and one with a polypropylene cone.

Overview

The Mission 70 Mk IIs is a two-way, bass reflex bookshelf loudspeaker produced from 1983 to 1985. The "s" suffix meant a polypropylene-coned bass driver, a material just starting to spread through British speaker design. It was also the last of the British-built Missions. After the Mk IIs, production moved away from the company's home soil. The UK retail price was £99.

The specs are sensible, no-nonsense engineering. Sensitivity is rated at 90 dB, so it doesn't need a particularly muscular amplifier to reach satisfying levels. Nominal impedance is 8 ohms, an easy load for virtually any receiver or integrated amp of the period. Frequency response is quoted at 60 Hz to 20 kHz, honest figures for a compact two-way with no exaggerated low-end claims. Each cabinet measures 520 × 240 × 255 mm (H × W × D) and weighs 7.8 kg. That's solid without being a backbreaker to position on stands or shelves.

Power handling is rated at 70 W nominal. This isn't a speaker for earthquake-level bass in a large room, but within its limits it delivers tight, controlled sound that earned real affection from owners. The Superfi Forum crowd described it as offering "excellent detail, good imaging and a tight, fast bass," with a "lovely, warm midrange."

Key Features

200mm Polypropylene Bass/Mid Driver

The big change in the Mk IIs was its 200mm (8-inch) bass/mid driver. The "s" in the model name signalled polypropylene as the cone material, then a relatively new development in loudspeaker design. It was prized for stiffness combined with low mass and good internal damping. Polypropylene cones offered lower coloration than the paper and bextrene cones that had dominated British speaker building for years, and Mission was confident enough in the material to make it the defining feature of this revision.

The driver was paired with a 25mm (1-inch) dome tweeter. Mission manufactured both drivers in-house, a level of vertical integration far less common than it is today. Making your own drive units meant you controlled the entire electro-acoustic chain, with no hunting for off-the-shelf drivers and hoping they'd integrate well in the crossover.

Third-Order Crossover at 3.5 kHz

The crossover is a third-order design set at 3.5 kHz. A third-order (18 dB/octave) slope is a slightly unusual choice. Many designers of the era favoured second-order (12 dB/octave) Butterworth alignments for their phase behaviour, or fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley designs. Going third-order suggests Mission was chasing a specific blend of driver integration and off-axis behaviour, and 3.5 kHz sits comfortably above the critical midrange band where the ear is most sensitive to crossover artefacts.

Three separate sources confirm the 3.5 kHz crossover frequency, which makes it one of the best-documented specifications of the design. The polypropylene woofer's clean upper range and the dome tweeter's smooth lower reach meant the crossover region was less critical than with more coloured drivers. The third-order slope could do its job without calling attention to itself.

Bass Reflex Enclosure

The Mk IIs uses a bass reflex (ported) enclosure, tuned to extend low-frequency output from the 200mm driver. The 60 Hz lower limit is respectable for a cabinet this size and reflects careful matching of port tuning, enclosure volume, and driver parameters. Bass reflex designs of this era could easily sound boomy or one-note if the tuning was off. Owner reports of "tight, fast bass" suggest Mission got the alignment right.

The cabinet dimensions - 520 mm tall, 240 mm wide, 255 mm deep - are those of a classic British stand-mount: narrow enough to image well, deep enough to give the driver room. At 7.8 kg per speaker, the enclosure has enough mass to resist the worst of panel resonance. The fact sheet doesn't specify the cabinet material or internal damping used.

Historical Context

The Mission 70 lineage began in 1978 with the original 70. A Mk II version followed in 1982, and the Mk IIs arrived in 1983. The naming is a bit of a puzzle to modern eyes. The "s" suffix was added to denote the new polypropylene driver material, distinguishing this version from its immediate predecessor. Early examples of the original Mk II hyphenated the model name as "70 Mk II," a detail noted in period sources. The Mk IIs dropped the hyphen and added the plural "s." HiFi-Stereo described the Mk IIs as part of a special approach to product design, emphasizing Mission's concern for every aspect of design affecting sonic performance HiFi-Stereo (April 1984, p.63).

Mission Electronics was a British company that produced speakers from 1977 until the late 1990s. The Mk IIs was the last of the British-built Missions. After this model, the company's manufacturing moved away from the UK. It was built by a company still making its own drivers in its own factory.

At £99 retail in the UK, the Mk IIs was positioned as an accessible high-fidelity speaker rather than an exotic flagship. It was priced to compete in the crowded British budget-to-midrange market of the early 1980s, where buyers could choose from a remarkable number of capable domestic designs. The in-house drivers and polypropylene cones gave it a technical story that punched above its price point, and the warm reception from owners suggests it delivered.

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