Missions it is! After a pretty extensive round of auditioining at Alliance-Andheri, we finalized on the Missions M35i based HT. We did take along the music that the family would usually listen to which included South Indian Classical, Hindustani, Rock n Roll, Country and some A.R.Rahman. Rishi from Alliance also has a tasteful collection of female solos and rock and roll which we digged into.
The three contenders were the 9.5s, 10.5s and the Mission M35is. I know that the M35s are a contemporary of the 9.6s but the choice was down to these three and hence the comparison.
The source and AVR combo were a CA 550c and Denon 1909(We are buying the 1910, so there should be a parallel). Our source will be a Pioneer DV220 for music and DVDs. We also have a PS3 which will act as a source for BRDs.
First off, some Ustad Amir Khan on the 9.5s, these were demo pieces and were broken in, hence the presentation was typical wharfedale, clean vocals albeit a little on the bright side, tablas were a bit muted and mids were comprehensive.Overall, a pretty decent pair but I did miss the refinement of my Evos.
Switched over the Missions and rightaway the increase in bass was evident, mids were fine but did not stand out and the vocals were presented enveloped in music unlike the wharfies where the vocals stood out a bit. This appealed to my BIL quite a bit and he was impressed.
Time for the 10.5s to show their might and it was a bit of a disappointment to start with. I am not sure if it had to do with the break in, but the speakers didn't show the qualities that we have come to expect from the diamonds. A.R.Rahman was sounding real constrained in "Maa Tujhe Salaam" and John Denver was sounding a little rough in "Country roads take me home". The bass is nothing much to write home about but adequate for stereo listening. I was expecting a step up over the 9.5s but it does not seem to be the case in quite a few areas.
We also played Taare Zameen Pars "Mera Jahan" to test the marriage of vocals and broad mids. The strumming turned out deeper in the Missions where as the Wharfies renditioned the strumming a little less weighted, as the song moves into faster rhythm where a host of instruments join the vocals, the Missions offered a complete immersion experience where as the wharfies presentation was a bit discrete. Again, I think the key here was the better bass handling capabilities of the Missions.
The other songs we listened to pretty much tilted our bias towards the missions and our movie auditioning was done only on the Missions yesterday. We had auditioned the 9.5 based HT last week and did not revisit them. HT performance was using the standard demo discs, Saving Private Ryan, climax scene with bombs exploding,automatics blazing away and a tank rumbling in. Overall the experience was good and the Mission Sub did make us sit up and take notice when the tank moved in. I do not want to go into great depth as I am more of a budding stereophile and not too much into HT.
Also, I did manage to audition the Xavian XC series mias (bookshelves) paired with an Atoll CDP and an Atoll Amp and I came away pretty impressed. These babies are pretty affordable audiophile speakers and are quite versatile. The pair I listened to were brand new and had yet to be broken in but the refinement levels were phenomenal. I heard a Norwegian female singer ( fail to recall the name) render a solo and I could literally hear- her breath,water dripping in the background etc. Truly wonderful an experience!
I shall be more than glad to share the pricing etc, so do PM me in case some one is interested. I understand that he has a couple of pieces with the old pricing and it is indeed mouth watering!
cheers,
