My long-serving Mission FS2-S sub-bass driver succumbed to the passage of time recently, and the rubber diaphragm started to disintegrate. The driver needed replacing. A forum post revealed that Mission would sell you a replacement driver, in October 2014. When I spoke to Mission’s technical department, they don’t stock that driver and that was the end of it as far as they were concerned.
The satellite speakers only work with that cross-over and filter, and I was not ready to replace the entire system. An alternative strategy is to remove the failed speaker, and use a separate (amplified) sub-bass driver. That’s ok, but it’s a second big black box in the corner.
After a bit of searching for 8 ohm 6.5 inch speakers, I found that the Visaton W170 appeared to be a drop-in replacement. The power rating is not quite as high as the original part (40W versus 55W for the original). But the fixing centres are in the same place, the speaker physically fits in the cabinet, and it even has the same spade terminals. For a mere £20, it’s a bargain repair. Very easy to do. The only “trick” is that the rubber grommets which hold the dust cover on are hiding 6 screws which need to be removed.
As Mission were asking for £40, the price looks brilliant.
I listened to the first twenty minutes of my Blu-ray edition of Blade Runner on it, and it sounded great to my non-calibrated ears.
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