MISSION 796

The tweeter was pretty agile so no wonder that an acoustic guitar of John Williams was wondefully forward in the room with actually quite wide colour pallete. Tranzients and string resonances were reproduced with surgical accuracy, it was an audiophile feast. Also the symphonic orchestra in Saint-Saens's Dance Macabre was more about the sonic dissection rather than comfort listening. This was not bad as it provided so much information that I did not hear before. It was fascinating to listen to anything through the Missions - my happiness was comparable to the happiness of people that for the first time in their lives switched from candles to a light bulb. However, the more time I spent with the 796s the less comfortable I was as highlighting everything erased a bit of contrast and stripped the music off some tension. Analysis was clearly preferred over synthesis, like it was in the case of original Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy before they were significantly modified by David Wilson. With the 796s the guitars and violins were amazing but they were just strings without bodies, there was no guitar or violin, just wires. Such sound can be fatiguing to some but exciting to others - please listen before you buy to see if it fits to your preferences.

The Viotex tweeter were good in everything except resolution. The music sounded fast and transparent but textures were missing. Cymbals were tonally okay but the resonance structure was missing. It was like a picture in black & white papers - it looks fine until you notice that it is just a collection of black spots.