Originally Posted by Home Cinema Choice

The 77DS rear is a diffuse surround speaker, with two sideways-firing 100mm Aerogel woofers and 25mm fabric soft-dome tweeters, which is for mounting behind the listener in a pair, on either the rear or side walls. The 77DS is made of dense non-resonant moulded plastic with rounded edges, covered by stretched black grille cloth. It's bi-polar, which means the drivers are connected in-phase to create a wide radiation arc which, it is claimed, delivers a more realistic rear ambient soundfield than conventional forward-firing loudspeakers. The angular five-sided shape allows the 77DS to be mounted either way up. With the horizontal face upwards, the speaker tucks tight up to the ceiling, whereas the other way up, the steeply angled 'top' face, containing the port tube, helps create the impression of a shallow, unobtrusive profile for minimum visual impact.

Once connected up to the five-channel receiver, balanced for sound levels and set up for time delays (the centre needed a small boost) the 77 system produced some very agreeable sounds indeed. The soft-dome tweeters are very civilised, with a smooth, detailed and well-controlled treble delivery - much gentler on the ear than most tweeters found in home cinema speakers. Mission's hi-fi origins are very much in evidence. Vocals and dialogue are also excellent - very smooth and articulate, with none of the usual overpowering in-your-face effect which is so often heard.