The Mission 770 story starts with the BBC. The broadcast corporation’s famed engineering department did a great deal of research into speaker design during the 1960s. Spencer Hughes was one of the engineers working on the research projects, and he went on to found Spendor. Using the knowledge gained during his time with the Beeb, Hughes designed Spendor’s first product, the BC-1 loudspeaker, in 1969. This was a hugely influential design and set the template for what many still think of as the BBC (or British) sound.
Let’s fast forward a few years. It is now 1977 and Farad Azima founds Mission. He, like many, admires the BC-1, but he also thinks it can be bettered. Azima points to weaknesses in the bass and the restrained presentation. The fruit of his labour arrives a year later – the 770. They're priced at £357 in the UK and therefore direct competitors for the Spendor.
