One of the nicest and most interesting affordable floorstanding loudspeakers of the nineteen nineties, the Mission 752 had a wonderfully smooth, open and easy sound in a world of hard, harsh and spitty budget boxes. One of the reasons for this was its (then) very advanced HDA (High Definition Aerogel) mid/bass driver, which delivered much of the speed and sensitivity of expensive paper cones without their expense. It was partnered with a unusually well behaved metal dome tweeter, which integrated seamlessly.
Designed by the talented Henry Azima – the man behind the original Cyrus amplifiers, 770 loudspeakers and a host of other classic transducers – it sported a gently sloping upper front baffle with conventional driver geometry, instead of Mission’s generally preferred inverted driver layout. Three small front-firing reflex ports let the 880x200x250mm cabinet breathe without inducing too much boom in less spacious listening rooms. The 150mm mid/bass driver allowed a relatively small footprint and more importantly a narrow front baffle. At the time it was claimed that this gave better stereo imaging, but this is refuted by many respected speaker designers today. A 25mm metal dome tweeter completed the package, and integrated well with the mid/bass driver.
Unlike many nineties speakers, these are surprisingly warm and cosseting sounding boxes, ones which are far more efficient than most – and thus make a great partner for valve amplifiers, even today. They have a fast but full sound, fine imaging and work well in most rooms without needing weeks spending tweaking them. To my ears, their worst sin is a slightly boxy cabinet which is lively around 80 to 100Hz, but this can be helped by placing them a good metre out into the room, away from boundaries. In 2014, the closest speaker on sale in sound quality terms is the Q Acoustics 2050i.
Costing around £500 when new some twenty years ago, a good pair of 752s now go for £100 or less. Two years later the 752 was replaced by the 752 Freedom, which offered a few tweaks including a better silk dome tweeter – but somehow it didn’t work as convincingly as a package, and the model sold less well. Still, a well preserved pair is unlikely to cost more than £150, making them a fine secondhand buy.
zStereo 
I had a pair of 752s about ten years ago. Incredible speakers. Paired with a Sansui AU-217 amp, it was one of the best, if unlikely, combinations I’ve owned. A lovely detail that sat just right, the metal dome tweeter never unruly or too piercing and while bass could be a little light, the midrange was just perfect. I bought mine for about £80 secondhand but you’d never complain if you paid full price for them. The range was Mission’s pinnacle I feel, the 751 standmount was also an excellent speaker that rocked like a winner and the 753 was a multi-driver icon. The 752 was the top of the pile though.
Fair comments though I disagree about the driver cost, I remember reading that the HDA driver was the most expensive unit ever used by Mission, and working in the trade at the time I can confirm a replacement was around £50, while a 753 unit was about £12.
High end paper cones can be very expensive, but also cheap – it depends on what you buy.
My point was that the 752’s HDA cones were excellent, whilst not being as expensive as fancy paper types found in high end speakers.
They were certainly a big deal at the time, and made the 752 a more daring design than the 753, which was quite old school in a way.