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Anyone know anything about Mission vintage CD players?

fazman

fazman

Active Member
Didn't know this company made cd players back in the day... :scratch2:
I though Mission was known for their speakers. In doing some research, I noticed they also made some integrated amps.

Anyone have any experience with older Mission cd players?

The guy I'm going to see on Monday who has one says he paid over $1000 back in the 80's for it and it is very heavy.

Worth looking into you think?
 
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The first CD from Mission was the DAD 7000. It was one of the very first "audiophile" CD players along with the original Meridian MCD. Those two companies went on to make top CDPs for several generations. Meridian went a bit more high end, Missions were cheaper than Meridian but much more than mass market machines.

If the machine in question is very heavy it is probably a DAD 7000. This was apparently just a standard Philips 104 14 bit 4x OS with some additional filtering on the analog output to make the 1st generation CD technogy more listenable. A very cool 14" wide machine in that it is all metal and inspires some confidence BUT: somewhat clunky mechanism, really cheap captive RCA leads and a laser that is probably burnt out by now. I picked on up years ago and it had terminal skipping, a fate that awaited most of the machines we sold. Some people like to mod these, but I doubt it is worth the effort. Not worth a lot of money (any money?) unless you care about the "historical" aspect. The DAD 7000R had a remote.

The follow up was the PCM 7000. Better sounding, another Philips machine but with a Mission board somewhere inside. Can't remember if this was 14 or 16 bit. Very striking big, colorful display. Too bad the machine itself was all plastic and felt cheap. The drawer was awful. The PCM 4000 was just a standard Philips in the cool looking PCM 7000 box.

Next came the PCM II. By now 16 bit 4x OS for sure, TDA 1451 chipset. Still a lot of plastic, but better feel overall than the previous model. Great sound. Came out high, near $2000 Canadian as I recall but kept in production for a long time as far as CD players go so they kept dropping the price. At the end I think they listed at $799 and were a great deal. We were told they upgraded to the "Crown" version of the 1451 at some point, but I never checked and given Mission's tendency towards hype, I would not vouch for this actually being the case.

Finally there was a return to the 14" size with the first 1 bit machine, the DAD 5. The whole transport came out like a plastic version of the Revox B225. Lightweight machine, we felt it was step back from the PCM II. The sound did improve with the clever little outboard DAC, the DAC 5. Side by side both units were a standard 17".

After that I think the CD players were Cyrus, not Mission so I will wrap up the history here. I welcome anyone to add on what I have missed and correct what I got wrong.

Last year I found a near mint, except for the STUPID green marker scribbles all over the inside of the drawer, PCM II with all boxes and paperwork for $90 Canadian. It is the only used Mission CDP I would recommend buying now, though a DAD/DAC 5 combo would be nice as well.

Let me know what happens with your Mission.
 
Raynald...... WOW! :eek:
Ok... I think I'm an expert now. :thmbsp:
Thanks for that. I didn't think that the sound would be up with half decent machines of today... I think it's the cool factor if anything... I'll update if I decide to get it.
 
Glad to be of service. I came to AK to learn about the beautiful vintage stuff that came before my involvement in the industry, mid 80's to early 90's. Of late I have come to realize that those years in the business were an intense learning experience with access to all kinds of people and info that cannot compare with a consumer trying to figure it out from the outside based on what he is being fed by the marketing departments. My background also helps me get a lot more out of what I see now. I have no illusions my conclusions are always right, but I will gladly share what I think I have learned along the way and I continue to be amazed at all of the great stuff I learn from from the AK community.

Back to the Mission. If it is a DAD, make sure it works, try to get it for basically nothing and have fun with it until it dies.
 
Mission PCM4000

I know this is an old thread and I hope someone can help me. I had one faulty PCM4000 front panel screen. There is not light display after power on. I am new in forum so plaese take it easy with me. Any help or suggestion is appreciated.

Thanks
SLKhu
 
Raynald said:
The first CD from Mission was the DAD 7000. It was one of the very first "audiophile" CD players along with the original Meridian MCD. Those two companies went on to make top CDPs for several generations. Meridian went a bit more high end, Missions were cheaper than Meridian but much more than mass market machines.

If the machine in question is very heavy it is probably a DAD 7000. This was apparently just a standard Philips 104 14 bit 4x OS with some additional filtering on the analog output to make the 1st generation CD technogy more listenable. A very cool 14" wide machine in that it is all metal and inspires some confidence BUT: somewhat clunky mechanism, really cheap captive RCA leads and a laser that is probably burnt out by now. I picked on up years ago and it had terminal skipping, a fate that awaited most of the machines we sold. Some people like to mod these, but I doubt it is worth the effort. Not worth a lot of money (any money?) unless you care about the "historical" aspect. The DAD 7000R had a remote.

The follow up was the PCM 7000. Better sounding, another Philips machine but with a Mission board somewhere inside. Can't remember if this was 14 or 16 bit. Very striking big, colorful display. Too bad the machine itself was all plastic and felt cheap. The drawer was awful. The PCM 4000 was just a standard Philips in the cool looking PCM 7000 box.

Next came the PCM II. By now 16 bit 4x OS for sure, TDA 1451 chipset. Still a lot of plastic, but better feel overall than the previous model. Great sound. Came out high, near $2000 Canadian as I recall but kept in production for a long time as far as CD players go so they kept dropping the price. At the end I think they listed at $799 and were a great deal. We were told they upgraded to the "Crown" version of the 1451 at some point, but I never checked and given Mission's tendency towards hype, I would not vouch for this actually being the case.

Finally there was a return to the 14" size with the first 1 bit machine, the DAD 5. The whole transport came out like a plastic version of the Revox B225. Lightweight machine, we felt it was step back from the PCM II. The sound did improve with the clever little outboard DAC, the DAC 5. Side by side both units were a standard 17".

After that I think the CD players were Cyrus, not Mission so I will wrap up the history here. I welcome anyone to add on what I have missed and correct what I got wrong.

Last year I found a near mint, except for the STUPID green marker scribbles all over the inside of the drawer, PCM II with all boxes and paperwork for $90 Canadian. It is the only used Mission CDP I would recommend buying now, though a DAD/DAC 5 combo would be nice as well.

Let me know what happens with your Mission.
Click to expand...

I may simply add the following:

- The PCM 4000 and PCM 7000 are both 16 bit cd players (using the TDA1541 from Philips)
- The PCM II came out after the 4000/7000. It first carried the CDM2 transport and TDA1541 from Philips, just like the PCM 4000 and 7000.
- I confirm that later production units of the same PCM II carried the CDM4/11 transport and TDA1541A S1 from Philips. I currently owned this later version of the PCM II. I verified it myself by opening the unit.
- The PCM II has a variable analog output (volume of output may be adjusted from remote). Same for the headphone jack, which its volume may be adjusted the same way from the remote. When plugging a headphone, the RCA analog output is then muted and the volume control on the remote controls the headphone output. There is no physical volume control for the headphone jack or for the RCA analog output on the face on the unit: only on the remote control.
- The PCM II also has a digital RCA output.
- There is a control on the remote that can power out the LED display, this doesn’t stop the CD player from reading discs and playing music.
- The Mission PCM II has also been sold under the name Cyrus PCM II. When searching the owner’s manual on the internet, I found such manual in French and the PCM II player is described under the name Cyrus on the manual, including on the front page picture.
 
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