Mordaunt Short Performance 880 speakers.

How strange you should get a pair of speaker since I was only thinking about your situation earlier today when listening to the Orchard monos through the Estelons. This only confirmed to both of us, get your speakers right and everything else falls into place. The Linn ideology of source first may have some merit but IMO speakers are the most important item in the audio chain.
Going back to your new purchase, I really like the look of them and hope you find them to your liking. Looking forward to your findings.

Not a lot of information about there about these. Not even a manual at HiFi Engine!

Found this post from Mr Pig on another forum. He's ac5tually a very good person to follow around as he auditions a lot of gear:

"These are the flagship speakers from Mordaunt Short, which is a highly regarded British speaker manufacturer. Top of the line speakers are all about high performance, and these speakers can run with the better speakers on the market. Stereophile gave these a Class B rating, and the other speakers within this class sold for thousands more than the 880's. The bang for the buck ratio on these were high when they were new, and on the used market that ratio just increases.

High end speaker performance is achieved by excellent drivers, a non resonant cabinet, and a properly designed crossover network. The engineers at Mordaunt Short dealt with each issue in an innovative manner.

The cabinets are a cast resin compound, which is acoustically dead as can be. No inferior MDF, or even Birch ply with these speakers. The cabinets also have non parallel sides and front plate, which breaks up standing waves inside the cabinet. They come with a piano black gloss finish, and are in beautiful condition. These are very heavy speakers, weighing in at 80 lbs (30kgs) apiece.

The drivers are custom built units, which are the best available from Mordaunt Short. A pair of 8 inch bass drivers in a vented bass-alignment, which extends down to 28 hertz. The midrange is a 4 inch driver with phase plug(very unusual for this time period) and it is housed in a dedicated isolation chamber, which eliminates driver interaction. The tweeter is a 1" metal dome, that is detailed, smooth and easy on the ears. With a rated frequency response of 28 hertz to 28 K, and 90 DB efficiency, the Performance 880 are truly full range speakers.

The crossover on the midrange and treble drivers is a 6 db per octave slope. The cabinet face is sloped, and this is a time aligned design. The woofers use steeper slopes in order to control their output. There are three pairs of binding posts per speaker for tri-amping.

These speakers have a pure and effortless midrange. The treble is quick, yet never harsh. Speakers image superbly, and disappear in the sound stage. Bass is deep and quick. This is a flagship speaker, and it sounds like it. The Performance 880 did not get that Class B rating for nothing. Reminds me of the very best Celestons and EPOS I have heard. But these have real bass. Compared them toa friends pair of upgraded Quadd 988, and the sound was very similar. Given the 6K price of the Quads, and the 3.5K of additional upgrades, the MS 880 fared very well.

Condition of these speakers are as close to perfect as can be. Drivers are pristine, and there are no performance issues with these speakers. Cabinets are excellent, although there is a slight smudge on a pin stripe that is located on the base of the speaker. If I didn't mention it, you probably wouldn't even notice it.

I do have original boxes, but preference is given to local sale. These are located in tri-cities, Washington state(99320). I will consider shipping, however I will need to charge for materials to reinforce the boxes, and provide additional protection inside for the speaker. If shipped, buyer assumes all risk if damaged.

Speakers originally sold for 3.8K, which was considered inexpensive given their performance. To produce this cabinet now is extremely expensive, look at Green Mountain Audio to see what composite cabinets cost. Will sell this pair for $1650. I will entertain a partial trade for interesting electronics"

Will do.

How do you know this? I can't find anything about them online. It's bloody frustrating

Yes, you're right. Lol.

I’ve got most of 1991 and 1992 as well as a good few Audiophile from that period. Nothing either. The only reference I ever remembered was a very small news article (probs 50 words) saying MS was releasing a performance series. At the time I remember seeing the prices and thinking “good luck with that”.

If DSJR is looking in, or returns from his break, he may be able to help.

I'm thinking they may not have sold all that many and missed out of the publication. Shame.