I still own my MS100 golds that i purchased brand new in 1989.
They are presently working fine in the 2nd system 
The retail price for the 100 golds in 1989 was £500 but i paid £400 iirc because they were by then discontinued, …and presumably at the time the good Mordaunt-Short name had been bought up by the new school of bargain bling bucket plasticky loudspeaker outfitters who flogged their wares as cheap as chips in What Hifi advertisements 
I ran a pair of MS speakers which incorporated the legendary Decca Kelly ribbon horn tweeter and a 12” bass driver on the end of my then 32.5/Hi-Cap/140.
Are you sure they weren’t the Arundels which pre-date MS, the driver lineup is the same?
They were identical to the Arundels internally but had a slightly more modern looking cabinet, bought around 1970. I have searched online but cannot find any exact matches, anyhow they are long gone, just thought I would add to the topic.
Ah ok, they must’ve kept the design in the new company’s portfolio for a while.
A little here about what Short brought to the party:
There was a music shop (instruments/LPs etc) in Swindon until the 1990s which had the 442s, because the M/S rep would only let them stock the cheaper speakers if they got a pair of those in. I spent a mesmeric couple of hours listening to them with, I think Quad amps/CD, but they were over £1k at the time so I didn’t buy them - should have! They looked like a couple of penguins but sounded fantastic.
I vaguely knew Chris Short in the early 80s - I was a few years older than his daughter and we inhabited the same circles…
There is a pair or two MS floorstanders in the shop around the corner. Their dealer once mentioned them and added that they celebrate at the full throttle with entire team when somebody buys MS.
MS 442 is rarely seen around - indeed outside UK, they must have been limited made and not massive marketed, would love a pair.
I’ve sen a couple fo pairs for sale in recent years. Tempting, but I already have too many speakers… (famous last words).
I’ve just googled them, they certainly are an acquired taste visually.
There was a pair in Sweden last year, it went instantly, so no chance there, I am prepared to find room for them.
Being outside Brexit. doesn’t make it easier.
Sold my partner’s Pageant Series 2 a couple of months ago. Probably early 80s. They were still very nice.
I still listen to my Pageant’s series 2 and Dual 704 I bought back in the day. I think they call it vintage hi fi nowadays …but, they still sound good.
A mate acquired a pair of original MS20’s around 1985 or so and I loved them. I ended up buying the MS30 as my very first hi-fi speakers for Christmas of 1985 but couldn’t afford my own amp and turntable so they were driven in my bedroom by my Father’s Technics rack system which lived in the main lounge downstairs. I phoned the factory prior to collecting them on Christmas eve to ask for recommendations on affordable speaker cable for such a long cable run. The phone was picked up by none other than either Mr Mordaunt or Mr Short who was extremely helpful and kind to this poverty stricken schoolboy!!
In the end he recommended 5 amp lighting cable which worked superbly well and cost very little for a 50m roll. The only downside is that I had to put a record on in the lounge and then bolt upstairs to my room to hear it!! As a result I would always miss the first few seconds of every album - a situation which was only eventually resolved when I acquired a secondhand Systemdek IIX/Linn LVX/A&R P77 and Naim Nait 1 in the summer of 1988 prior to heading to university. That system saw me through university and worked extremely well. I sold the Systemdek and the MS30’s to a mate when I upgraded to the Ariston RD110 and Linn Kan’s some years later so only the Nait survives to this day in my second system.
Rather strangely I now live only about 3 miles from the old Mordaunt Short HQ at Durford Mill outside Petersfield. I cycled down there for a look a while back and it’s now owned by some sort of consulting firm but must have been a fine place to build quality loudspeakers back in the day.
Jonathan
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