Mission 778X Integrated Amplifier & DAC Review

[Endibol]

... Em.
Coaxial speakers?

I'm a Tannoy fan. And there's KEF.

Not yet, that I am aware of. Could be wrong and doubtless only a matter of time however.

I meant electronics to be honest…

 

[Chr1]

Fair enough.
Personally I find transducers more interesting.
Big fan of SOTA budget electronics tho.

 

[Endibol]

Fair enough.
Personally I find transducers more interesting.
Big fan of SOTA budget electronics tho.

I fully agree with you. Transducers are the decisive factor in the chain.

 

[Paul7777x]

I fully agree with you. Transducers are the decisive factor in the chain.

… and the room. Ignoring the rooms contributions will always leave any hifi less than optimal. Regardless of price.

 

[ghego]

I use the Mission 778x with Wharfedale Linton QED cables in my acoustically treated room. No extra power is needed, perfect bass control, and the volume knob never goes beyond 10 o'clock to get 80 dB Music is not just numbers but emotions and this amplifier gives you energy, warmth and makes you tap your foot. I've listened to many modern class D amps... more powerful and perfect in theory but terrible compared to this mission without punch, without energy and musicality. Numbers are nothing without listening, bye

 

[pdferguson]

I own and have used the 778X amplifier for more than two years now, and am happy with it in a modest sized listening room driving a pair of KEF LS50 Metas and a REL T/5X sub, with a MacBook feeding the DAC in the 778X. The half-width form factor was a big reason I chose it. You are right about the usability concerns, it is British understated to a fault. The volume encoder on my unit is flaky, I sent it in once already for repair, but it still is unreliable adjusting the volume using the knob (the remote control is fine). While it was in for repair, I used an Eversolo Play in its place, and much prefer the sound of the 778X (far better punch and dynamics, despite a higher power rating on the Play). I was hoping Amir’s testing would be more positive than it was, but I trust his judgment and fairness in his reviews. I may upgrade to something else in the future, but for now it serves my needs and sounds quite decent.

 

[Rick63]

I'm curious as how the 778Xs cousin the Leak Stereo 130 measures. It is very similar with the same specs and DAC. The only differences are the Leak has tone controls and 12v triggers, and the placement of the binding posts are different. The tone controls and placement of the binding posts account for the approximate 4" difference in width. And the Leak is considerably more expensive here in the US.

I don't know if they still do but I remember IAG marketing the Leak Stereo 130 with the Wharfedale Lintons. I would want more power with those speakers personally.

 

[A Surfer]

I don't blame you for being confused, my bad. My friend's original set up was Sonos Connect with a pair of Sonos 5 active speakers, i.e. the amp is located within the speakers.

I simply replaced a Sonos Connect with a Wiim Ultra (without the inbuilt amp) and believe we got better sound and features for very little outlay and hassle ..... better DAC, EQ, Sub out, Roomfit etc.

FYI even though he did not have a sub I set the sub crossover to 50 Hz as there is little music below this level and the Sonos Play 5 can't realistically go that low anyway, this takes pressure off the amp (within the speakers) and clears up the mid range IMO.

Apologies for the confusion.

Amir recommends the Wiim Ultra, however, his review is not all that complementary, but if you are just streaming and not using the analogue input it is brilliant.

WiiM Ultra Streamer Preamp Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the WiiM Ultra network streamer, DAC, phono stage and preamplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $329. Physical attribute are modern and attractive enough. Alas, I can't say the same thing about the graphical interface. Icons seem...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Thank you for the explanation. I actually have a Sonos system with two pairs of the play five, an Arc sound bar and two Sonos subs, plus two Sonos Move 2s at the side. Of course even the subs are only truly good for low bass at best.

I made the transition from a system with a pair of Monitor Audio PL200s supported by a pair of SVS SB2000 Pro subs driven by my NAD M3 so it was quite the transition.

 

[Boredcarrot]

Good to see owners chiming in with their positive experiences. I love mine to death, but it did have a glitch and I'm wondering if anyone else here that owns one has experienced the same thing. Mine would often go into standby mode after some time, even when playing music. I returned the first one as I was worried about it, but the replacement unit did the exact same thing. I turned off the auto standby function and that has ultimately fixed the issue, so that's where the issue was stemming from. I found one other person on a forum somewhere that had the same experience, anyone owners here had that happen?

 

[Håkan]

Good to see owners chiming in with their positive experiences. I love mine to death, but it did have a glitch and I'm wondering if anyone else here that owns one has experienced the same thing. Mine would often go into standby mode after some time, even when playing music. I returned the first one as I was worried about it, but the replacement unit did the exact same thing. I turned off the auto standby function and that has ultimately fixed the issue, so that's where the issue was stemming from. I found one other person on a forum somewhere that had the same experience, anyone owners here had that happen?

The only thing I can complain about is two distinct ”thumps” from my active subwoofer when I turn off the amplifier.
Not much of a problem really

 

[milosz]

Who on this thread can actually hear a 2nd harmonic at -90 dB as shown by the distortion test? Are these components designed to listen to in an audio system or just to take to your bench and measure?

For the price this thing seems to be pretty OK to me. Not state of the art, certainly, but a lot of functionality for the price.

 

[AudioSceptic]

My only experience with Mission electronics is a CD player my father bought.. He fell for the pitch and sidestepped a Sony CDP-70 to buy a Mission DAD-7000. A Philips CD-104 with a modified output stage, sold for entirely too much. It was heavy, it was slow and it broke down twice in around a four year period of time. I had a JVC XL-V250 and Dad got kind of angry when it sounded better than his Mission!
Fun memories!

I'm surprised that one CD player would sound obviously worse than another. Were levels the same?

 

[Cote Dazur]

This is my unit.

@amirm, thanks for your time and effort, it is greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately it didn't measure as good as I had hoped it would...

Thank you for landing this unit for Amir to test.
Thank you Amir for testing this unit.

@Rick63, sorry it did not "measure" as goods as you expected, but at the same time, it did not "measure" bad either.
Looking at the "performance", the functionality of the package, the esthetics and the price, this looks to me like a very attractive offering from Mission.
Nothing in the measurements, if you do not need more power, and one could also use it as a preamp, if eventually needing more juice, tells us that, when actually listening to this unit, that it will not be transparent.
It is great to have Amir measurements, but at the same time, maybe, we should keep in mind what the end game is: enjoying listening to music at home.
Nothing in Amir measurements, is telling me this unit will prevent me from doing just that.
Overall, this is scoring very high in my list, way ahead of some "recommended" items that have also been tested, so again, thank you for sending it for testing.

 

[pdferguson]

Who on this thread can actually hear a 2nd harmonic at -90 dB as shown by the distortion test? Are these components designed to listen to in an audio system or just to take to your bench and measure?

For the price this thing seems to be pretty OK to me. Not state of the art, certainly, but a lot of functionality for the price.

When I saw the small 2nd and 4th order harmonic spikes, my first reaction was “tube-like”, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[ghego]

I connect the Mac Mini with a USB cable to the Mission for streaming.

In addition to important things like musicality and dynamics, no one has written or reviewed in the test that the headphone output of this amplifier is very good with an independent circuit and not a simple hole with power and silence adequate for my collection of headphones.

In mine there is no LED problem, a complete and musical device old school in a positive sense with the addition of a DAC. bye

 

[Boredcarrot]

The only thing I can complain about is two distinct ”thumps” from my active subwoofer when I turn off the amplifier.
Not much of a problem really

Yes, I also get the "thump" through my passive sub setup, so I'm now turning that amp section off before turning off the Mission.

 

[antcollinet]

In addition to important things like musicality and dynamics,

Music has musicality - gear does not.

Electronic gear has frequency response, distortion, noise and dynamic range. In addition, amps have output impedance (Load dependency). That is all.

 

[338h10]

I connect the Mac Mini with a USB cable to the Mission for streaming.

In addition to important things like musicality and dynamics, no one has written or reviewed in the test that the headphone output of this amplifier is very good with an independent circuit and not a simple hole with power and silence adequate for my collection of headphones.

In mine there is no LED problem, a complete and musical device old school in a positive sense with the addition of a DAC. bye

A DAC/amp cannot create music or musicality. Its job is to reproduce the sound already fixed in the media, which sound has all the musicality contained therein. Unless one thinks that the gear is more musical than the musicians/recorded music, the gear should stay back and be as silent/neutral as possible in reproducing the music.

 

[DSJR]

I'm surprised that one CD player would sound obviously worse than another. Were levels the same?

The DAD7000 was one of the better 'sounding' original 14 bit CD players and after taking home one of these, and also a tech related and gorgeous B&O CDX, I finished up with a Meridian MCD-pro I'd heard at a reviewer pal's place, together with a totally maxed out credit card, buying CDs to play on it (discs were fifteen quid a pop forty years ago)...

 

[ghego]

Un DAC/amplificatore non può creare musica o musicalità. Il suo compito è riprodurre il suono già memorizzato sul supporto, suono che contiene già tutta la musicalità. A meno che non si ritenga che l'apparecchiatura sia più musicale dei musicisti/della musica registrata, l'apparecchiatura dovrebbe rimanere in disparte ed essere il più silenziosa/neutra possibile nella riproduzione della musica.

I also appreciate this little amplifier for its complete lack of tone correction and the simplicity of its circuitry...

There are things you can hear and numbers you can read... many numbers you read on a blog are very interesting for understanding electronics, but they don't represent real problems that compromise transparency or the signal, as others have already written in this forum. Good evening.