Mission 778x Integrated Amplifier, A Video Review.

They were a revelation. They opened up my ears to a fuller, deeper sound and made my music collection sound brand new. I later purchased the Mission V62 floor-standers which didn’t quite match but were great, nonetheless.

In a few years, the HiFi upgrade bug had bitten me, and I sold both of the Mission so I could finally purchase my B&W 685 s1 speakers. I bought them as floor models at a hefty discount. Those have been and still are my favorite speakers. No, the 685’s are not the most resolute. No, they don’t dig the deepest. But damn, do they ever sound great.

They gave me the same feeling that the Mission m32i did when I first brought them home. They made all of my music sound brand new. They were a game changer for me and while their greatness may have been unseated by the MA Silver 300 7g’s, they are still number one in this household until I can spring for a pair of the 300s.

In any case, I have a heart for anything Mission. And I find myself drawn to the brand and its product lineup to this day.

So, it’s appropriate now. I can pair the new Mission integrated amp, the 778x, with my beloved B&W 685. Two brands that I have a lot of love for coming together to make musical magic. A speaker that sounds great no matter what I connect it to and a full-featured, half-width amp ready to drive them.

It is one of the many new products from Mission. It is a small, chunky, metal, half-width integrated amplifier. With Bluetooth and a phono input. I purposely sought this out as I was very much interested in a half-width amp for my own use.

My reason for seeking this out, I believe will be of interest to many of you watching this video. Especially if you own vinyl.

Almost every vinyl collector has at some point had something similar to this. The Ikea Kallax cube shelf. They are an ideal budget-conscious solution for folks who own vinyl. Personally, I have owned many iterations: Expedit, Bonde, and now Kallax… I have even hacked my current versions. Coming from DJ culture I need something specific. I learned to DJ with my decks turned so that they are longer in-depth but closer together. So, my shelf needs to be a minimum of 18” in depth (20” is ideal). And for lower back comfort, I need an extra 4” of height. So, with the help of Modern Builds on YouTube, I hacked mine to make them perfect. My first build left a bit to be desired and my latest is a bit better. The only thing was, wished there was a way to keep the cubes uniform and still stick an amplifier inside the shelves.

Enter half-width amps.

Traditional Amplifiers are generally 17″ wide and just don’t fit into a Kallax shelf unless you cut one of the vertical shelves out and make room for the amp. I have done so for my latest hack, to make room for my NAD 326.

So, amplifiers and other gear need to sit on top. On a normal shelf there simply isn’t room for a DJ setup and an amplifier unless you put two Kallaxes side by side or hack two Kallaxes together as I did.

I received the 778x along with the Audiolab 9000a integrated. Both amplifiers share a similar design, and while each is badged differently the care over build quality assures me that this carries a lot of Audiolab in its DNA. It also looks awfully similar to the Quad Vena, though I have only seen the Quad in pictures online.

This new amp is a bit of a throwback as Mission originally released the 778 in 1983. That amp was also narrower and apparently a bit of a hit.

The 778x features a metal chassis and two large knobs. One for volume and the other for source selection. Both knobs have a nice feel. Between the knobs, you’ll find a power button, an IR receiver, and a headphone jack.

Underneath the knobs is this black strip which is just there the house the Mission logo and the product name. I could do without that, to be honest. It makes the amplifier look like Disney’s Wall-E character. I feel like it would look so much nicer without it. Besides, the top panel features a massive Mission logo.

The 778x is available in Silver or Black

This amplifier comes equipped with all of the features that a modern-day music lover could need:

The DAC is an ESS Sabre 32 ES9018K2M if you have any idea what that means. And the Rated Power output is 45W into 8 Ohms and 65W into 4.

The only thing missing are tone controls, and usually, that’s a deal breaker for me. But selfishly, this is the one instance where that doesn’t matter to me at all. I used this amp primarily in my DJ setup where I already have full control over the tone via my pioneer DJ mixer.