Mission’s first ever streamer promises heavenly Hi-Res audio made by 'Angels'

Mission 778S streamer in silver on a dark grey background

(Image credit: Mission)

Quick Summary

Mission has partnered with network streaming specialist Silent Angel to create its first network streamer, the 778S.

It offers a very high specification and Hi-Res streaming for just under £800.

Mission's 778S is the first network streamer from the beloved speaker brand. And like last year's 778X compact integrated amplifier, it's designed to deliver superior sound without a sky-high price tag.

The 778S uses the same compact chassis as its sibling too, so looks rather nice stacked on top – but of course, you can use it with any amplifier.

For its first streamer, Mission has teamed with network streaming specialist Silent Angel. The two firms have worked closely to integrate a custom version of Silent Angel's streaming engine with Mission's own circuits.

There are ARM Cortex-A72 and A-53 multi-core CPUs, and the device is controlled with a specialised app based on Silent Angel's VitOS software for iOS and Android.

The Mission 778S is compact at just 236 x 98 x 357mm, but it delivers a high-performance DAC and lots of connectivity. Like the 778X its controls are simple but effective, with two rotary controls (select and volume) and a dimmable OLED display.

Mission 778S streamer: key features and pricing

The 778S supports Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, Spotify Connect and TuneIn Radio, all delivering the highest available audio quality. It also supports Apple's AirPlay 2 and UPnP/DLNA, and is Roon Ready with Roon Advanced Audio Transport built in.

The DAC is a Sabre ES9038Q2M, with a class A post-DAC active filter and balanced signal path directly feeding the XLR outputs. There's also an on-board amp for the 6.35mm headphone output.

The Mission 778S supports PCM up to 32-bit/768kHz (including fixed-point PCM via the Mission app) and native DSD up to 22.5MHz (DSD512).

It also supports Hi-Res and Lossless audio in FLAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF and APE, plus native DSD in DSF/DIFF form and DoP (DSD over PCM). Lossy format support includes MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG.

All PCM audio streams are upsampled to 352.8kHz or 384kHz before converting them to analogue. Mission says this pushes digital artefacts away from the audible spectrum, helping to maintain a clean and consistent feed into the DAC.

The Mission 778S will be available from late January with an RRP of £799 (about $1,070 / €921 / AU$1,595).

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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