Convenient
Central to the LX Connect’s design is the LX-2 MkII – a pair of Mission speakers launched in 2020 as part of the LX MkII Series. Recipients of numerous excellent reviews, the LX-2 MkIIs are traditional ‘passive’ hi-fi speakers, designed to be connected via speaker cables to an amplifier. To create the LX Connect, Mission has taken the LX-2 MkII, enhanced its design and added a suite of high-performance technologies to create an active wireless speaker system with a unique range of attributes.
There are many different types of stereo wireless speakers on the market. Some connect wirelessly to a source device – a smartphone or computer, say – but have cables between them, with one primary speaker feeding the signal to the other. Others, like the LX Connect, offer ‘true wireless’ stereo with fully wireless transmission that removes a need for a connecting cable between the speakers – but most of these designs cram all the electronics into the speakers themselves resulting in inevitable compromise. There are also limiting factors in terms of positioning; for example, you may be restricted by the length of the cable between the speakers, or you may want to hook up a cable from your source device – USB from a computer for hi-res audio, for example – and therefore need to run a cable to one of the speakers from wherever the device is situated.
Therein lies the hub
The LX Connect is different. It incorporates a third box – a ‘Hub’ that contains DAC, preamp and wireless transmission technologies. Source devices connect to the Hub, which transmits the audio signal wirelessly to the two speakers via uncompressed Wi-Fi. The speakers themselves have no cables, other than a power cord to connect them to the mains.
This inclusion of a separate Hub has enabled Mission to optimise the LX Connect’s audio circuitry and provide facilities that would be impossible to integrate or awkward to access without it. It connects to source devices – PCs and Macs, Android and iOS devices, music players, media boxes and so on – via asynchronous USB, S/PDIF (coaxial and optical) and HDMI digital cable connections, or wirelessly over Bluetooth. There is no built-in Wi-Fi networking – this is to maintain operational simplicity, without requiring a dedicated app (which are often not entirely satisfactory), and to avoid the potential instability of relying on a busy home Wi-Fi network. Instead, simply connect the Hub to a computer or smart device on your home network and use your preferred streaming app to drive the LX Connect.
DAC’s the way to do it
Mission has utilised the audio electronics expertise of sister-company Audiolab, maker of many award-winning DAC and amplifier components, to create the Hub. It incorporates a high-performance DAC stage based around the ES9018K2M DAC chip from the Sabre32 Reference family, accompanied by proprietary circuitry to make the most of ESS Technology’s 32-bit HyperStream architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator for ultra-low noise and high dynamic range.
The DAC stage supports hi-res PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz over USB and 24-bit/192kHz via the coaxial and optical inputs; DSD (up to DSD256) is also supported over USB. An RCA-stereo output is provided with fixed and variable output options, fed by a high-quality analogue stage – this enables the Hub to perform as an off-board DAC/preamp to connect to an external amplifier, or feed an active subwoofer to augment the LX Connect speakers. A high-quality headphone amp is also included, again derived from Audiolab – with its current-feedback circuitry, excellent gain bandwidth and high slew rate, a dynamic and detailed performance with all manner of headphones is assured.
