price point is similar to the THX amp off Massdrop, but this does come with a DAC and from what I’ve read, the 788 and 789 aren’t much different.
Yes I’m currently running a 788 as my main headphone setup. compared to the 789? Couldn’t really tell you since I’ve never listened to it, but the general consensus seems to be that the 788 is just as good (subjectively). The 789 i believe has more power though, but really the 788 has more than enough power to drive anything you throw its way.
Other than that I feel the 788 is the better deal overall… for just $80 extra dollars you get an excellent dac (fully balanced), parametric and shelf EQ, and DIRAC Tech to play around with. That is a insane value just for dac alone.
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So I joked around about making a ‘budget’ THX stack with the MO 788 and MD 789, but I don’t think I would need to because the MO 788 sounds good to me.
Not good enough, just plain good.
I’m sure someone will weigh in and say the topologies are not the same, and they’d be right, but I don’t see a need to add the MD 789 amp. There just doesn’t seem to be enough value in it if you have a MO 788.
yeah, it would be very redundant to have both and only use the DAC from the 788. 
now as to whether the 788 from MO is worth the premium over a Schiit Magni 3, Modi 3 & Loki… 
I ran the same stack except I used the vali 2, its pretty good, the dac and eq are where it falls short, for amping I love tubes, but for all the solid states ive tried I like the mo 788 best.