Quote:
Yes I know. Anaxilus is giving me crap about it too.
LOL. I don't have any skin in this, but consider the differences between your setups (sometimes it's good to stop and think about these things):
Amplifier differences:
Anax's S7 is tuned for his HD800 and his tastes with a specific set of tubes. His S7 is more liquid and does tend to take a little of the treble grain and edge of the HD800. The BHA-1 has a sharper leading edge (but in a suprisingly good way) compared than the S7.
Headphone differences:
Although your HD800 is among the most relaxed sounding of all of the HD800s I've measured, it still doesn't sound
that different from the other HD800s. It's still an HD800. Anax's HD800 is not only modded, it's modded with his latest Anax mod v3 (or Rabid Dawg 2), which has not been released to the public. And that mod really turns the HD800 into something else
DAC variables:
I assume the PWD is running 2.10 or 2.20 of the firmware and not 2.02 or 2.03. The latest firmware can sound awful. I never post to manufacturers' forums, but I felt it was so awful (with Anax 1 mod HD800 + ECBA) that I actually had to give Paul at PS Audio my own two cents: http://www.psaudio.com/vanilla/discussion/3031/pwd-firmware-version-2.0.2/p5 (scroll down a little bit)
I think this easily accounts for your differences of opinion. I too would throw the PWD2 under the bus under the conditions which you auditioned it. It's not a forgiving DAC I would recommend for the brighter headphones, especially with firmware 2.10+. I am actually running 2.20 right now, but that's for speakers or the HE-500 (through a power amp), which are entirely different beasts.