Personally I'd have dropped the 800 to 800 and the S at a grand. There doing it for 1200 cos the balanced cable.

. Who? ;)

I quoted where I listened to the cans, I have no affiliation with said establishment and will probably be buying the HD800s from another source.

Exactly. Having heard both back to back this is also my impression.

yes

To correct, pioneer sounded better balanced but still not as good as either chord dacs. 1St place Hugo 2ND mojo 3rd pioneer balanced 4th pioneer unbalanced.

Source was tidal via sonus to the Hugo/mojo/pioneer All tested standalone IE all plugged in via optical cable, and all tested seperatly. Sorry lads been a long day.

No the

anemic! Exactly! That's the word.

right,   so I've been sat down in my local hifi shop.   they have HD800 AND HD800S   Amps used: Pioneer U05-S (with balanced output) Chord Mojo Chord Hugo.   music listened to:  Eagles: Hotel California- Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tJ0I2J954A Rage Against the Machine...

I'm listening to HD800s through a Hugo and honestly I'm super impressed. Very controlled. Lack of xlr does not matter. Review to go up shortly of HD800 vs HD800s

not a problem,   will be runnning a selection of tunes trough it,  gunna use The eagles Hotel california when hell freezes over version. Take the Power Back- rage against the machine. and probably some more demanding bass from some drum and bass albums i like.     also, have a question...

just got an email back,   im going to go test hd800 vs hd800S side by side.   any specifc things you want me to comment on? 

i know teh guys down there, they be good fellows.     the thing that gets me is this: Club Orpheus product - We offer a 10 year guarantee with these headphones. either way ive emailed and asked to demo the 800 and 800s back to back. :) 

http://www.canterburyhifi.co.uk/generic/website.asp?page=product&liwCode=100006470  (hope this helps some) long time lurker first post.