Audio-GD Master 7 vs. PS Audio PWD2* Showdown

*PWD1 upgraded to PWD2 running firmware 2.03
Empirical Audio Off Ramp 5 (OR5) was used for the USB to i2s conversion <- this is crucial.

This was probably one of the most difficult comparisons I've ever done. I scored these DACs on the same attributes as the last DAC Comparison (see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao9CyUbvb2nFdHZ4RlZaQ2JwX1JsZG9vQlAtTmhvM2c#gid=0)

Things were so close that the two DACs would trade places depending upon the recording. Ultimately, the final scores reflect the sum of the experiences. The greatest difficulty with this comparison was trying to see through the DACs' overall presentations. The M7 is based on an R2R ladder chip, and the PWD2 is based on a modern Sigma-Delta chip. The PWD2 can be considered a very modern sounding DAC, having great technicalities in terms of resolution, articulation, clarity, etc. Ladder DACs are supposed to have that "analog" or perhaps more accurately a "vinyl" like sound. I've never liked the ladder DACs of yesteryear that much because they lacked the modern DAC technicalities. However, the M7 is surprisingly very "modern" while retaining the ladder DAC sensibilities. I guess what I'm saying is that it took a decent amount of effort to assess and see past the overall presentations of both DACs.

For those who are photographers, the PWD2 produces out of camera images which are slightly sharpened with more contrast. The images from the M7 are more unadulterated, i.e. the setting was set to no sharpening, low contrast, etc. Ultimately, resolution has nothing to do with sharpening settings, but these settings do make it difficult to assess true resolution. Considering this, one may still prefer final images with higher contrast or sharpening applied. This is why it was so difficult for me to score the various attributes and say one was better than the other.

Here are few things I would like make clear:

• Outside of the tonality and treble rendering, these DACs were very similar in performance. We are talking about last 0.5 to 1.0% here.
• The scoring to the PWD2 has been redone from the prior DAC comparison. Many of the PWD2 scores have been lowered because at that time, I had not yet heard anything better. The scoring here is self-contained and should not be compared to the older DAC comparison.
• Please note the use of the OR5 and i2s with both DACs. This was critical to the AGD M7's performance. The M7 performed poorly with its stock USB.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao9CyUbvb2nFdGFfMHhqeDdmS1ZNN1dfSlE1NVZzN1E#gid=0