Anax had never heard the Magni before he took the test. He is also only moderately familiar with the PWD2. It will be interesting to note what his non-blind impressions are of the Magni. Anax was allowed to press the buttons, but had no knowledge of the wiring scheme. Anax was told that minor changes (or no changes) were made to the wiring scheme after each track.

My non-blind "living with both amps" impressions of the Magni in comparison to O2:

• Magni can sound slightly bright: steely or splashy in the treble at times depending upon the headphone (HD800 and HE5 exhibited this behavior more than others). This may be a concern for brighter headphones, but was a plus for neutral or darker headphones.
• Magni does not necessarily sound lean. There is a little warmth.
• Magni sounds much more expansive. Huge stage, very wide and moderately deep. Very impressive for solid-state and its strongest quality.
• Magni is slightly cleaner, has notably better instrument definition and precision, particularly in the treble. This is the Magni's second best quality.
• Magni is a tiny bit better at retrieving micro-details and is slightly less flat. OBJ2 is more closed-in and a little flatter in terms of micro-dynamics. Magni reproduces more gradations in volume levels than the OBJ2. This is most evident in decays and attacks.
• OBJ2 has deeper bass with more punch.
• OBJ2 is tonally more balanced, but the treble attacks are  more strident or sharper.

Some points:

• With the exception of openness, the differences were notable but not huge. The difference between these two amps are much smaller than say the difference of either amp compared to the Melos or Mjolnir.
• Magni is a good match with HE500, HE400, LCD2. It was also pretty good with a modded HD800 and the ATH-W3000ANV. It was also good with the HE5 (but with special gel pads). No HE6 on hand, but I don't think this would be a good idea. I loved the HP1000 from the Magni.