PS Audio PWD MkII vs W4S DAC2

I own a W4S Dac1 and a PWD.. The W4S was very close to the PWD.. not as refined, as dimensional.. close but not quite as good, the Dac 1 is 90% of the Dac 2.. The big story here is the PWD MK2.. it is substanially better than the PWD Mk1, and is most likley as close to a SOTA Dac as you'll find at anywhere near the price.. I'll go out on a limb and say that unless you plan on spending five figures there isn't a better Dac than the PWD MK2.. and just an opinion is that even the multi kilo buck Dac's aren't going to be nessarily better than the PS Audio but different.

Rfprice the PWD needs mucho break in a good 300-400 hours.. if you have a computer of sorts hooked to it just put on a radio station or Pandora or whatever and just let it play on..

Also I found that the firmware can make a bit difference I'm using the older 2.0.2 I find it's the most lush sounding.. It's pretty simple to try out different versions.

Also the filters are not as PSA describes them they're actually like this:

1. Linear phase ‘soft-knee’ filter.
2. Minimum phase ‘brickwall’ filter.
3. Minimum phase ‘soft-knee’ filter (Auto).
4. Linear phase apodising filter.
5. Minimum phase apodising filter

In The PWD Owners manual they're list as this:

Filter 1 MP APOD. Minimum phase Apodising filter.
Filter 2 MP SOFT. Minimum phase soft knee filter.
Filter 3 LP APOD. Linear phase Apodising filter.
Filter 4 LP SOFT. Linear phase soft knee filter.
Filter 5 MP 1/2B. Minimum phase recursive Half Band symmetrical filter

So try filter 5 or 4.. and if you're using the USB input try using Native not NativeX some folks feel that on the USB input (only) Native sounds better..