now regarding the sound, I never tested the 800 so I won't say it's better, but my research showed that the general consensus was that 800s officially improved upon the 800 sound signature, and since I was able to compare my 8xx to an 800s, I felt comfortable stating that if the 8xx sounds as good or better than 800s with eq and mods, that it would in fact also sound better than an 800. But I disclosed that I never tested that theory.