IMHO it's pretty absolute. The B22 is a control machine which does nothing to give bass the type of "blossom" and development the HD800 require to sound full. Plus it does nothing to hide recording mistakes and brightness, which the HD800 will portray merciless. With the Beta the HD800 fall into the analytic side of things, which is just "meh", but well, re-thinking the initial statement, it's relative to the listener's taste and preferences, as usual