At the last SF Bay meet, I did some extensive (read: 20 minutes) comparison against Geek Out 450 with 3 different headphones: Ether, my LCD-2, and HE-1000, and here are my thoughts in closer details:
First thing that hit me was the gradation of volume shifts. This applied to everything from super low sub bass all the way to upper midrange (I have difficulties dealing with higher than upper midrange, so I can't quite say anything about up there). Subtle variations in intensity are more easily picked out with V2, whereas my 450 tends to just smooth over or ignore these variations. Like Marv said, it tends to shoot up too fast. Or... in my own words, let me describe this: it's like I'm hearing the transitions in my music... from one part to the next.
The ability to reveal those transitions makes the V2 more "coherent" to me. Granted, without hearing that in the first place, I would have thought the presentation of the 450 was good. Next to V2, 450 sounds a bit like a radio in that way... since the subtle variations are kinda inaudible, or lost. I think this is why Marv said V2 sounded more musical. I agree with him. It wasn't the extra details, but that the subtle variations in the vocal, which represent the different states of emotions for the singer, are just more audible, lending to that musicality. This applies to instruments as well. The tone of strings are more varied, more shaded, and more... emotional, rather than just monotonic plucking.
Is this related to high resolution? Uh... not really. I noticed this even with 256kbps AAC music at 44.1KHz 16-bit. It's definitely not a resolution problem. In fact, it's the same thing with Yggy. It's not resolution. It's simply how the DAC is... planktons have always been there. Ya just need a DAC that can pull 'em out. And I'm quite certain V2 is more capable than 450 at that.
As a whole, I think V2's tonality is more agreeable than 450 as well. At least it is to my ears. It's a bit less bright, more bassy, but bass is very tight, focused, and articulate, and midrange is a bit more even. I think what it is is probably the absence of some upper midrange/lower treble peakiness. I never thought that the 450 had that, but then I heard V2, and now I can hear it plain as day. It's like a slight metallic/sharp tinge to the treble range for me. It gives strings some good definition, but I don't think it's realistic, as all strings sound a bit too sharp, whereas I'm sure different string instruments with different string materials should sound different.
So that's how I hear the V2... as an overall improvement over V1 (450 in this case). As for how it compares to the other DACs, well, I'm ill-equipped right now, so I can't quite tell, but I'm sure it'll be very competitive with DACs around its price range.
Bill is not a resolution and detail whore, but this DAC is slowly convincing me that I'll want those at some point.
Casey, I didn't write this in my email response to ya (since you asked for my impressions). I hope this is detailed enough? Many at the meet who got to try my system with either of the 3 headphones above also shared the same sentiment, that...the biggest difference between the 2 was the transitions in between... well, everything. It was quite an eye-opening experience!
Pyrates, if there is ever a DAC that Bill the tonal and midrange guy recommends, this is it!
