I think the LGV20 is a steal at its current ebay prices. I have not heard the B&O version to compare. LIke many on these boards, people have personal biases as to family sound signatures. It seems many prominent members feel the ESS Sabre sound is on the side of over analytical, not musical...even over detailed. B&O no doubt probably undoes some of that. For me personally, I have had DACs based on wolfson and BB/TI etc.. Not until I heard my first ESS based DAC was I astounded. The implementation is what makes or breaks it, but he core DNA of the DAC is the core of the sound. I have since gone out of my way to have a higher end external DAC, and higher end AV receivers all just because they feature the ESS DAC. For me, there is something harmonically correct. Sometimes unforgiving, but otherwise true to the recording and music (to my ears). I can listen to a good ESS DAC for hours and hours with no fatigue or boredom rediscovering my music. In the case of the SoC used in the V20 (9218) -- it is everything we listen to. There are compromises in my opinion with using IC opamps and output stages. These are necessary steps when creating a tiny output device like the ESS DAC/headphone amp. It is an end-to-end solution for better or worse. The integrated analog volume control is one big benefit of reducing everything to a single System on a Chip. In short, I think the sound of the V20 is very very good. It is musically accurate and flat. It lacks some soundstage stability, some low-end heft for sure, and some high-end delicacy. But what it does have is a very low noise floor, and extremely detailed presentation. I hear the Sabre Pro core it is based on in its nuance extraction and what seems like minimum phase filtering. It has the kind of "snap" and attack I would expect to hear from a very good digital filter and DAC. In summary, I would trust the ESS folks to create a transparent product.....one capable of high resolution and fidelity. IMO the Sabre32 Pro is state of the art. I don't have any faith in B&O to maintain these things, as I don't with the likes of Bose (or B&O for that matter) or Beats by Dr Dre LoL. Good luck with your choice, and report back your impressions.