Soundsgoodtome
Headphoneus Supremus
A copy of a PM I've recently sent to someone:
Hello, The Pagoda is the most neutral sounding and has a wide soundstage. It can be unforgiving with certain music that falls short in the mastering/production dept but with great music it's fantastic. Initially bright but after certain amount of hours it breaks in quite nicely.
The Stockholm V2 is more towards the MHDT house sound and that's a little bit of warmth but keeping all the details and clarity the dacs offer. The Stockholm V2 is what I'd recommend for headphones that tilt to neutral or bright or for those looking to have coloration (warmth/tube) to their sound. Of course this is in a subtle way where after longer listening this sound will become head-neutral. I had the Stockholm V2 for 2 weeks and during that time it was plugged into Fostex powered bookshelves, I don't have a direct comparison to the Pagoda but it does sound like a sweeter more tube oriented DAC where as the Pagoda can sound very neutral yet have that tube richness. You can also play with the Pagoda's signature more because of it's neutrality and the different tubes plugged in will allow you to hear the changes in a more pronounced matter than the Sv2.
If you're familiar with guitars the comparison is similar to a Fender Strat (Pagoda) vs a Gibson Les Paul (Stockholm V2). Both can sound thick but the Gibson is going to have that Les Paul/humbucker sound no matter how you use it. The Fender on the other hand can sound tactile or thick, just depends on how you set up the chain (in which case here, the tube and amp/speakers/phones).