Thanks for all the kind words guys. I only played through/tweaked the II for 60 - 90 minutes - not enough time to develop the ability to do a really thorough and detailed review, but definitely enough time to determine that there is indeed a significant improvement in several areas. I played through the Bassman, Vox, Twin, Dumble, and Friedman models using the Blue, 4x12 25W, and 4x12 Basketweave IR's. I don't have the technical terminology or amp design experience to describe precisely what has improved but they have all definitely improved in terms of tonality, feel, harmonic richness, and responsiveness.
In my experience as a player, I've used (and still own) a Boogie Mark IIB, an Egnater TOL 100 (pre-rocktron), and a Matchless HC-30. I enjoyed all of these amps. None of them require a great deal of tweaking. There's really not much you can tweak, relatively speaking. You plug in, twist a couple of knobs to take the edge off what you don't like and try to add in what you do. Then you play. All of the models on the II respond similarly. I enjoyed that.
The Dumble and the Vox models have very significantly improved over those in the Ultra. I don't know the right term, but on the Ultra, there is an undesirable distortion that occurs when you have the master volume too high on these models (this may be what some have identified as "flubby" bass, but it's more as it affects the high frequencies as well - is it power amp transient response?). On the Ultra, it seems to occur suddenly and almost chaotically (again, searching for words here...). On the II, it was much more controlled and pleasant.
The quick edit knobs are very handy. You have 5 knobs to work with and they automatically assign to 5 successive parameters in the interface as you move the value knob assignment. So in many of the screens, you can tweak all five parameters using just the knobs. In the screens where parameters are displayed as a list, the 5 assigned move with the value knob assignment.
I did not spend time with effects or explore the new X/Y functionality. Basically, I was looking to get a feel for how the models and IR's responded and sounded through my FRFR solution. I liked what I experienced and heard.
How much of an improvement is it over the Ultra? Enough for me to get one. I haven't decided whether I'm going to keep the Ultra after getting the II or not, but will definitely not sell it before. I'm not sure I'll ever go back to tube amps.
Bottom line, you do have to play through one to understand and experience the differences. (I believe that for most of us, language fails to convey these things and terms used mean different things to different people.) When I listen to the video, I believe I can hear a difference and an improvement (these are tones I use regularly on the Ultra), but I have not done a comparison. It is purely by memory. Once I have both, I'll definitely be doing some A/B comparisons. But I can confidently say that there is a difference in how the II responds to tweaking and playing.
Frankly, I had kind of decided to wait a bit on the II and see what happens. After playing through it yesterday, I'm now very eager to get one and am feeling that familiar obsessive impatience again.
Mike