Doggie, inquiring minds would like to know how close the Pontus comes to the Terminator 2. That's another I've been looking at.
To be honest I am probably not the best person to answer that. I have been making too many changes at the same time!
I bought the Pontus because I wanted an all solid state DAC that I could leave on all of the time like my previous Yggy. Listening to the Pontus for a couple of weeks convinced me that Denefrips really knows what they are doing and represent an exceptional value. I also liked that they have a US repair facility and a transferable warranty. After reading a number of reviews of the new Terminator 2 I decided to just make the jump. Luckily, in my impulsiveness, I only lost some shipping charges. The Terminator is remarkably full featured. You can switch easily between NOS/OS. It has clock outputs to hook up to a Hermes or Gaia. It has I2S input. It also has remarkable build quality for the price. I probably did not even have the Pontus long enough for it to fully break in.
Fast forward... When I bought the T2 I was also eyeing the Hermes DDC which has I2S output and clock inputs which mate to the T2. Previously I had been using a Mutec USB DDC with clocking from a Mutec REF10. My curiosity was really piqued as I wondered if the Hermes could replace the Mutec equipment at a fraction of their(high) price plus give me I2S and also allow me to feed native DSD and Roon up-sampled DSD512 to the T2 in NOS mode. I received the Hermes yesterday and so far it sounds great feeding Roon up-sampled DSD256 to the T2 in NOS mode. I have only listened for a couple of hours so I believe that there might still be clock temperature stabilization and some break-in improvements to look forward to. The Pontus and Venus do not have the clock outputs for controlling the Hermes but they do have I2S.
I should add to this that I received my X5's two months ago. I would say that the tough part of their epic break-in has passed but they are still definitely improving. This is my way of saying that it is a bit hard for me to say what is contributing the most to the really satisfying sound that I am now getting but these are all excellent purchases.
Best,
Paul
