couple years back i had compared the original terminator to the pontus 2 at length, both had the ’updated dsp module’ offered in that period - i felt the terminator brought the treble energy forward quite a bit and had a slightly broader soundstage (no doubt due to a more robust output stage and power supply), and a slightly finer grain to the sound
the one fault of the pontus i heard was a sense of noticeable grain in the lower treble/upper mids, despite the midrange and midbass being so lovely, warm and dimensional (which made it special, to my ears).... at that time, i ditched the term and kept the pontus, which i felt represented great value given its sound and fairly modest cost
only later i got a modded mhdt tube buffered dac and that to my ear was even more beautiful and organic sounding than the pontus, with enough detail and speed, and without the slight grainy texture to the sound