Thanks. I have mentioned this a number of times previously, but Alvin, Denafrips' representative in Singapore, was always very communicative and helpful. However, the company itself has, in my view, handled this situation poorly, and the likelihood of a firmware solution at this late stage seems extremely small.
I was also a bit put off by the company's choice to continue to represent at least some of their DAC models as having NOS capability, when it was, and possibly still is not the case.
To be fair, I was broadly happy with the sound and build-quality of the Pontus, but with so many other interesting options in the market, I was happy to take a small loss on re-sale, and move along.
The La Scala sounds superb, though I recognize that some would find it to be lacking in features that are found in some other DACs. They are expensive, but I am confident that in terms of both build and SQ, I would not be likely to find anything much better, and probably at any price.
The other reason that I went with Aqua is that their elegant modular design would allow for fairly simple upgrades in the future, should I be tempted.