And honestly re the Topping I didn’t look at any measurements I just watched a few YouTube videos where the reviewers (like Cheap Audio Man) were saying it was great. Well, now I know.
As a former reviewer I will say 90% of YouTube reviews I see are utter garbage. There’s often little/no depth, rigor, or context — they just listen for a bit, set up a camera and then just spew forth crap off the top of their head. There are a precious few who I think do a good job, but the vast majority I just shake my head in disgust over their “process” and “reviews.”
Anyway, if you end up keeping the Pontus you should strongly consider adding a DDC and run i2S as you can get a very significant performance improvement for relatively not much $. Something like a used Denafrips Iris works well and can be had for only around $400, which is what I did. FWIW.