Denafrips Terminator II 12th anniversary VS. Terminator PLUS 12th anniversary

I currently have a Pontus II 12th as my first dive into digital and since I have been enjoying the flexibility of having digital as a supplement to my vinyl front end, I have been considering potential upgrades (sigh. it never ends, does it).

I am a bit confused about these two offerings, however, and was wondering if anyone has heard them both:

Terminator Plus 12th - $7700 approx USD
Terminator II 12th - $4975 approx USD

An approximate $2725 premium for the PLUS. The only difference in specs I could find is 'high end OXCO' in the PLUS and a 'fancier' faceplate. I'm not sure if these small differences warrant a ~55% premium?

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As a side note, I do enjoy the Pontus II I have now, but after hearing some higher end DACs recently - Lampizator Poseidon was a big stand out - it's glaringly obvious that the Pontus II is a lower price point DAC. 😅 While it definitely sounds excellent for the price point, I'm definitely wanting for more, even with the Gaia DDC.

It's not quite as 3D and can get a little bit veiled sounding to me - especially on the top end sometimes. The better DACs I've heard are better able to get that 3D effect and get more detail and air around the top end without sacrificing a laid back or natural sound.

While I was enthralled with the Poseidon I heard, it's quite outside of my price range (and I simply do not have room for that monster of a DAC, nor pretty much any of the Lampi DACs due to their height). I feel like it probably makes more sense to stick with Denafrips for an upgrade as I can continue using the Gaia with either of the Terminator options easily.

I am open to consider other DAC options in the 5-10k range, but need to be 7" or shorter (with feet). I'm not really interested in any streaming/DAC combination units as I use a stand alone digital source (Innuos Zen mk3) so would prefer to have a DAC without all that extra stuff thrown in.