Will I regret purchasing the TOPPING E2X2 OTG?

[Schnozinator]

I recently came across the Topping E2X2 OTG and have been debating purchasing this interface. It would be replacing my MOTU M2 which I haven't had long however, I had some issues with MOTU not honoring a warranty claim recently.

I'm ideally looking for something that can drive my Sennheiser HD490 Pros with ease as well as feed phantom power to my Earthworks Ethos mic. It seems like for my budget of $300, the Topping has debatably one of the strongest built in headphone amps. At the end of Julian Krause's review, he did mention issues in the past of Topping units causing damage to gear plugged into them and now I'm a bit hesitant to plug ~$800 of equipment into it.

I've recently hit analysis paralysis as I've seen other units like the Presonus Quantum ES 2 or Lewitt Connect 2, and like the design of these as well as having the I/O in the back for a cleaner desk setup.

Anyways, curious to get your thoughts as a new user here as to what interface best fits my budget/needs, and appreciate any feedback you can provide!

 

[AnalogSteph]

The mic runs on +48V phantom power already. What could an interface do to damage it?

They did once have a run of the L30 amplifier that basically wasn't short-circuit proof and could be damaged during plugging / unplugging cans while on and then in turn pose a threat to headphones... those were recalled and replaced, and nothing of the kind has been heard of since. So I wouldn't worry about that too much.

There's just one thing that everyone seems to be consistently lamenting about the Topping interfaces, and that's the noisy input gain pots. Seems to be a constructive issue.

You have probably seen Julian's reviews of the Connect 2 and Quantum ES 2. Ultimately whatever you buy has to fit your use case.