I will by purchasing an RME Adi 2 Dac once units are again available in the UK. Not sure what the current delay is but none of the suppliers have any in stock.
I have some questions about the best way to connect the Adi 2 to my system via USB. I run Roon Rock on a Nuc. On the basis of advice from Roon that it is best not to connect the dac direct to the nuc computer, I use an Allo Usbridge (Dietpi) as a transport/network bridge/Roon endpoint. I have two questions:
Will the Adi 2 work connected to the usbridge?
I understand that the Adi 2 is good at filtering out usb noise, so is the usbridge necessary or can I expect direct connection to the nuc to work just as well?
if fan noise is not an issue for you, I think it will be ok to connect the DAC directly to the NUC.
Otherwise, if you prefer to decouple the core and the endpoint, there is also another option: connect the ADI-2 to a USB port of a Raspberry Pi4 networked with Ropieee. This is my current setup, and it works great.
As said on RME forum, I have an ADI-2 connected to my Allo USBridge. I tested directly on my NUC Roon server… definitly best with Allo.
All is in wifi mesh (NUC, Allo and Synology). And NUC is on WIN10 with ProceesLasso and MinorityClean (with a DC iFi Purifier).
Allo is connected with a simply USB Audiophonics cable with an iFi Silencer.
Thanks for following up Stef. You have answered both points - the Adi 2 works with the usbridge and this sounds better than direct to nuc usb connection. I had suspected as much but had read claims that the Adi 2 is immune to usb noise. Sounds as though I should be able to simply slot in to replace my current dac. Hopefully UK stock will arrive soon!