[Mike B.]

I have my music stored on a Fathom USB drive going into a dedicated Intel I7 NUC. Signal comes out of NUC to DAC via USB. I recently saw a thread here where that was not advised by a poster. Why is this a problem if at all?

[mcgsxr]

I'll be interested in the theory.

I hang a 5TB drive off my dedicated netbook - though the music is then fed ethernet to a player and then via optical to the DAC.

[Mike B.]

I tied to locate the thread about it with no success. I think it was Steve N. who stated it.

[Vincent Kars]

It reminds me a bit of discussions on https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=pcaudio in the period 2010-2015.
Some even suggested one should use different protocols e.g. USB for data and  firewire for audio.
All of this to improve the sound quality.

If you want to experiment a little, you might try having the data and the DAC on different hubs.
Or even better, the DAC as the single user of a hub.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Windows/Win7/USBDAC.htm

If you do have a DAC with sufficient isolation at the USB receiver, I don’t expect any difference.
However, some USB ports might be more prone to CRC errors, in that specific case, changing ports might help.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/USB_Trouble.htm

[Mike B.]

If I remember correctly, the person was recommending putting the data drives on a network and accessing them by ethernet. I tied it and didn't find any sonic performance difference. It did mess with my remote control of Jriver using a tablet.