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The DAC side is a proper rabbit hole. I started years ago with a simple usb dac, now I'm running lots of different digital systems, too many to think about really. Optical is handy to isolate from computer earth loops but a lot of the higher end dacs don't have it as an input so you might do better on the usb side.
I can recommend the gustard U12 usb->aes device, really good isolation and solid power supply, then you can run aes to something like a Lavry DA10 or some RME/Motu interfaces are decent value. I'm only going up to 96/24. I do have a marantz sacd which does dsd but my main speaker systems are digital and 96/24 so there's minimal if any gains to be had from dsd conversion. The Gustard will handle dsd if you need it though.
One thing that has impressed me with Roon is the ability to authorise and un-authorise different locations depending on where you want your licence to be working. If I go to my second location it checks to see if I have another location running and I can de-authorise it but it's not crazy demanding, sometimes it will allow 2 locations to operate for a short period of time and the change over is quick and painless anyway. It was one aspect that had worried me but they have it working perfectly.
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Airhead
I’ve only got two (Roon) endpoints at home so far. One is the Mac mini itself in the office. I just hooked it up via the audio jack to this Topping TP22 class D amp I had kicking around and some £20 JPW mini monitors sat on the oak desktop. Really pleased with it, might look at a DAC in due course as the Mac can do optical out.