What about the MOTU has you concerned around difficulty of use? IMO the most difficult thing is getting your arms around CamillaDSP, the MOTU itself is very straightforward.
Michael
Honestly, much of it is fear of the unknown. I know everything Motu has to be setup for whatever OS you are going to use, and I don’t completely understand if it is picky about the Linux version you pair it with, or if Ubuntu (which I haven’t used), is what plays nice with the Motu (perhaps it would be easiest to setup on my PC before deploying to DAC duty, but IDK. Then, you have to further set it up with CueMix5 (I have no idea how this works). Next, the Motu has a fixed sampling rate, and doesn’t automatically adjust with the source- so you would have to upsample before sending it to the Motu (and often upsampling sounds a little strange to me). Finally, I assume assigned output channels in Camilla/RPI are going to integrate/translate into the Motu’s channels in a straightforward way, but again, IDK.
In all reality, there are a number of uncertainties with my other route, BUT the Moode/Camilla online community is robust and has done this things like the OKTO DAC, and mini DSP- so I feel like I can get a variety of support/help/advise going this route.
The MOTU may be easier than I am thinking. It just seems like there are multiple layers of setup, OS pickiness, and lots of extra features to potentially have to fool with to make it jive with a RPI. I actually don’t like playing with, or trying to understand computers, at all. The RPI is just so good, tiny, and capable- it was worth learning, and the tutorials are plentiful (also plentiful for Moode/Camilla).
I envision a quick piece of code to drop in Camilla, for whichever version of my imaginary MCH DAC comes to existence (like they have for Minidsp and OKTO), and that’s it- you are off to the races. The reason ALLO sells products where you select the OS and player, and they preload it on the included RPI, is that people want as few steps as possible to get to a system where they can start doing what they want.
In addition to wanting great stuff- I don’t want speaker building to die (but it is not the youngest group of hobbyists). I want the hobby to go to the next level AND be appealing to the next generation. This is how I think we get there, but it is imperative that we have the trifecta of good/cheap/easy to use. s not that Millennials like good stuff, too- but they tend to be like, “Your $30k system sounds truly amazing, and I wish I had it- but $30k is so far out of my reach that, I don’t even want to start down this road.”