Another way to make your music collection available without using the USB is to transfer the files to a NAS drive and let the Node access them over your network. That will also make them available to any other network streaming players in your home. Then you can use the USB output to a suitable DAC as you intend.
Quick USB question
I currently have a Node (2021) streamer and it has only one USB port. Does someone make a decent “Y” adapter? I currently have a 4TB hard drive in it and would like to try using the USB as an output to my DAC.
I’m not sure if it will work. Anyway, with one thing going in and the other going out, not at the same time of course.
Thanks in advance.
JD