Looking at 2.5” cases, they largely seem to get their power from the destination end. To mitigate that would mean getting power separately inline, such as the iFi hub. The downside, cost aside, is the need for another USB cable of at least the not so cheap TotalDac’s quality. Otherwise, it undermines the gain that a separate power source provides. And even the iFi would need an LPS, since their wall warts are sonically garbage. I can see why your set up is so involved. What I’m looking at is where the biggest sonic gains for the buck are especially given that my Oppo has a beefed up power supply, uses digital only and igets AC from a regenerator. The bigger gains seem to me to be had more from 1) between Oppo and Lampi dac, where I’m using an iFi spdif i-purifier, powered by a Paul Hynes SR4 LPS and a Zen Audio 5v power cord; 2) the sonic quality of tubes in the dac and preamp; and 3) physical isolation of the components and speakers.
Follow up: I asked Uptone about using the Regen inline from the SSD to the Oppo. Alex said it would work, but he wasn't sure it would offer much benefit because their products are designed to help a USB dac. Worth a try, as soon as an adapter arrives.
