What would be the best way to isolate a direct attached usb DAC? Can it be done with something on / between / before the USB connection (currently good USB cable + Jitterbug) or is it easier to just buy a streamer to do it through the network?

I've even removed the WiFi card I had in it originally. The server is on an on-board (intel chipset on ASUS mobo) Ethernet and is rock solid.

It charges the macbook (slowly), but having another dongle sticking out the machine kind of defeats the purpose of having a single cable docking station. I 've just started trying out an HP USB-C docking station I borrowed to see if I can get a more reliable network connection (which it seems to do), but have noticed that my speakers start humming if I connect my Dragonfly to the same dock. My iPad Pro has also 5gHz AC wifi that does always work on my home WiFi, I'll try it with an Apple USB 3 Camera Adaptor I ordered, which arrives tomorrow. I have awesome signal strength, but no throughput. I hear many people have issues with this type of macbook pro and the 5gHz band.

I can't get acceptable speeds on the 5gHz bands (which should theoretically solve the bandwith problem), and haven't been able to troubleshoot it. 2.4gHz works well, but that band is often saturated in the house, especially when 2 Macs start back-upping with timemachine + netflix + tidal streaming. This also happens when i connect to other networks when I'm on the road. It tends to stop working after a sleep, and it takes ages to wake back up. I have the Mac hooked up with a Startech USB-C Ethernet adapter right now. When it plays, the SQ is the best I can get now on the Mac + Dragonfly Red. I do recommend that you put the Roon server on a wired Ethernet connection if you can as intermittent issues with Wifi are magnified with both server and endpoint on Wifi. I'm assuming you are using Wifi with the MAC, that's an easy way to achieve electrical isolation from your local network. Mac does good hardware integration, no surprise that you like it as a Roon endpoint.

Audioengine d1 dac settings for mac