Side note: I wouldn't use ASIO4ALL, this is a not supported setup and has disadvantages in terms of latency.

With an RME recording device you get an ASIO driver and the purpose of it is, stability and to bypass the Windows soundsystem and access your device with least latency possible and to have a supported setup.

ASIO4ALL is 3rd party software. An additional layer on top of all audio drivers with the aim of solving problems due to bad purchases / deficits in the design phase of your setup with the aim of putting devices with different/own audio drivers together so that you can use them all in applications (DAW, ..) which can only load one audio driver at a time.

Best example: use of USB mic which can not be connected to a recording interface.

But this is definitely not in the sense of an optimal and supported setup.

The only valid solution is to deploy a proper setup based on best practise and which is supportable by RME.

> sufficient for my purposes?

Thats insufficient information because it depends on what you have and what you exactly need.
Nobody has a crystal ball for this so you need to describe your demand more in detail.

For what purpose do you need such a device, what are your use cases ?
What computer do you have, is USB or THunderbolt a requirement or do you need a PCIe based card ?
What other equipment do you have that needs to be connected through ADAT, SPDIF, AES, MADI ?
What type of I/O channels do you need in terms of
- analog I/O: line, instrument, mic inputs
- digital I/O: ADAT, SPDIF, AES, MADI, .. ?

The question is whether you need a recording interface with different I/O ports, mic inputs and with a nice and powerful digital mixer like TotalMix FX.
Or whether you need more simply an USB DAC / converter without TM FX, but very nice advanced features for monitoring through speakers/phones.

Ideal is a combination of both, but this has it's price, so what is your budget for this ?

My blog can deliver to you an overview about:

1. Information about RME USB/Firewire interface with a nice comparison excel
    https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … B-MADIfac/
    Direct link to Excel: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.ph … -04b-xlsx/

2. Information about the different USB DACs / converter ADI-2 DAC / Pro FS R BE
    https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … ses-EN-DE/

The next two overlap a little bit and have different add on information:

3. Information how to integrate an ADI-2 DAC/Pro into your existing RME environment
    https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … our-Setup/
4. Information how to get TotalMix, if you want to use the ADI-2 DAC/Pro
    https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … ort-DE-EN/

5. A descrition of the "evolution" of my recording environment with an overview how I combine Recording/Studio with my HiFi corner with a High End HiFi
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … -DURec-DE/

The least cost intensive solutions from RME are currently:

a) USB interface: Digiface USB with 4x Digital I/O and 1 phones output (ok but the weakest of all in terms of power)
    https://www.rme-audio.de/digiface-usb.html

b) USB interface: Babyface Pro FS a little of everything with the currently fastest converters
    https://www.rme-audio.de/babyface-pro-fs.html

c) PCIe interfaces like: HDSPe AIO Pro with different types of I/O and RayDAT (fully digital) which needs additional devices like preamps, adda converters or e.g. the ADI-2 DAC/Pro to be able to get analog devices connected.
https://www.rme-audio.de/hdspe-aio-pro.html
https://www.rme-audio.de/hdspe-raydat.html

All depends heavily what computer you have, what I/O ports you need and what flexibility / scaleability you need.

You still didn't tell your budget and what you want to connect for monitoring (whether/which phones, whether/which active monitors).

1. DIGIcheck can only be used with a RME recording interface.
2. A DAW can only load one audio driver, in this case it has to be the ASIO driver of the RME recording interface.

Therefore you also need analog outputs on your new recording interface to be able
- to perform your monitoring
- to hear the music
How can you mix and master if you can't hear any tone ?!

3. people's requirements are different, some need only monitors or phones, some need phones and 2 pair of monitors to A/B between different types of monitors or to exclude bad room acoustic through phones. Or to simply simply listen to music through phones.

So you need a recording interface with
- one phones output and
- 2-4 analog outputs to be able to connect one or two pairs of speakers.

Additionally it's important to know, whether this should or has to be an USB or PCIe based interface.

1. You got already in post #7 the information, that DIGIcheck only runs with RME hardware.
2. In post #8 you were advised not to use ASIO4ALL, as it is neither recommended nor a supported solution.
3. An application and also DAW can only load one audio driver at a time.
    This needs to be the ASIO driver of the new RME hardware (which is needed for DIGIcheck).
    Thus you need to perform monitoring through this interface
    and for this reason you need analog ports to be able to connect monitors and phones (to hear any sound).

The rest in this thread is about finding out what RME recording interface you need based on
- your PC or personal preferenced for either a USB or PCIe based solution
- how many analog outputs you need for your monitoring, see previous posting
- and maybe other requirements

Sorry, I am running out of time, others will need to continue here. Good luck with your hw selection.
One thing for sure, with RME you will get an excellent solution.

BTW .. as you seem to be worried in terms of how complicated all is.
The things which I told you are not RME specific, this is the case for all recording solutions not matter from which vendor.

In this case you need RME, because you want RME DIGIcheck and this works only with RME recording interfaces.

FYI ..the point against ASIO4ALL is not specific to RME, it's also valid for all other vendor's recording solutions. All professional recording interfaces with Windows Support have an ASIO driver and this needs to be used for the mentioned reasons. ASIO4ALL is mainly there to mitigate issues because of wrong purchases / bad planning.