You are perfectly fine using . The convenience of hearing everything at once and the transparent nature of modern resamplers (especially in Windows 10) means you won't hear a difference. However, ensure your sample rate in Windows Sound Settings matches your typical content. If you watch movies (usually 48kHz) and listen to music (44.1kHz), set Windows to 24-bit, 48kHz to avoid unnecessary resampling of video content.
This is the default state for most applications. Audio streams are sent to the Windows Audio Engine, where they are mixed with sounds from other apps and system notifications. In this mode, the audio engine may resample the audio to a common format (e.g., 48kHz, 24-bit) defined in the system's Sound Control Panel. wasapi windows 10
App A → Audio Driver → DAC → Speakers. (The mixer is skipped). You are perfectly fine using
: While in this tab, you can also select the default bit depth and sample rate for Shared mode (e.g., 24-bit, 48000 Hz). www.donyaquick.com +1 Common Use Cases Application Type Recommended Mode Benefit Audiophile/Hi-Fi (Foobar2000, Tidal) Exclusive Native sample rate playback and no system sounds. Recording/DAW (Audacity, Reaper) Exclusive or Shared Reduced lag between input and output. Screen Recording (OBS, Audacity) WASAPI Loopback Captures clean internal system audio. Pro-Tip If you watch movies (usually 48kHz) and listen to music (44
Windows 10 (and 11) have significantly improved WASAPI. The inclusion of (a modern UWP API) and better multi-channel support has made WASAPI robust. However, Microsoft is slowly pushing towards a new audio stack called Audio Device Graph Isolation (audiodg.exe), which is essentially WASAPI 2.0—more secure, isolated, and efficient.