Having a problem where whenever Roon plays audio the rest of my computer mutes and I can’t use my equalizer. Setting it to system output fixes this but leaves me without bit perfect playback. Thank you.
Do you have the playback settings of the selected endpoint set to Exclusive Mode? That is basically telling the computer “only play sound on this endpoint”.
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To add on, I believe that’s the only way to get bit perfect playback. If you want your system sounds @heat you need to unfortunately go through your OS’s mixer. Which often is murdering and resampling your audio. We can’t get our cake and eat it too 
I wish I could have output audio as well!
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Agree, bit perfect and OS mixer is kind of mission impossible. I have always solved this by having music on one input of the DAC, and ordinary PC sound on another input of the DAC or pre amp. Takes me 1-2 seconds to switch (can even be done via the remote control). So it is possible to with the best from both worlds, you just need to think different.
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I do the same using BNC and USB inputs. But unfortunately it’s not simultaneous like the OP is asking. My situation is listening to great music while hearing whatever quieter small cues my games play. But I’d rather play muted than interfere with my sound 
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With exclusive mode this is mission impossible. You can disable direct mode and use audio device for both OS specific sounds + Roon. So there is a solution here, but with exclusive mode this is mission impossible. We can not ask Roon to change reality.
Hence it is bit perfect, or mixing Roon with OS (other programs) sound. Both are not an alternative.
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Correct, you and I are saying the same thing 
I think we can all agree bit perfect playback is worth the compromise.
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No compromise, just better audio quality 
Hello hells and Tor, I appreciate you both responding. I likely overthought my solution to this problem but it is as follows: I installed a Kernel Streaming audio repeater(VAC) and wrote a batch file to auto run it to my specifications, then connected that to an autohotkey script. Now I pause the music in Roon, wait for the signal path indicator to vanish and then press the hotkey. While I cannot do simultaneous audio this is an acceptable compromise for bitperfect playback as you both said.
Thank you for your responses and for explaining to me the nature of Exclusive Mode. It took some figuring out and googling but with this solution I no longer have to refresh my other software when I want to return audio to them, I just have to run the batch script.
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That seems like overkill still. When you pause in Roon it releases the exclusive lock. Have you tried pausing and waiting 15 or 30 seconds? Audio should return. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a case where it hasn’t got myself.
Audio does return after 15-30 seconds, this just cuts some of the guesswork out of it. I take work calls from my computer and this little script just gives me peace of mind that I’ll have audio when I accept the call. I ran into problems a few times where I’d click accept the call before Roon had fully returned audio and had to call the client back, or had to restart my web browser to regain audio. This addresses that for me.
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