So what's the deal with MS deciding not to allow you to use more than one sound playback device (in Win 7 anyway)?
On the off chance that MS may have finally implemented this simple feature, it might give me a reason to upgrade to Win 8.
I realize you can use 3rd party apps such as Virtual Audio Cable that let you assign a virtual playback device that then splits the signal to multiple devices. The problem with this is that it requires manual setup every time you want to use it. Yes you can make batch files, etc, to automate doing this on startup, but it's a bit messy to accomplish something that should be so simple. Plus, there are apparently delay issues and difficulties with more than 2-channel sound with Virtual Audio Cable...
With onboard sound and sound devices coming ubiquitously with every motherboard and video card these days, USB speakers/headsets, not to mention actual sound cards and external DACs, the number of available playback devices available to the average PC user is increasing. Yet in Win 7, you must choose. But choose wisely.. No thanks MS.
So why would anyone want to playback the same output signal with more than one device? Some examples:
1) You want to play music in multiple rooms (zones) in a house, the amplifiers in one or more zones having a digital input (DAC)
2) You have a surround sound system and you, say, want to use a separate device to play the surround speakers than that that plays the fronts, at least one of them being a digital input (in this scenario, the delays encountered with Virtual Audio Cable are a deal breaker)
3) You are playing an instrument along with music and want to output sound to both headphones and a stereo powered by separate amps
So, had Win 8 added this obvious feature?