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Am I missing something here? Can't you just change the default sound device to the DAC?

Maybe elfchief doesn't want chord.wav to play on the hi-fi system, so doesn't set the DAC as the default device

Pretty much this. I have a pair of studio monitors set up for music and tuned for music. Game audio and random youtube videos don't sound so great with that setup, so I don't want it to be my default.

Sure, I could change the default every time I fire up Spotify, but that's annoying and I really shouldn't have to do it -- this kind of setup is not that unusual for music lovers, and it's not a difficult feature to add.

Have you heard of this http://www.chevolume.com/

It lets you set an app to use a default audio device, which may solve your issue with spotify. Some apps just ignore it, and only play through the system default though.

Or use pulseaudio under Linux and enjoy any setup you like of inputs and outputs!

I have a USB DAC, that's exactly how it works for me...it'll happily switch between the builtin audio and USB DAC while playing, too.

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