[mcandmar]

  When I first started out utilizing computer audio with audiophile gear, I got introduced to ASIO as well. WASAPI is a function strictly limited to Windows Vista and above, so if you happen to be using Windows XP, WASAPI is not an option for you.
 
What I didn't fancy with using ASIO though, was that every time I played a song in foobar via the ASIO device, the ASIO plugin used to take over complete control over the sound card ( no other system sounds were being processed at all, just the song being played ). All fine and dandy with me, whenever I listen to a song, I don't usually care about other system sounds, but even if I paused the song, the ASIO device used to retain control over the sound card and did not allow any other sound to be processed. I had to STOP the song in order for ASIO to step back and the sound card to return to its usual state.
 
WASAPI doesn't have that problem at all, and I highly doubt that you're gonna be able to hear a substantial difference between those two.

 
WASAPI does take complete control of the playback device so nothing else can use it.  It can actually cause some apps to stop responding like Spotify and Flash Player if the audio device is taken away from them while playing.  The whole point of WASAPI is to bypass the windows audio stack and interface directly with the playback device, by that very definition the device is "unavailable" to windows or any other app to play back though it.

 

[Jam Boy]

 
WASAPI does take complete control of the playback device so nothing else can use it.  It can actually cause some apps to stop responding like Spotify and Flash Player if the audio device is taken away from them while playing.  The whole point of WASAPI is to bypass the windows audio stack and interface directly with the playback device, by that very definition the device is "unavailable" to windows or any other app to play back though it.

 


A quick caveat is that Wasapi running in non-exclusive mode will let you hear system sounds and other audio streams while playing music through your media player.

However, not allowing applications to take exclusive control of the audio negates all the benefits of Wasapi and is essentially like running Directsound.