Hi,
Some devices when in exclusive mode simply disable Volume control to preserve all audio bits sent to output.

In theory bit perfect playback override any windows settings and send pure decoded bit stream eg. 100% volume, no multi layer audio (WASAPI exclusive mode, same thing is with ASIO) so output device have full control over stream (I have volume knob on all of my sound cards to control output and my Windows volume is always on 100%) no matter what output device is (headphones, A/V receiver, DAC, Optical output, ...). If device do not have hardware solution, then driver needs to correctly set volume level when Windows/App request exclusive mode.

I have 3 USB DACs and all have hardware solution to volume controll that have no effect on windows volume.

Just had another thought on this -- I realized I had the output plugin set to "default device." So I chose the Dragonfly specifically. Pressed play on a new track, and the volume was jacked up to 99. (I was wise this time and didn't have the phones on my ears.) I brought the volume down and pressed pause. Without switching the headphones, when I pressed play, the clipping was there.

So perhaps there is a problem with this device as output? Why?

Rather a frustrating and painful experience using MM5 this evening for the first time in a while as I try out new headphones.

I am using MM5 with WASAPI/exclusive mode output to Audioquest Dragonfly Cobalt (USB DAC). I am trying to compare a couple different headphones. After pausing a track, and unplugging a set of headphones from the DAC and plugging in another set (the DAC remains connected the whole time), when I press play on the track there is clipping (noise). When I do again, the program increases the volume to 99 (when I'd previously set it at 6/100) and just about obliterated my ears. This in particular is a bad bug!

Any suggestions? The audio output plugin really ought to be able to tolerate a pause in playback and swapping out a new pair of headphones connected to the analog end of the same DAC device -- especially when I'm not changing the output device.