Selecting the WDM version of my headset crackles, MME does not

[tkr]

Crossposting from Reddit
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Having a weird issue where the audio will sound as if someone is talking through a fan (as if the audio is being chopped up) when selecting WDM, but selecting MME is fine. This happens when ANY audio is coming through, even just watching a YT video or listening to Spotify.

I can select MME, but everything I see and hear tells me I should always use WDM, and I'm unsure as to why WDM isn't working in this case.

Screenshots of my settings are here: https://imgur.com/a/8D1llXd

Any ideas as to why this might be happening?

[Andres]

Hi. Apparently Exclusive Mode has been disabled on the Speakers (Sennheiser) properties. Go to Sound control panel - Playback - Right click the Speakers icon - Choose Properties - Advanced tab - Enable both checkmarks in the Exclusive Mode section:

Exclusive Mode.png (9.9 KiB) Viewed 30424 times

Voicemeeter will use your WDM output devices in Exclusive Mode. This avoids other applications to use the device at the same time. In contrast, MME uses the output device in Shared mode (other applications can use it simultaneously).

The S at the end of the A1 device in the System Settings option denotes the device is being used in shared mode. It is only applicable to WDM.

Shared Mode.png (86.28 KiB) Viewed 30424 times

Hope this helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

[tkr]

When I check those exclusive mode boxes, I get this error instead when I select the speakers as A1:

https://imgur.com/a/SFrS2SL

[tkr]

For any who might be having the same issue as me, e.g. can't select WDM as an output source, getting weird choppy audio, the solution here was to uninstall the drivers from the manufacturer (in my case, I'm using the Sennheiser GSP 670s, so I uninstalled the EPOS software), and now it works perfectly.

[Vincent Burel]

interesting!

the WDM share mode often does not work well with Voicemeeter and output audio device... using MME interface instead can also be a good workaround...