Please help: Play music on two headphones at the same time | Initialize return error

[shazam911]

Hi there,

I am new in this forum and hope that someone with voicemeeter expertise can help me to solve my issues with voicemeeter. I already tried to receive support in the discord voicemeeter channel but there was no one who had an idea on how to resolve this. I really appreciate your input.

Operating System:
Windows 11
DELL XPS 9530
Voicemeeter 1.1.1.1

Headphones:
BOSE 700
Sony WH-XB700

My goal:
I want to listen to music and audio files on two bluetooth speakers at the same time.

Procedure:
I installed voicemeeter
I successfully connect both headphones via bluetooth with my laptop
I open voicemeeter
I set the windows sound to "Voicemeeter input"
In voicemeeter I set in hardware output A1 the Bose 700 headphones
In voicemeeter Is set in hardware output A2 the Sony headphones
The A2 hardware output flashes red and I receive an error message

Problem:
It is not possible the play music via two devices.

I also tried switching both headphones in A1 and A2
When I try to play it on Laptop speakers and a headphones at the same time it also does not work
I already tried to update all drivers (realtek). No change.
In the sound settings I tried to switch off "exclusive mode" for each of the headphons. No change.

Error message from voicemeeter:
Failed to Open Main Output Device (A1)
Device not ready or used by another process.
Select A1 Output Device first !

keep default settings (default buffer size).
Device configuration might be 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96kHz only

pAudioClient->Initialize return error -2004287473
(0x8889000F)


Screenshots:

[Vincent Burel]

yes, it's of course possible to playback audio in several device with Voicemeeter.
but if the WDM audio interface, you may use the MME interface for your second headphone (check it is well plugged).

if you both headphones are Bluetooth, there is maybe a System limitation... so you question will become:
can we use 2x Bluetooth headphones in the same time under Windows?

knowing the fact that Bluetooth technology is able to manage a single audio stream at a time.

[shazam911]

Hi Vincent Burel,

thanks for getting back to me. I have already tried switching the second headphones to MME and the first one to WDE. I had the same error. I also tried it with one Bluetooth headphone and laptop speakers simultaneously. But also the same error.

There is definitely no system limitation to using two Bluetooth devices at the same time. Prior to this laptop I had the Dell XPS 9560, on this machine two Bluetooth devices worked perfectly fine with voicemeeter. Now I have the successor, Dell XPS 9530 and it does not work with voicemeeter. But I can perfectly connect the two devices with the computer at the same time. I just don't get them to play music at the same time with voicemeeter.

Do you know what the error message says and what could cause the issue?

Thanks again

[Vincent Burel]

There is definitely no system limitation to using two Bluetooth devices at the same time.

except this one: You can only use one device per Bluetooth adapter (single audio stream).

https://superuser.com/questions/931188/ ... -at-a-time

it can work if you have 2 different BT adapters (one for the headphone 1, one for the headphone 2).

other solution is to use VBAN-Receptor Lite on your mobile phone to get another wireless headphone.
more info: viewtopic.php?t=443

[shazam911]

But it used to work totally fine on my previous laptop which is the same product line and same manufacturer. If the previous laptop had two Bluetooth connectors then also the current one. I can also perfectly connect both Bluetooth devices in Windows 11. Both are visibly connected in the Bluetooth settings. So as I can successfully connect to two BT devices at the same time, I obviously have two adapters, isn't?

I think the error message is also indicating sth different. It says Device is used by another process. This is what I don't get. I don't know any software that is currently using my headphones.

I appreciate you are taking the time to help me. Do you have any more ideas?

[Vincent Burel]

well, you can check that one of your headphone is not used as default playback device by the system, maybe this could prevent Voicemeeter to use it... usually you may set Voicemeeter virtual input as default playback device.

BTW: you may update to Voicemeeter 1.1.1.3

[shazam911]

Hi Vincent,

a bit of good news: I am one step closer to solving the problem. As you suggested I updated the software to version 1.1.1.3.

For some reason it is not possible that I play music on Realtek (computer audio) and one bluetooth speaker at the same time. It works just fine. And that did also not work until before.

Yet, it is still not possible to play music on two bluetooth headphones at the same time even though both are connected to the computer. However, the error message that I receive is not a different one.

Can you help? This is the error
Failed to open Output device: Function waveOutOpen failed Undefined external error