Here's another (older) source, see page 2: http://www.acourate.com/OperatingSystem ... eRates.pdf ("all audio is resampled by the OS to that set in the control panel. Similarly, the output can be bit perfect if the source rate matches the output rate.") and the measurements at page 6 describing Windows' sample rate conversion as 'extremely poorly'.
It also seems likely that it's just wasting CPU resources to upconvert / downconvert a perfectly fine audio file when the card supports the format natively.
I've made a Windows Insider feedback here which you can upvote if you would like Windows 10 to change its behavior to be more rational in shared mode: https://aka.ms/AA5qopt
So luckily MediaMonkey 4 supports exclusive mode. However, when enabled in the output WASAPI Plug-in default settings (44.1 kHz, 16 bit) will still resample unnecessarily in some cases (for example a FLAC 48 kHz file), right? Unless I select Automatic Choice of Format (Per Track) in MediaMonkey WASAPI Output Plug-in configuration which was suggested in the Wiki: https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/ind ... ediamonkey
This is the setting I'm talking about: https://imgur.com/S9icBfWAutomatic choice of format (per track) - asks the card for supported modes and chooses the one that's closest (best) for the source format of the track
There is also a Format: Same as Source option at the bottom of that list. I'm assuming that is inferior to the 'per track' option (EDIT: the wiki confirms that it's inferior since it doesn't query the card for supported modes).
So my question is: why isn't Automatic Choice of Format (Per Track) the default when the user enables Exclusive Mode in the WASAPI Plug-in?
Considering that as a users library size increases, the likelihood increases that they will have source files that are not 44.1 kHz @ 16 bit.