So I've been trying to use VLC with WASAPI in exclusive mode to have "bitperfect" audio coming from my USB DAC but can't find how anywhere in the advanced menu, even when disabling the audio resampler, and VLC doesn't support ASIO and never will.

This post from one of the developer says there's a flag for it, but there isn't on Windows 7 as far as I can see (I've searched EVERYTHING). :

Wasapi Exclusive mode? - The VideoLAN Forums

MPC-BE can do WASAPI exclusive mode with Bitperfect option added but I am used to VLC so much I'm hesitant to switch for such a trivial reason

Another question I have is should I let the "Stereo audio output mode" to "unset" as it is by default, or shouldI use "Stereo" or "Headphones" since I'm only using headphones. When left to "unset" the video file is set to "original" if there's more than two channels present, I guess VLC and/or Windows handle the downmixing to stereo by itself ? (as you can guess I am quite clueless when it comes to audio).

I use mpv media player in bitperfect mode with real-time sound on FreeBSD. The nice thing about FreeBSD is that you can make all your apps (Firefox, video players, audio players) bitperfect with one config setting. mpv also has better picture quality than VLC so I would recommend you to use mpv, although I also think it works less well on windows than on Linux and FreeBSD. Linux with SPDIF can also still produce good sound.

This is what my FreeBSD system sounds like:

Infinity Alpha 5 HSV II and FreeBSD sound demo.mov

drive.google.com

 

VLC is bunk. It gets the job done for video and audio, sure, but it has pedestrian and crappy performance. JRiver or Roon would give you massively improved audio quality. JRiver is still the best standalone video player I've ever seen and Roon is nearly unbeatable for PC audio playback.

 

What are the best media players for Windows? https://www.slant.co/topics/7820/~media-players-for-windows