This is what the top left of my screen looks like when I'm listening to music...
So I listen through a bunch of stuff, and only sometimes am I sending the digital stream directly to the DAC. I like to do bass equalization (as you can see). Sometimes I don't, but often I do.
When processing sound, obviously you don't want to run into clipping... This equalizer behaves well in that it'll do [level] compression of any clipping, but that's a safety feature and nothing more.
The way I've been having to set the "Preamplification" level is by opening Control Panel > Sound, scrolling to the device, and hiding the sliver of that window which is the level meter in the corner of my screen. For example, I can't fully maximize my Tidal window or the Equalizer APO window, I've always gotta shrink it to fit...
So I've been wondering for a while if there's something that can monitor the content of Windows' Direct Sound, and generate Peak and VU meters?
Another thought that just popped into my head is this: Is there software which creates a virtual output device which you pick in your programs, and then it sends the direct stream to the DAC? Basically to bypass Windows' own virtual device ("Default Sound Device" or whatever they call it) which which Windows applies whatever it wants to the signal before outputting it. I know it's not asT bad as in XP/Vista, and somewhat 7 days... but if, for example, Tidal, could output "Exclusive Mode" to the virtual device, which Equalizer APO modified directly, and then the virtual device went WASAPI to the DAC (or whatever). That would be ideal