AudioHQ is a compact Windows audio router, output mixer, per-application volume controller, and equalizer. Choose one playback device as the source and mirror its audio to multiple outputs at once, with independent gain, mute, activation, and EQ for every destination.
It is designed like a small desktop monitor controller: fast to operate, resilient to device changes, and fully portable.
Stack: .NET 7, C#, WPF (hand-rolled MVVM), NAudio 2.3. Windows only.
Windows lets you play to one output device at a time. AudioHQ removes that limit:
- Play music on your desk speakers and your headphones at the same time.
- Send the same audio to a second room or a second amp.
- Keep a Bluetooth headset and a wired DAC in sync, with independent volume each.
- Control individual application volumes without opening the Windows mixer.
- Shape every mirrored output independently with graphic EQ and bass-only filtering.
- A detachable application mixer that can be docked, floated, resized, hidden, and restored while preserving pin state and application order.
- A per-output 3-band or 6-band equalizer with adjustable Q, response visualization, bass-only low-pass filtering, and named presets.
- Automatic EQ preset loading, clear unsaved-state labels, one-click reset, and safe overwrite/delete actions.
- Coordinated desktop windows: AudioHQ, EQ, Options, and the detached mixer hide, restore, close, and move as one application group.
- Automatic source/device recovery, clearer status reporting, and expanded automated regression coverage.
- Mirror one source to many outputs. Capture any active render device and fan it out to as many other devices as you like.
- Per-output volume. Every output is a strip with an ON/OFF mirror toggle and a gain fader (0-200%, unity at 100%, colour-zoned green/amber/red). Add, remove, rename, reorder, and horizontally scroll larger channel sets.
- Master strip. Controls the Windows volume of the source device directly.
- Per-output equalizer. Open EQ from any channel for 3-band or 6-band control, adjustable bell width (Q), a live response curve, and an optional 12/24 dB/oct bass-only low-pass filter.
- Named EQ presets. Presets are shared across channels, load immediately when selected, identify unsaved edits, and support reset, overwrite, and delete actions.
- Dockable per-app mixer. Control the volume and mute state of applications currently playing on the default output. Pin and reorder apps, dock the mixer into AudioHQ or float it beside the main window, resize it up to ten visible rows, and hide/show it from the chevron rail. Layout and dock state persist across restarts.
- Adaptive drift compensation. Independent device clocks normally let the delay slowly creep until an audible re-sync jump. AudioHQ continuously nudges each output's resample ratio (by a fraction of a percent - inaudible) to hold the latency steady. It tracks the buffer's low point, so it copes even with bursty wireless sources that deliver audio in large chunks.
- Latency presets. Ultra 15 ms / Low 30 ms / Balanced 60 ms / Safe 100 ms.
- Curated, persistent channels. Add or remove outputs, rename them
(double-click), and drag to reorder. Channels, gains, activation, focus, EQ,
presets, mixer layout, and window placement are saved to
settings.json. - Automatic recovery. AudioHQ refreshes device state, recovers after resume, restores preferred sources when they return, and retries interrupted channels.
- System tray. Close or minimize to the tray, single-click the tray icon to hide/restore the complete AudioHQ window group, and hover it to see which outputs are ON and which are OFF.
- Run with Windows. Optional per-user startup entry.
- Honest error states. Exclusive-mode lock, unsupported format and unplugged devices each surface as a clear per-strip status instead of a crash.
- Windows 10 or 11
- To run: .NET 7 Desktop Runtime
- To build: .NET 7 SDK
start.bat # kill running app, build, launch the GUI (daily driver)
dotnet build AudioHQ.sln # build everything
dotnet test AudioHQ.sln # run safety-net tests
dotnet run --project src/AudioHQ.Cli # console tester: mirror to a single device
The runtime log is written to audiohq.log next to the executable
(src/AudioHQ.App/bin/Debug/net10.0-windows/).
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools/publish.ps1
This produces a self-contained, single-file win-x64 build (no .NET install
needed) and zips it:
release/
`-- AudioHQ-<version>-win-x64-portable.zip
`-- AudioHQ-<version>-win-x64/
`-- AudioHQ.exe one file (~70 MB, runtime + icon embedded)
On first run the app creates its files next to the exe - it is fully portable
and keeps nothing in %AppData%:
AudioHQ-<version>-win-x64/
|-- AudioHQ.exe
|-- settings.json source, channels, EQ, mixer layout and options
`-- audiohq.log runtime log
Unzip into a user-writable folder (Desktop, Documents, a USB drive), not
C:\Program Files - the app writes settings.json / audiohq.log beside itself.
The exe is unsigned, so the first launch shows a Windows SmartScreen prompt
("More info" -> "Run anyway").
source device --(WASAPI loopback)--> capture --> fan-out
|--> output 1: buffer -> adaptive resampler -> gain -> WASAPI render
|--> output 2: ...
`--> output N: ...
One capture feeds N independent pipelines. Each output owns its buffer, drift compensator, gain and render client, so a slow or failed device can never stall the others. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full signal flow, threading model and error handling.
src/AudioHQ.Core audio engine (NAudio): capture, fan-out, per-channel gain, drift compensation
src/AudioHQ.App WPF GUI (MVVM): mixer window, strips, tray, status, options
src/AudioHQ.Cli console tester for the engine
tests/AudioHQ.Tests focused xUnit safety-net tests for pure logic and persisted models
docs/ technical documentation and the screenshot
tools/ helper scripts (icon generator, screenshot capture)
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md - one entry per version.
- Architecture: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md - technical deep dive.
The canonical version lives in Directory.Build.props and is shown in the window title.
MIT - free to use, modify, distribute and sell, including commercially. The only condition is keeping the copyright notice. No warranty.