AudioSwitcher is a menu bar application that gives quick and easy control over AirPlay and other audio devices.
In addition you can change the volume of any device without having to change your current input / output.
You can output to multiple devices at the same time.
You can quickly change the sample rate from the main screen
Using the preferences screen you can choose to ignore certain devices, set a default start-up input or output device as well as its volume. *
AudioSwitcher supports any device available to the system: AirPlay, USB, HDMI, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth, etc.
AudioSwitcher is ideal if you have multiple sound devices attached to your Mac and want to be able to switch between them without having to use System Preferences.
It's great for a home theatre set-up allowing selection of default devices (and their volumes) on start-up as well as allowing you to quickly route output to AirPlay devices in one click.
Note: Volume control is only supported if the hardware device provides a volume control; HDMI, notably, does not.
What’s new in version 3.0.8
Updated on May 11 2021
Version 3.0.8:
Fixes:
To the priority screen to stop priorities being lower than 0
To the priority screen to stop devices automatically sorting based on priority
The description of the product indicates that it supports AirPlay devices. In High Sierra it does not. No Airplay devices are displayed even if you indicate you want to use them as a group.. In order to see one from a AirPort Express, you must first choose it in the Sound Preferences and then open up Audio Switcher to see it. However if you try to use it with any other device in multimode it disappears. Additionally only one Airplay device can be shown at a time. So if you are using an Airport to connect remote speakers to an App (other than iTunes) and want to hear it on your computer as well, this App will NOT allow you to do it.
In reality this is a menu bar App that functions the same as Apple Midi Setup but with a nicer, easier to understand interface. I suggest saving your time and money and just launch Apple Midi Setup from Spotlight instead. I just wasted time and a buck for a tool that proves to be absolutely useless for me.
When you rewrite, please include the ability to rename sources (create aliases) and also remove certain inputs from the initial list by having a dropdown at the top for ALL or Favorites.
Difficult to uninstall, can't get the app out of my Sound Preferences even after trashing the app along with related preference files. There must be one I've missed...
Safari warns, upon initiating an attempted download from the developer, that the certificate for www.serialangels.co.uk has expired.
Might wanna fix that.
Sadly does a bad job when you use Airplay. In fact, it doesn't work with Airplay. But I can imagine this would be very useful when you only use this for the default audio drivers.
There are two different audio switching applications with nearly identical names. They both do very similar things. *Confusion* Then toss in the fact that each of the developers goes by both personal and company names. *Confusion* Here is what's going on:
1) AudioSwitcher by 'serialangels' is the same as 'AudioSwitcher' by Paul O'Niell. It costs £0.79 in the UK, $0.99 in the USA at the Mac App Store. It is the more elaborate of these two same-name menubar applications. A free beta version is available by direct download from the website.
2) Audio Switcher by 'Spike Software' is the same as 'Audio Switcher' by Lorenzo Thurman. It costs $4.99 in the USA at the Mac App Store. It is the more simplified of these two same-name menubar applications. Version 1.x was free.
Both live happily together on the menubar with slightly different functionality.
FYI @MacUpdate and @Developer, please note that MacUpdate Desktop does not update this software. It returns the error:
?ddownload=1517
Error - no direct download available"
Despite "forgetting" the selectable items in the menu every time it is checked the program worked fine under 2.17. Could start my iMac (27" SSD late 2009 latest OS) and immediately had sound from my USB speakers Focal XS. - After update to 2.18 beta nothing works any more. After every reboot / startup no audio, it forces me to select all the preferred devices again.
Back to 2.17.
For some reason, my audio output defaults to USB Codec after installing Mavericks. This utility saves me the clicks and open of the Sound Prefs to get the main speakers back after using, for instance, a set of bluetooth headphones. I'd like to have seen this sort of function built-in to the volume menu bar icon, but, hey, Apple tends to ignore good advice.
Only a minor cosmetic issue.
Ever since the beginning of this program it has failed to identify the correct output/input label for my devices.
I use Focal XS speakers and Samsung Meteor Mic, both through USB.
Both appear as output devices, despite marking/labeling manually the microphone as input device... Otherwise it works as it is supposed to. I successfully can deactivate the view of the other options and the preferences like volume etc are remembered after restart. No annoying switching of output device any more, convenient. Thanks.
Very handy since many versions and very small. It works great here on an iMac 27'' and I use it day by day on 10.8.4 and an external sound card (USB) - I use an optical output to it and could see all other in- and outputs immediately. Thank you so much for it!
I want to like this app, but I can't handle the menubar icon. It remain highlighted in blue even when I switch focus away from AudioSwitcher, and nothing I can do short of quitting the app will get rid of the blue highlight. On top of that, the menubar icon is terrible. It's just a small version of the app icon, and with the shading it stands out like a sore thumb against all the monochrome icons in my menu bar. Plus it's not retina, so it looks all fuzzy.
My understanding is that AudioSwitcher can't toggle output source between plugged in headset and e.g. the Mac's internal speakers.
If this is correct, a few questions arise:
Is that possible at all? If yes, might AudioSwitcher sport this feature in the future? And if not to the latter, are there other alternatives?
(I don't mean to derail the focus on AudioSwitcher, in which case I apologize.)
I think this app would be the hands down winner in the category if it added one special feature – change # of channels for a given audio source within the menu. That way I would not have to open Audio Midi manager for apps that decide to revert device back to 1-channel.