Home

AudioHub

AudioHub shares audio devices between two machines on a local network. Pair them, and one machine can use the other's default microphone and default speaker — either inside AudioHub, or, with the optional driver, from the system's own audio device list so any application can pick it.

It is not a conferencing app and not a music streamer. It moves raw audio between machines you own, with the latency and quality controls exposed rather than hidden.

This wiki describes AudioHub 1.0.0. Neither the macOS nor the Windows build is signed for distribution, so both operating systems will block the download until you override that yourself. Start at Installation, and read Is this safe to override? before you do.

---

The three modes

The mode is machine-wide and lives in Settings › Mode. Exactly one is active, and the exclusion is the point: a machine that both served and consumed could silently relay a third machine's microphone, or close a feedback loop.

Picker label	What this machine does	How many peers
Share	Lets other machines use its default microphone and speaker. It cannot use theirs.	several at once
A · Driverless	Uses another machine's devices, with no driver installed. Audio stays inside AudioHub unless you route it through an audio bridge.	one at a time
B · Virtual	Uses another machine's devices, published into this machine's own system device list.	up to 16

Share is the default on a fresh install, so two new machines are inert until somebody switches one of them. Full detail, including what each mode cannot do: Operating Modes.

---

System requirements

	Minimum	What it buys
macOS	11.0	Everything except system audio capture — the app, the driver, pairing, all three modes
	13.0	System audio capture, via the Screen capture audio backend (asks for Screen Recording)
	14.2	Audio Process Tap — the same capture through a narrower permission, and what Auto picks
Windows	10 version 2004 (build 19041)	Everything Windows supports

On a LAN, both machines need 47810/TCP and 47810/UDP open inbound, plus 5353/UDP in and out for discovery. Nothing else, and nothing leaves your network — see Firewall and network.

Two limits worth knowing before you plan around them:

• Mode B needs a driver, and neither installer registers it. It is a separate action inside the app — see Virtual Driver.
• On Windows that driver is unsigned, so Mode B is not reachable in 1.0.0. See Mode B on Windows.

---

Where to go next

If you want to…	Go to
Install it, and get past Gatekeeper or SmartScreen	Installation
Understand the macOS permission screen on first launch	First Run
Connect two machines	Discovery and Pairing
Choose a mode, or bridge to a third-party virtual cable	Operating Modes
Put the peer in your system's device list	Virtual Driver
Receive AirPlay from a phone or tablet	Share Protocols
Change latency, quality or connection method for one peer	Peer detail page
Know why the two machines are not equally loud	Volume
Read the numbers the app is showing you	Stats
Fix something	Troubleshooting
Look a word up	Glossary

---

How it fits together

AudioHub is two processes. A background audio service owns the sound devices and the network; the window is a thin client over a local channel, and the CLI speaks the same contract. Closing the window does not stop the audio — see Window and tray.

Machines find each other over mDNS on the local network, and you can always type an IP[:port] instead, which also works across subnets. Pairing is a one-time 6-digit PIN exchange; once it succeeds trust is bidirectional and each machine appears in the other's list.

Media goes directly between the two machines by default — there is no cloud, no relay we operate, and no NAT traversal, UPnP or hole punching anywhere in the product. If the two machines cannot reach each other, AudioHub does not route around it. The one exception is deliberate and manual: if you already have an HTTP tunnel of your own, you can hand AudioHub a ws:// address and it will run everything over that single connection. It will not discover or build one for you. See Connection method.

---

A design commitment worth stating up front

AudioHub will never ask you to switch your system output to a virtual device.

The common workaround for capturing system audio — install a loopback driver, point your system output at it, and now you cannot hear anything without a second monitoring path — is the experience this project treats as unacceptable. System audio capture is a side tap. Your output device and its volume stay exactly as you left them.

---

Honesty about numbers

Several pages here quote measured figures — latency breakdowns, decibel discrepancies, buffer depths. Two ground rules apply to all of them:

1. A measurement is dated and scoped. Numbers come from a specific pair of machines on a specific date with a specific configuration. They are stated as what was observed, not as a specification we promise to meet.
2. A missing measurement is never filled with zero. Where a value cannot be read, the app shows the number prefixed with ≥ and says which term is missing, rather than silently reporting an optimistic total. See Latency.