is there even an audioable difference?

You don’t need to. Normally there is no detectable difference.

It is worth a try, however, to see if there are no “enhancements” enabled somewhere (audio settings, some software suite), which might be doing something funny to sound. Exclusive mode will bypass all of that.

From what I hear, Windows poorly manages audio samples but from my experience I detect no difference whatsoever. So there’s only one noticeable thing with exclusive mode. It breaks my other programs, so technically it makes a difference.

yes.

Exclusive!

Just get a media player supporting wasapi/exclusive like Musicbee or Foobar.

I don’t want to hear a email notifications when listening to a string quartet!

I want to play all recordings I have at their native sample rate. No need to have it resampled to the system default as dictated by the shared mode setting.

Is shared mode bad? No, if you have a 24 or 32 data path to your DAC you won’t notice the difference (except for the email notifications). However, if you play recordings with a level close to 0 dBFS and resample, there might be audible distortion. This can be cured by using a EQ offering a pre-amp function.

https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Windows/SRC.htm

Yes, use exclusive mode.

Unless you want to juice your sound with some Windows level audio enhancement. For example, you might want to use a Spatial Sound option like Dolby Atmos. Some tracks are recorded for spatial enhancement. But honestly, most audiophiles consider it a gimmick.

You definitely don’t want to use the default Windows audio enhancements for critical listening–ever. Make sure they are turned off. Those enhancements are crap. They totally change the sound profile and not in an good way.

I use it whenever I do nothing but listen to music but I have never realy heard a difference. Its just in case it may make a difference that I cant figure out but still makes it less enjoyable somehow. Its stupid but it dosent hurt.