OS X: Quickly switching audio output devices

The first step is getting AudioSwitcher. This involves downloading the Xcode project at the previous link and building to get an AudioSwitcher binary. I discovered Dr. Drang keeps a bin/ directory in Dropbox, so that's what I'm doing as well. This means that I now have the AudioSwitcher binary in ~/Dropbox/bin/, and this folder is in my $PATH.

If you've done this correctly, you should be able to run AudioSwitcher -a and see a list of devices:

$ AudioSwitcher -a
Built-in Microphone (input)
Monitor Webcam (input)
Built-in Output (output)
FiiO USB DAC-E10 (output)

Now, set up some AppleScripts to run AudioSwitcher commands. For example, to switch to my DAC, all you need is:

do shell script "/Users/max/Dropbox/bin/AudioSwitcher -s 'FiiO USB DAC-E10'"

I used the AppleScript Editor and saved the script as an application in /Applications so I can trigger it quickly with LaunchBar.

(If you trust me, you can download a compiled version of AudioSwitcher here. The standard disclaimer applies, and you really shouldn't be running software from random people on the internet.)

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