Why does JK offer a different device for In and Out?

[BrionBell]

Greetings...
I have a question:  Why does the Jamkazam setup dialogue offer a different device for 'OUTPUT' than the input.  When adding a new device 'audio profile' after scanning for devices, the user can choose devices from a dropdown list for the INPUT(s).  After that device is chosen, the user is offered a chance to adjust with an ASIO panel, then suggests to 'Rescan' the device after adjustments are made.  After that, in the adjacent panel for 'OUTPUT,' it offers similar user-input-functionality in that it appears that the user could select another device for the output that is different than the one for input.  It offers 'Same as Input' as well.  If I were developing the product, I would make sure that this choice never appears since PC architecture does not allow a single application space to use two different pieces of hardware, (this is because of the way Windows deals with devices and drivers in something called a 'Hardware Abstraction Layer" or 'HAL'). 

I'll try to answer this myself...
I'm ignorant with regards to the method that Apple (Mac) uses for processing software instructions to hardware peripherals, but I would conjecture that the software options are presented to users on either platform, even if they are not applicable for PC (Windows) users, and therefore, for users of the Mac, they actually CAN select a different device each for Input and Output.

Mac users?
Please comment....
Thank you!

Brion Bell - Relative Noob to JK, [However... 37 years of computer science experience; 57 years of music experience; 23 years of electronic music experience.]

[SteveW]

One example. A lot of modelling guitar amps have a direct usb output. A reasonable option for a guitarist is to use their amp as the input to jk, but a separate audio interface with a headphone jack for the output.

[mark@butterill.plus.com]

This was indeed the method we have tried to use for our bass player. He plays through a Line 6 HX Stomp which can act as the input interface, however there's no return signal route so initially when he had headphones plugged in to the Stomp he was direct monitoring and out of time to the rest of us. Using his Windows laptop audio output for the headphones, and the laptop's mic for talkback seemed to work but over two sessions he was plagued by gain issues - his bass would sound great to us, but would distort through the laptop audio system so it sounded awful to him. Or his mic would distort to us. It just didn't seem possible to get the gains balanced across the input and output, so he's now ordering a 2 channel interface to set up the same as the rest of us.
By the way our guitarist had the same experience trying to use an Apogee Jam for input and his Macbook output for monitoring and talkback. Unworkable for us. Great news for Behringer interface sales though!

[BrionBell]

One example. A lot of modelling guitar amps have a direct usb output. A reasonable option for a guitarist is to use their amp as the input to jk, but a separate audio interface with a headphone jack for the output.

Thanks for that...
However.  JK does not allow the use of ANY '2nd interface.' - ...at least not in my version with Windows 8.1 Pro running, (Most stable OS EVER from MS IMHO, and does NOT force automatic updates...).  When I choose another interface (that IS connected and will function when selected as the INPUT device...), JK simply reports that it can not open the device.  I wish it DID open it since it wold make so much more sense to have the output in a separate device for me.
Thanks, though!

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This was indeed the method we have tried to use for our bass player. He plays through a Line 6 HX Stomp which can act as the input interface, however there's no return signal route so initially when he had headphones plugged in to the Stomp he was direct monitoring and out of time to the rest of us. Using his Windows laptop audio output for the headphones, and the laptop's mic for talkback seemed to work but over two sessions he was plagued by gain issues - his bass would sound great to us, but would distort through the laptop audio system so it sounded awful to him. Or his mic would distort to us. It just didn't seem possible to get the gains balanced across the input and output, so he's now ordering a 2 channel interface to set up the same as the rest of us.
By the way our guitarist had the same experience trying to use an Apogee Jam for input and his Macbook output for monitoring and talkback. Unworkable for us. Great news for Behringer interface sales though!

On a Mac?