ASIO is the only way to get low-latency audio on Windows! Use high-quality audio interfaces vetted by JackTrip for the best experience.
What is ASIO?
Each piece of hardware used by your computer requires the use of a low-level piece of software called a driver, which allows the software applications running on your computer (including JackTrip) to communicate with it. ASIO is a computer sound card driver protocol for digital audio specified by Steinberg, providing a low-latency and high fidelity interface between a software application and a computer's sound card. More to the point, it's the only way to get low-latency audio on Windows. Lots of devices have ASIO drivers, for example many devices made by top audio companies like Universal Audio, Presonus and Focusrite.
ASIO Stability
ASIO drivers need to be custom-built for each piece of hardware by the manufacturer. Since low-latency is a subset of their overall use cases, not all manufacturers will create these. Of those that do, many are built as an afterthought and seem to be poor quality. Low quality ASIO drivers can cause audio problems and even crash applications that try to use them.
Most software does not require low-latency, so it uses a different type of driver that is built into the Windows operating system (DirectSound, WASAPI, MME, etc). These built-in drivers generate a high amount of latency, but they are very stable and reliable. If you want stable audio on Windows and don't care about minimizing latency, it's best to just use these "high latency" drivers instead.
ASIO is not ASIO4ALL!
You may have heard of a software application called ASIO4ALL, which claims to provide ASIO support for any audio device on Windows. Not only is ASIO4ALL extremely hard to use, our experience hearing back from many people who have tried it indicates that ASIO4ALL does not work well, so we do not recommend using it.
We recommend that Windows users stick with one of the high quality and well tested audio interfaces listed here. If you have or would like to try another audio interface, please make sure that the manufacturer provides ASIO drivers for it. Although it can sometimes work, you are unlikely to have a good experience using JackTrip with ASIO4ALL.
Some good news is that this problem only applies to Windows users, and Microsoft has announced plans to hopefully "fix it" within the next few years.