[2023] Problem with audio

The game audio seems to weirdly clash with other audio. I was listening to a podcast when I launched the game, and immediately there was a noticeable dip in the podcast sound quality. As if ED takes over my audio and downscales it, almost like a harsh compression. Also, silences in the podcast gate the audio for ED also. This seems a very weird problem, a quick google tells me others have had problems with audio, but with different symptoms. Only suggested solution has been to set audio devices to at least 16bit 48k, which I'm already running.

E:D is the only game (or software in general) where this happens. I've absolutely no idea how the game just being on and not even the active window can so f*ck with my whole audio output. Has anyone run into something like this?