Requirements

macOS 13+ / Apple Silicon

What the app needs, what it installs into the system, and what it asks of you once.

System

Operating system	macOS 13 or later
Processor	Apple Silicon only. There is no build for Intel Macs, and none for Windows or Linux
Version	0.1.43 Beta
Availability	Closed beta, distributed to a limited group of testers. Not yet publicly available
Virtual audio device	Bundled with the app, version 0.1.0
Output device	Any DAC or interface macOS can see: USB, Thunderbolt, or the built-in output
Channels	Stereo

It is not a music player.
Bench has no library, no metadata and no streaming account. It receives what another app plays, which is why every service works without Bench supporting them one by one.
The engine and the window are separate programs.
Audio runs in a background engine and the interface talks to it over a local connection. Closing, resizing or reloading the window does not touch the sound.

This is the part that receives playback. Without it there is no way for another app to hand audio to Bench.

It is installed into the system, so macOS asks for an administrator password. The app guides this on first launch.
Installing or updating it restarts the system audio process, so sound cuts out for a moment. Stop what is playing first.
The device itself has no settings, so updating it loses nothing.
It publishes no volume control. Nothing can quietly scale what arrives before Bench sees it.
It follows the clock of your DAC. A device from an older version that does not will silently lose roughly 21 ms of audio every few minutes.

macOS treats it as a microphone.
Input from a virtual audio device counts as recording, so Bench needs the microphone permission. Without it the system hands over silence rather than an error, which looks exactly like music that is not playing. Allow Sonir Bench under System Settings, Privacy and Security, Microphone.
Removing the app does not remove the device.
Use the uninstaller bundled inside the app. Dragging the app to the Trash leaves the virtual device installed in the system.

Graphs and resample designs are plain JSON files in a working folder on your disk. You can open, copy, version and share them.
The file name is the identifier. Saving a file under a name that already exists replaces it, which is also how you rename a design.
A file whose specification version is newer than the app is not read, and it is not deleted or overwritten either. It stays in the list with the reason attached.