For me, I'm using WASAPI (Exclusive) without event mode on a Dragonfly Black with the latest drivers (verified manufacturer driver is still in place, not replaced by Windows). I remember turning off event mode for a reason when I got this DAC but I don't remember what that reason was.
does the issue happen with WASAPI (shared) ?
OK, I had a little time to experiment.
I couldn't make the "stops on skipping around in file" problem happen in shared mode, but I'm not sure I understand the purpose of shared mode. I thought the point of WASAPI was to bypass the windows mixer, but shared mode goes right through the windows mixer. Sounded worse to me, less depth of field in headphones, but I admit it could be a total reverse-placebo effect.
I tried exclusive with event mode on, but I got a weird talk-back kind of effect which must have been why I turned off event mode in the first place. My DAC doesn't like event mode.
WASAPI exclusive means I can't jump around in files without playback stopping until I hit "Stop" and retry it several times. I've learned to live with it as I said before and just avoid doing this. The time I really do that is to compare different masterings of an album to see which I want to add to my library, which is something I admittedly do fairly frequently. That said, if it's a giant hassle to figure out why this happens or if this is something specific to my setup, it's really not a big deal to let it go. I've learned to do my comparisons outside MB these days to get around it. May be more important to the OP, though. But, for me, I mostly listen to my music straight through without jumping around in files.