Audio Interface always listens-back on Windows 10

[user280]

Hi all,
This is my first post. I do little bit of guitaring as a hobby. I am total amateur. Hope I am on topic.
My USB audio interface continues to listen back on speakers i.e. I hear whatever is captured at input channel on speakers on my Windows 10 OS 21H2 even when Direct monitor button on it is turned off and most importantly the option in Windows sound settings called ‘Listen to this device’ is off. I am just in Windows for now. No recording or tracking software like Audacity is running yet.

I have done some troubleshooting and I notice that this issue comes on another PC as well, even with different versions of Windows 10.

There are no drivers required for this audio interface on Windows 10. It also works with asio4all.

Most importantly my onboard soundcard in PC does not misbehave like this. It does not listen back on speakers when ‘Listen to this device’ is off.

What is the reason for this behavior? Can I conclude that the interface itself is faulty because I could reproduce the issue on other machines as well? Thanks & regards.