Hi Wes,
I was giving this a bit of thought:
The reason I need to use the audioMode value of “VoiceChat” is so I can issue system sounds while the mic is on. With using the “default” value for the audioMode, I have to use an AVAudioPlayer object which causes a lag or delay in the issuance of the sound which won’t work in my application.
Out of curiosity, have you checked out whether this is still necessary for system sounds with iOS8 + OpenEars 2.0? I don’t know if iOS8 has any fixes for that Core Audio PlayAndRecord bug/mal-feature with system sounds, but OpenEars 2.0 sets a somewhat different and more-minimal audio session now in order to improve coexistence, so it’s probably worth a quick check to see if the default mode behavior there has improved (maybe you’ve already done so, in which case no worries).