Why does simultaneous recording and playback only work when first opening the playback line (SourceDataLine)?
This depends on the soundcard and its driver to the native operating system. E.g. Soundblaster 16 or 64 do not provide real full duplex, only a kind of pseudo full duplex. I experienced under Windows that you can only use this pseudo full duplex when you have a certain order in opening record/playback lines.