Ya know, I can''t get it to work either. Eli, what's the magic?
Unfortunately there is no magic. I checked again and it's pretty much the same for me. The first time I hit "W" to open an audio file playing in the Arrange Window in the sample editor pop up it doesn't open in place. I usually just back up a and and hit play and then stop to give the sample editor a chance to "catch up".
If I option double click while the file is playing in the Arrange Window to open a real Sample Edit Window, it does open up with the playhead at the right position. But then it's har dto stop playback. The space bar works on the newly open active window and starts playback there instead of stopping it in the Arrange Window.
I've been doing a bit of experimenting/testing and it is very tricky. Once the file is playing in the Arrange Window, if you hit W, the sample editor pop up will open up while the file is still playing at the correct position. But then if you hit the space bar to stop playback, it triggers playback in the sample editor pop up instead, just as in the stand alone window. The problem is that when you hit W, the pop up becomes the active pane in the Arrange Window - which doesn't serve us well in this particular scenario.
And stopping playback first and then opening the Sample Edit Window or pop up doesn't seem to work either like I thought it did.
The best solution seems to be to have a good old fashioned screen set with a stand alone Arrange Window, and a stand alone Sample Edit Window. Then things seem to work as expected.