I've found very little info about this Xonar SE card on the internet, so I'll just list the problems (and solutions) I have run into with it and hopefully I can sort at least some of it out. I am currently running it in 2 channel stereo via analog from rear output (green) to my receiver. I would prefer to use the optical (spdif) output, the entire reason I bought the card (my mainboard has no digital outputs at all), but the #1 problem below prevents it.
...all versions of Windows:
1. Using SPDIF (optical) output cuts off the first 1-2 seconds of EVERY audio stream it plays and stutters/dropouts randomly.
Short Windows sounds, for example only play the trailing end of the sound or are not even heard at all. So a "kabliiiiiiiing" sound is just "iing", and "biiing" is not even heard at all. Here is a workaround:
http://veg.by/en/projects/soundkeeper but I am not willing to use it because it causes other issues like changing bit rates causes error about it being in use, not to mention running a random exe from the internet 24/7? Nah!
...so I switch to analog output Windows LTSC 2019 (1809):
2. Analog output has short dropouts/hiccups/stutters every few minutes or so...and also cuts off a bit of the start of audio.
This was bad on Win10 LTSC 2019 (1809, my preferred build), and is less severe/fixed on 1903 or 1607. No idea why but the onboard Realtek and my usb headset (probably the same/similar c-media chip in it) never do this on the exact same builds.
...so I switch to Windows LTSB 2016 (1607):
3. When using analog output to receiver (Speakers), the default device is reset to Optical, and if I disable that, 'Headphones (USB)' (with Speakers greyed out) every time the PC is shut down and restarted.
If I do a driver only (preferred method) install without the Asus Control Panel, Speakers can not be selected at all, ever. Only Optical or Headphones. Come on Asus, this is the most basic function of a sound card driver!
So to summarize, I want to use Optical output to my receiver, but cannot due to #1, on Windows LTSC 2019 (1809), but cannot due to #2, and strike 3, going back to Windows LTSB 1607 or 1903 and analog to avoid #1 and #2 causes #3. :mad:
Notes: The driver package contains a driver for the asmedia usb2 controller but it is not installed by default. Installing it before or after the sound card driver, does not fix any of the above problems. I run my PC very "lean and clean". There is no virus scanner or "start with windows" type software on it other than the Nvidia graphics driver.