I have taken this VERY IMPORTANT issue up with the Asus kremlin and hope to receive a definitive solution. Last year I had a still operational Asus XONAR-STX-II card which gave me 1/4" jacks as well as separate headset/speaker ports and I could chose in openSuse-Tumbelweed with Plasma-6 exactly which I wanted to hear WITHOUT contunuously pulling/reconnecting plugs and WEARING OUT the ports. Unfortunately that card has given up the ghost and is not made any more; the non-STX version bahaved similarly but without 1/4" jacks. I don't remember ever having been able to hear BOTH headphones AND speakers AND at different volumes. There ARE so called USB audio-interfaces but I don't want to use any, my Boss-GX100 guitar effects board *already is* and audio interface and I want less hardware than unecessary and not more than necessary on or near my desk!
Which is why I have made my own desktop dock which is the ONLY part of my computer actually ON my desk, with the rest of the techno EYESORE being invisible under it.
