You have to select 5.1 channels in Windows speaker setup for correct 6 channel playback.

Tried it. Setting Windows speaker setup to 5.1 has no effect. I can even set it to stereo, all stays exactly as described.

Well, this is Reclock.
Basically, it is a direct show audio renderer that syncronizes the clocks from soundcard and graphiccard in order to prevent micro stutters in video playback.
It can be set to load in place of the default audio renderer and you can choose if you want the audio to be played through Direct Sound, Wave Out or Kernel Streaming.
The last is of course a good idea to get lossless sound.
To be honest, I am not absolutely sure the problem is not caused by Reclock. But I can't check that because I need reclock to get Kernel Streaming in the first place.
However, Reclock should not do anything to the channel order, just pass it on. So I doubt it is at fault.
Would be great if you could find out what's going on here!

Deathlord, The best solution is to use the older MME drivers, they sound great , can be used with almost no latency, & are accurate,
& have no WDM weird phenemonas like the one you describe & the best bit is you do not need reclock if all you try to get is bit perfect sound,
& not because of Film issues etc.

I did try these basic test files you linked with your card & latest firmware + 2.94(6) MME driver, & it works fine,
& it is a better sounding setup if you ask me, I had to do this move back to the older drivers on more then one occasion for all that got used to the older MME drivers performance & features.

The only catch is, 6 channel 2496 cannot be used on this card with these old drivers (Not sure about the new wdm ones),
as the channel wave id mapping starts with the Adat ports that will flip into SMUX mode & will not 'extend' for the remaining two or four channels to the SPDIF & AN 1+2 virtual outputs, so 6 channel 2496 playback is impossible on this card with the older drivers.
you can read about this issue here: http://rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4192.

No not to the same Chans, I assumed it is the way these files are mapped (?), [disregard, I Realized files are fine after checking again]
In the 6 Chan File Side LR is on channels 56, & in the 8 Chan File it's on 78.

(about the 2496, I feel that living without at least 6 channel 2496 downmix ability on a card at this level & price, where any pos card can do it in this Blueray age is unacceptable).

Just did a test on another clients machine for you, This time using WDM with a Fireface, Where Side LR is always on 7+8.

EDIT:
You are right, The Channel mapping in the 9632's Driver is wrong, I never noticed it because I rarely come across 7.1 material.

Hi again

Any chance this obvious, severe (but easy to fix;-)) bug is going to be removed in the new year?

It persists in Vista and Windows 7 using WASAPI (instead of kernel streaming).

It can also very easily be tested using foobar2000 and the kernel streaming plugin.
Playing the 5.1 file *without* the plugin gives *correct* routing.
Playing the 5.1 file with the plugin active gives *wrong* routing.
(The "interleaved" option has to be checked and ADAT1+2 has to be selected as playback device in foobar.)

Still hoping...

The newest WDM driver, 3082.

It happend with older driver versions, too (all the WDM drivers where ks worked). (With the old PnP drivers the routing is also wrong in waveout, not just in ks, if I recall correctly.)

2084, still nothing.
RME, what are you doing?

I hear you.
It has been two years for you maybe ..
just read my older posts requests  & explanations, for both firefaces & hdsps, nothing got done on these matters,
quite the opposite, for years now .. so ..

in any case, Of course I join you &  support your request.

Interesting observation:

There is an ASIO plugin for foobar2k: http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_asio
With it, one can explicitely map each channel for multi channel playback seperately. This means, the interleaved option is not needed.
And it also gives the same wrong/inconsistent channel mapping! This means we can rule out the interleaved option as the source for the problem. When an 8 channel file is played, everything is fine. When a 6 channel file is played, something screws up the channels.

I really expect a statement from RME here. How can they just ignore such an issue???