OK, I have now done a LOT of testing here. First, I noticed that I had the CPU speed setting at the default "Dynamically Switchable" setting. When I set it to "Always High", the latency according to the Sycon tester dropped to roundabout 150 uS. This did not correct the half speed distorted playback error with the Hdsp3083 driver.
I decided then that I just have to accept using the Hdsp2946+DC453. All was fine, until I pressed Pause in AA3. Then, an evil buzz was heard as long as the Pause function was on. The level of the buzz seems to be at the same level where the playback level was when the Pause was pressed. If Pause was pressed at a silent passage, no buzz was heard.
Then I realized that by changing the Buffer Size/Latency setting in the Hdsp, the buzz frequency also changed. With 256 (6ms), the frequency was ~85 Hz, and when doubling or halfing the Latency setting, the frequency followed the same pattern. With 64 (1.5ms), the buzz frequency was ~340Hz.
At this point I began to get frustrated, and as you happened to mention Win7, I decided to install XP on another SATA HD. (Sidenote: my XP install CD had some scratches, and it took me two days to manually patch it up with files from my old PC.) After installing XP + AA3 + Hdsp3083 + DC523 on the new PC, all worked fine. No half speed playback issues, or Pause buzz. Just for the sake of testing, I installed the Hdsp2946 driver and DC453. The 2946 worked alright, as supposed, but the DC453 had that same awful Pause buzz. The buzz also was there with Hdsp3083 + DC453.
So, now it looks like the only errorless combination on my new PC is XP + AA3 + Hdsp3083 + DC523. I still have 28 days before I got to buy a Window license, if no solution can be found to make the RME combo work on Win7. So far I've tested AA3 on Win7 with five different sound systems, and all have worked fine, except the RME Cardbus+Digiface combo. On my old XP PC + AA2, I always had Digicheck's OVS Peak Meter on the screen.
Now, I find it 'a little' annoying that I can't use my RME combo with Win7 on my new PC.