I see you tried setting DirectSound (if available) as your Audio Driver. That usually works best for me with Finale. I forget whether I had to restart Finale or reboot before it took effect

(And yes, I too use an ASIO variant--Low Latency Driver--for Cubase and Dorico. That doesn't interfere with my using DirectSound with Finale.)

As noted in the original post, DirectSound does not work either

I noticed that and just revised my post. We must have crossed in the interim.

If I change to DirectSound and restart, I end up back at ASIO:

If I change to DirectSound and remove then insert headphones, I get this

I had this problem when I upgraded Finale in the past. This is what MM Support told me to do:

To set Finale to default to DirectSound automatically. I am assuming that you are using DirectSound.

1. Close Finale
2. Hold down your Windows key (to the left of the spacebar, between the <Ctrl> and <Alt> keys) and type the letter "R" - this will open the 'Run' dialog box
3. Type "%appdata%" (without quotation marks) and click 'OK'
4. Navigate to MakeMusic\Finale 26 
5. In this folder, double-click the file named "FINMIDI.ini" - this should open the file in a text editor (e.g. Notepad)
6. Near bottom of the file until you see a section that looks like this:
   • [AUDIOAPIPREFS]
   • EngineLoaded=1
   • ASIOEnabled=1
   • DirectSoundEnabled=1
   • WASAPIEnabled=1
7. Make sure that the EngineLoaded value is 1, so that line should now read "EngineLoaded=1"
8. Change the ASIOEnabled value from 1 to 0, so that line should now read "ASIOEnabled=0"
9. Change the WASAPIEnabled value from 1 to 0, so that line should now read "WASAPIEnabled=0"
10. Save and close the file, then relaunch Finale to see if the issue has been resolved

Success -- thank you JAV !!!!!

Don't need anything fancy here for awhile - so Direct Sound is fine.

If there are separate discussion threads that show how to cleanly enable ASIO in the future, please add some links if possible :-)

Perhaps an example of what a working .INI file would look for a Realtek system with ASIO enabled for the [AUDIOAPIPREFS] and [FINALAUDIO] sections ?

I think this may also have solved a problem I've had lately with V27, wherein I get a loud hissing in addition to the playback, which then carries over to other applications involving sound output. Resolving the hissing for the other apps requires going into Windows Services and restarting the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder. But I just edited the FINMIDI file and Finale then started with proper (i.e. hiss-free) sound output. Hope that's an ongoing solution and not just a one-off occurrence.