Hmm, there was a pulseaudio update today - thank you! 
Now my Asus Xonar works again, but had to set the sound levels to 100% in alsamixer.
Btw, this is still not working:
$ pulseaudio-ctl full-status
(standard_in) 1: syntax error
(standard_in) 1: syntax error
(standard_in) 1: syntax error
Cannot determine which version of pactl is installed. Aborting.