On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 9:16 PM, Bob van der Poel <bob@mellowood.ca> wrote:

On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 7:00 PM, Paul Davis <paul@linuxaudiosystems.com> wrote:
> he is NOT using hw:1
>
> he wants to use the 2nd subdevice on hw:0, hence hw:0,1 or variant thereof
>
> bob, does this work? aplay -D hw:0,1 /path/some/to/wav

No. Again, no pulse running.

bob$ aplay -D hw:0,1 MONO-000.WAV
Playing WAVE 'MONO-000.WAV' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1087: Channels count non available

Exit is immediate. No sound.

Could the fact that hw:0,1 is a digital (spdif) port be an issue?

absolutely. my assumption from your very first post was that you knew this and had your physical setup properly configured to use this port.

where do you want the sound to come from?