Thanks, Clemens, but no joy.

miniG4:~$ cat .asoundrc 
#pcm.!default {
# type hw
# card 1
#}
#
#ctl.!default {
# type hw           
# card 1
#}
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1
miniG4:~$ alsaplayer flac/ripit/B/Beatles/Let_It_Be..._Naked/10_Across_The_Universe.flac 
error on set_format SND_PCM_FORMAT_S16
Unavailable hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: [16 32]
CHANNELS: [1 2]
RATE: 48000
PERIOD_TIME: [1000 5461334)
PERIOD_SIZE: [48 262144]
PERIOD_BYTES: [96 524288]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: [2000 10922667)
BUFFER_SIZE: [96 524288]
BUFFER_BYTES: [192 1048576]
TICK_TIME: ALL
error on set_format SND_PCM_FORMAT_S16
Unavailable hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: [16 32]
CHANNELS: [1 2]
RATE: 48000
PERIOD_TIME: [1000 5461334)
PERIOD_SIZE: [48 262144]
PERIOD_BYTES: [96 524288]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: [2000 10922667)
BUFFER_SIZE: [96 524288]
BUFFER_BYTES: [192 1048576]
TICK_TIME: ALL
failed to configure output device...trying OSS
error on set_format SND_PCM_FORMAT_S16
Unavailable hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: [16 32]
CHANNELS: [1 2]
RATE: 48000
PERIOD_TIME: [1000 5461334)
PERIOD_SIZE: [48 262144]
PERIOD_BYTES: [96 524288]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: [2000 10922667)
BUFFER_SIZE: [96 524288]
BUFFER_BYTES: [192 1048576]
TICK_TIME: ALL
error on set_format SND_PCM_FORMAT_S16
Unavailable hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: [16 32]
CHANNELS: [1 2]
RATE: 48000
PERIOD_TIME: [1000 5461334)
PERIOD_SIZE: [48 262144]
PERIOD_BYTES: [96 524288]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: [2000 10922667)
BUFFER_SIZE: [96 524288]
BUFFER_BYTES: [192 1048576]
TICK_TIME: ALL
failed to configure output device...trying OSS
miniG4:~$ 

On Aug 8, 2013, at 3:15 AM, linux-audio-user-request@lists.linuxaudio.org wrote:

Message: 18
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 08:33:47 +0200
From: Clemens Ladisch <clemens@ladisch.de>
To: linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
Subject: Re: [LAU] alsaplayer error using USB Audio DAC
Message-ID: <5201EA4B.1010705@ladisch.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Roger Weinheimer wrote:
~/.asoundrc
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 1
}

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 1
}

Replace that with:

 defaults.pcm.card 1
 defaults.ctl.card 1


Regards,
Clemens