[LAU] Audiophile 24/96 volume weirdness

Hi I've been experiencing a bit of weirdness with my soundcard for quite a while now, maybe as much as a year. Often, but not always, when I start my machine I'll only get sound from the left channel. I found that I need to open the control software (used to be Envy24 until I upgraded to Ubuntu Studio 12.04 last year, it's been Mudita since then) and play with the analogue volume control. Both left and right volume controls are set on maximum, but as soon as I move the right-hand one (down and back up to max) I get stereo sound again. I swapped the card for another one and that didn't solve it. I have a permanent /home and my OS on a separate partition -- could this be caused by a config file somewhere on /home and if so, where might I find it to sort this problem out? Thanks in advance Q