[PlanetCCRMA] alsamixer step glitch

[tom poe]

Hi:  Well, had a chance to try and get through alsamixer step.  I ran
the command:
# aplay -device="plughw" soundfile.wav
soundfile.wav: No such file or directory
[root at hunter tompoe]#

So, I did a Google search on soundfile.wav, and found a bird song file. 
Ran the command:
# aplay -device="plughw" canary1.wav
Playing WAVE 'canary1.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz,
Mono
[root at hunter music]#

No sound.  In fact, once I messed with the alsamixer, I lost all .wav
file sounds on entering and exiting apps, closing Gnome, etc.  I shut
down the computer, waited, started, and still no sound.

How far back should I go, next time I get a block of time (like next
week)?  I'm thinking I return to the alsaconf step, double check oss
step, then do alsamixer step again.  Does that make sense?  Any advice
appreciated.
Tom