Could it be a hardware problem? Blown out preamp circuit?

I think something like that. I can initialize the card but not hear digital sound or music. Only when I turn my amplified speakers at maximum I can hear the sound very, very low in the background. I changed IRQ, DMA and port settings, but nothing helped.
Question is if it is possible to fix it?
Any ideas?

I had the same problem with a Yamaha card I bought recently. I believe it's a symptom of the on-card amplifier having failed. If you're handy with a soldering iron you could try fixing it yourself, the amp is probably an off-the-shelf part.

The ensoniq boards are very tidy, no big condensors or clunky relays. So it is difficult to locate the amplifier, if it is separated from the codec at all. Even more difficult would be to exchange it.

The card doesn't react when I use the volume sliders in the ssinit menu, nor when I change the values in the *.ini file manually. When I push the sliders (master, wave, synth) back to volume 0 you can still hear digital sound, but not the midi music (speakers at maximum, as described).
I hoped that there would be a trick to somehow "reset" the internal mixer / amplifier.

What about you, swaaye - no idea?