Can't make Benchmark DAC work

I feel like I must be missing something relatively simple.

I can play everything fine from my setup using a simple USB ODAC from JDS Labs but I cannot get any sound at all from my Benchmark DAC2L.

Based on the USB DAC list, I should be able to get some sound at least.

I haven't tried every single setting so far but a few days of on and off tinkering has gotten me no where. I don't seem to be able to find the settings mojo that will produce anything but errors.

After initial failures, I restarted from scratch with a new image to see if I had set something up previously that was interfering; no luck.

aplay -L lists the Benchmark by name as a USB DAC but no output options succeed.

Debug logging continually shows an error when trying to play that says "unable to set hw params: input/output error"

The Benchmark never indicates a failure but also always seems to be expecting a 96k sample rate.
This never changes.

I have tried both with and without WIFI just in case.
No change.

Hopefully someone can suggest next steps.
Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

Thanks,
Joose

RPi 3 Model B Rev 1.2
Linux version 4.14.26-pcpCore_v7
PiCore version 9.1pCP
piCorePlayer version 3.5.0