Comment 2 for bug 35669

I had similar problems. My problem was that gnome-sound-properties didn't start esd. I got following output:

ALSA lib confmisc.c:1107:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'defaults.pcm.card'
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:242:(snd_func_getenv) error evaluating default
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_getenv returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:3951:(snd_config_expand) Args evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2102:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default

That problem went away after I added to my .asoundrc.asoundconf:
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1
pcm.device 1

Now I have:
!defaults.pcm.card SoundSticks
defaults.ctl.card SoundSticks
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1
pcm.device 1

FYI, I have a mac mini with USB Harman Kardon Soundsticks.