I was getting along fine auditioning some music files when "Crack" "Crack" "Splat" - silence. My first thought that it was that bloody Creative soundcard again. This was most annoying as I had got it working properly. Second thoughts suggested speakers???. Plugged in a set of headphones directly into the Soundcard which worked - proving that the Soundcard was OK. Next in the chain was the Amp - dead as a doornail - the transformer was cold. Maybe there is a way to fix this, but it is looking very much like a new Amp is needed.