a theory-
i booted my computer and started sonar without my profire powered on.
sonar used my onboard card which is routed to a surround system via spdif.
it fooled me for a second, because sonar didn't protest and just played the project back through my surround speakers.
i then shut down sonar, powered the profire, restarted sonar but NOT my computer.
i probably should have rebooted or something.
if you don't hear back from me, it was one (two) time thing.