[expert] problem running sound as non-root user?

[Dan Swartzendruber]

this is driving me nuts.  for reasons not relevant here, i have done
a reinstall of 7.2 4 times in the last 24 hours.  some of the time,
as a non-root user, i can play mp3's.  the rest of the time (using
the mpg123 program), i get a "permission denied" error.  not aware
of having done anything sound-related during or after the install.