The hifi is registering some kind of signal coming from the soundcard (no movement of level meters though), as it displays "PCM L & R" when the cable is plugged in, and the soundcard is processing the signal, as the output level meters are moving in the M-Audio control panel.
I feel that I must be doing something really obviously wrong, but I'm at a loss to know what
Edit: I am an Idiot. Changed settings to Digital (which I didn't see before) and rebooted, and it works.