DragonFlyBSD

Yes, loading only the snd_via8233.ko is actually what I did once I knew
that was the correct module. It does automatically load snd_pcm.ko and
work fine. The main reason I was loading snd.ko was because I did not
know which sound module I needed. It is also nice to be able to use
snd.ko for installing on a variety of hardware if it will load all the
snd modules so it will work out of the box.

Actually, I loaded snd_via8233.ko manually with kldload rather than from
loader, but I am sure it would work fine. I was able to load snd_pcm
from loader.conf using snd_pcm_load=yes. Although, snd_load=yes did not
seem to work. Loader does not seem to support loading the top level
sound module.