I think the method I used to get cfw bypassed something in some way then. It does automatically launch for me just by opening 3DS sound. I'll look into it further with your new information.
I have 8.1.1 Luma up and running, freeshop, homebrew, etc... and all that works just fine. My only issue is that I want to listen to mp3s now and again on the 3ds but 3DS Sound now obviously launches into Homebrew Channel.
It's not a huge deal if there's no away around it but I did a bunch of...