I don't get this, does Pipewire work on its own? If it's just another audio layer in the way, how can it work better than just PulseAudio alone? (i.e. Pipewire + PulseAudio vs just PulseAudio)
Pipewire works on its own but has plugins that allow it to mimic the PulseAudio API (as well as others, such as JACK). This makes it compatible with the applications that don't directly integrate with PW.
It's an alternative audio subsystem with a design that is a mix of Pulse and JACK features/architectures. It generally seems to have lower latencies than Pulse but higher latencies than JACK.
It's an alternative audio subsystem with a design that is a mix of Pulse and JACK features/architectures. It generally seems to have lower latencies than Pulse but higher latencies than JACK.