[Crito]

Pulseaudio is typically used with ALSA as a sink. You know how ALSA is a bitch to configure? Pusleaudio makes you not have to give a shit about it.

[fuzzix]

I get that, but Pulseaudio has also ruined my day more times than ALSA has... so as far as my specific requirements go, I'm not sure what exactly it's supposed to achieve. It's just sort of foisted on me if I pick the wrong distro.