title: ALSA vs PulseAudio - Latency Concerns
body: <p>Good day,</p>
  
  <p>I have been debating some details with a colleague about ALSA vs PulseAudio, and need some help coming to a conclusion with it. It's to my understanding that ALSA is relatively low-level, and talks directly to the hardware, while PulseAudio sits on top of ALSA as a service.</p>
  
  <p>Additionally, it's to my understanding that ALSA is tied to Linux, but PulseAudio just acts as an abstraction layer on top of ALSA, and can work on other platforms. My conclusion is that ALSA would provide lower audio latency on most <strong>Linux</strong> systems, while my colleague contends that PulseAudio provides better (shorter) latency regardless.</p>
  
  <p>Which of us is correct? My reasoning is that since PulseAudio sits on top of ALSA or even wraps it, there's no way it could provide better latency unless it's providing its own low-level calls.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you.</p>