Comparison

feature overview

Feature	RoarAudio [0]	PulseAudio [1]	EsounD [2]	aRts [3]	NAS [4]	OpenBSD sndio [5]	YIFF Sound System [6]	OSS [7]	ALSA [8]	RSound [9]	RPlay [10]
Network transparent	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	bad security	No	No	Yes	Yes
Multiple streams per client	Yes	?	No	aRtsd segfaults	?	No	Yes(?)	No Server/Client Arichtecture		No	Yes(?)
Software mixer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	Yes	No	?
Filter	Yes	modules only	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	?	No	?
Metadata	Yes	(artist, title)	No	title	No	No	No	title	?	No	?
InterConnect	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
MIDI	Yes	No	No	?	No	Yes	using ALSA	Yes	Yes	No	?
Light Control	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Raw data passthru	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
High compression codecs	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Never implemented	No	No	Using helpers
Multi channel	up to 64	up to 32	mono/stereo	mono/stereo	up to 32	up to 16	mono/stereo	Yes	Yes	>256	Yes?
Bits Per Sample	8, 16, 24, 32	(8, 16, (24, 32))	(8, 16)	(8, 16)	8, 16	8, 16, 32	(8, 16)	8, 16, 24, 32	(8), 16, 24, 32	8, 16	8, 16
Background Streams	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	?

Overview of provided interfaces

Supported Interfaces	RoarAudio [0]	PulseAudio [1]	EsounD [2]	aRts [3]	NAS [4]	OpenBSD sndio [5]	YIFF Sound System [6]	OSS [7]	ALSA [8]	RSound [9]	RPlay [10]
RoarAudio	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PulseAudio	Simple, Parts of main API, tools	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
EsounD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
aRts	artsc, tools	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NAS	tools	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenBSD sndio	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
YIFF Sound System	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
OSS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	using audiooss	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ALSA	beta plugin	plugin	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	?
RSound	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
RPlay	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes

Information sources

[ 0] = Me, the developer
[ 1] = Offical PulseAudio Homepage (mainly FAQ + Docs)
[ 2] = EsounD source code
[ 3] = aRts manpages, --help, a bit of code reading
[ 4] = NAS manpages, --help, a bit of code reading
[ 5] = sio_open() manpage
[ 6] = YIFF Sound System source code
[ 7] = Offical OSS Homepage
[ 8] = ALSA tools manpages
[ 9] = Devel, source code
[10] = source code