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    Thanks @Zee! That's a good answer! However I read this alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc and I see that I can achieve exactly the same with ALSA configurations, using "plugins". I tested it and I was able to play multiple instances of aplay in the same time. So my question still remains, why do I need Pulse Audio, if I can do this all with ALSA:)? Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 20:21
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    Hey @MichaelP, glad to help. The reason PulseAudio is still useful is because you may have multiple audio servers running, not just ALSA. For example if somebody is doing audio editing work they'll often use the JACK audio server for that, which is better suited for low latency audio work, but still use ALSA for general audio. That may not apply to you, but PulseAudio means you don't have to worry about how it all works. If you configure it for just ALSA, you'd have to configure each use-case separately. PulseAudio works WITH Alsa, and any other audio source you might ever use. Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:51
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    That being said, PulseAudio well may not be especially helpful to you specifically, but generally non-barebones distros configure it for you out of the box, so there's no real reason to replace it with an ALSA plugin. If you're running a distro like Arch where you have to configure everything yourself from scratch, by all means, use the ALSA plugin instead. Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:54
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    Thanks @Zee Alexander, that settles all my confusion. Thank you for the answer. I wish PulseAudio would explain it that well on their website. Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 18:31