es:Sound system hu:Sound system ja:サウンドシステム pt:Sound system ru:Sound system zh-hans:音频系统

Any Linux sound system consists of several layers:

• Drivers and low-level interfaces — hardware support and control.

• User-mode API (libraries) — utilized and required by applications.

• User-mode sound servers (optional) — best for the complex desktop, needed for multiple simultaneous audio applications, and vital for more advanced capabilities, e.g. pro audio.

• Sound frameworks (optional) — higher-level application environments not involving server processes.

A default Arch Linux installation already includes the kernel sound system (ALSA), and lots of utilities for it can be installed from the official repositories. If you want additional features you can install one of several sound servers, PipeWire is the default choice in many distributions.

Drivers and low-level interfaces

Sound servers

See also Wikipedia:Sound server.