Comment by widdma

PulseAudio is pretty good these days and typically works out of the box for most need. Per app volume is an amazing feature and switching sinks is a breeze. I often play music on my stereo (mobo sound card) and game audio on some headphones (audio over hdmi through monitor). Being able to switch them around live is great.

However, like systemd, PulseAudio large and opinionated so it's not everyone's cup-of-tea.