Alsa output devices, able to use alsa plugin?

[ngoonee@xxxxxxxxx (Ng Oon-Ee)]

Hi all,

I know back in March there was a conversation about alsa devices to be
used with load-module module-alsa-sink. Basically, Lennart mentioned
NEVER to use device=hw:0,0 (I do that, though, as I don't use
module-hal-detect so that I can choose which modules I want through a
script). However, I don't see any discussion on how to choose another
device. So, two questions:-

1. Instead of "load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0", what should
I be using to load the appropriate device? Assuming I'm not using
module-hal-detect.

2. I'm interested in using an alsa plugin to modify pulse's output
before it hits my card. Specifically the alsaequal plugin. I have
specified it in my .asoundrc as below:-

ctl.equal {
  type equal;
}
pcm.plugequal {
  type equal;
  slave { pcm "plughw:0,0" }
}
pcm.equal {
  type plug;
  slave.pcm plugequal;
}

This works properly with aplay -D equal, of course. How do I modify my
device string in load-module module-alsa-sink to use the 'equal' output,
so that I can dynamically equalize the output before it hits the
speakers? Is this even possible?

Thanks all.