Hi, We have developed a libao driver for speech-dispatcher text-to-speech server. The problem was that if we get short sample like an e, i, u pulseaudio didn't play them. Adjusting the mentioned value in pa_buffer_attr fixed this. Thanks to Bill who has found the problem. His approach did the following: #define PA_MIN_AUDIO_LENTH 100 pa_buffer_attr buffAttr; buffAttr.maxlength = (uint32_t)-1; buffAttr.tlength = PA_MIN_AUDIO_LENTH; buffAttr.prebuf = (uint32_t)-1; buffAttr.minreq = (uint32_t)-1; buffAttr.fragsize =(uint32_t)-1; This works great now and without any stuttering or latency. Sure I can patch my libao but it will take some time until all distros can integrate the changes. The question is: Wich sideeffects can we expect by setting these vallues in the given example? Sure an usefull default should be set in pulseaudio. But sometimes it would be useful to change the default values in pa's setting :-). Thanks Halim