>Sorry for the spam, but you have a very serious smoking gun in your log: I like this type of (instructive) spam ;-) > D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Plug PCM: Direct Stream Mixing PCM > > PulseAudio must not be running on top of dmix. dmix is the thing that, > by default, uses 48 kHz and does not support dynamic rate change. > > You have something wrong in your .asoundrc or /etc/asound.conf. Please > delete both files. I took the precaution of checking for alsa configuration files before report the case, not personal configuration files were present (.asoundrc) and the system wide config file was: root at rpi:/tmp# ls -l /etc/asound* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 132 Feb 9 2013 /etc/asound.conf.disabled but a bit more investigation: root at rpi:/tmp# strace -f -e trace=file aplay -vv -d 1 -f cd -D front:0 /dev/zero 2>&1 | grep "^open.*alsa" | grep -v ENOENT open("/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3 open("/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d//50-pulseaudio.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d//pulse.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/alsa-lib/libasound_module_conf_pulse.so", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/share/alsa/cards/aliases.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/default.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/dmix.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/dsnoop.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/cards/USB-Audio.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/front.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/surround40.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/surround41.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/surround50.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/surround51.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/surround71.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/share/alsa/pcm/iec958.conf", O_RDONLY) = 4 open("/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/alsa-lib/libasound_module_rate_speexrate.so", O_RDONLY) = 6 the file "/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf" contains (among others plugins) dmix settings, and it seems that is the common configuration on several distros that I checked. root at rpi:/tmp# grep dmix /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf defaults.pcm.dmix.max_periods 0 defaults.pcm.dmix.rate 48000 defaults.pcm.dmix.format "unchanged" defaults.pcm.dmix.card defaults.pcm.card defaults.pcm.dmix.device defaults.pcm.device pcm.dmix cards.pcm.dmix commenting out this lines results on the desired rate: I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: Created sink 0 "alsa_output.0.analog-stereo" with sample spec s16le 2ch 44100Hz and channel map front-left,front-right well I suppose that the solution is comment this lines, but it seems a bit dirty solution... A big thanks to Alexander and the rest of the members who helped me to find this. P.D: just curiosity .. why PA triggers this plugin and mpd not??? (output: opened plugin=alsa name="My ALSA device" audio_format=44100:16:2) /ect/mpd.conf [...] audio_output { type "alsa" name "My ALSA device" device "hw:0,0" # optional mixer_device "default" # optional mixer_control "Master" # optional mixer_index "0" # optional auto_resample "no" auto_channels "no" auto_format "no" } [...] client: [38] opened from 10.20.30.10:38882 client: [38] process command "play" playlist: play 0:"2014/misc/song0003.mp3" decoder_thread: clearing mixramp tags decoder_control: mixramp_start = NULL decoder_control: mixramp_prev_end = NULL decoder: audio_format=44100:24:2, seekable=true client: [38] command returned 0 playlist: queue song 1:"2014/misc/song0003.mp3" client: [38] process command list client: command_process_list: process command "status" client: command_process_list: command returned 0 client: command_process_list: process command "currentsong" client: command_process_list: command returned 0 client: [38] process command list returned 0 client: [38] closed alsa: buffer: size=90..262144 time=2040..5944309 alsa: period: size=45..131072 time=1020..2972155 alsa: default period_time = buffer_time/4 = 500000/4 = 125000 alsa: buffer_size=22050 period_size=5513 output: opened plugin=alsa name="My ALSA device" audio_format=44100:16:2 output: converting from 44100:24:2