[LAU] Alsa or pulseaudio?

Hi. I am trying to modify a version of easy peasy Linux so that it is more accessible on my netbook (an Acer Aspire1). Easy peasy is a derivative of Ubuntu and I am currently having problems with pulse audio. When using pulseaudio speech was a little laggy (even after switching to using speech-dispatcher). I also had some orca crashes, who's source is still unknown to me, though I have been informed it is probably because I am using a netbook. When I use Alsa I still have the odd orca crash but this is usually easy to resolve simply by restarting orca, or killing and restarting speech-dispatcher. The problem is I have no system sounds and I get an Alsa error when trying to log in to Skype through the terminal, some problem with bluetooth something. I can paste the error later if it is of any use/reference. I am now using Alsa but can't seem to get multi channel sounds, I.E speech and/or system sounds, I only have speech. Any help fixing these issues and suggestions for alternative configurations/audio systems would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance Jen! __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4408 (20090908) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4411 (20090909) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4438 (20090918) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com