Running Gentoo, using alsa drivers for sound...sound card likes 48khz...

In KDE, it has been useful to disable arts -- system sounds still play somehow though (is this possible without a sound server running? ). At a sounds completion there is an annoying "pop" -- which I would think is a connection to a server being dropped. Checking services, there is no sound server running -- niether arts, nor esd. Anyone know what this popping noise is and how to quell it?

And...another sound/sofware problem -- in Enlightenment esd doesn't want to start if I have alsa running -- unless "enable sounds" is selected Enlightenment won't play theme sounds. Enable sounds doesn't like being selected if esd can't start (it will complain about not being able to start esd, and when you click "OK" it crashes). Enlightenment likes to crash/kill the X server if it encounters any errors. Currently I have to "trick" it into enabling sounds by selecting the "enable sounds" option and enduring a crash of the X server, then restart X. Unfortunately I have to do this every time I reboot and enter Enlightenment...if I want the cool theme sounds.

Thanks!