ALSA "default" vs "hw:0,0"

Question

What is the difference between the devices "default" vs "hw:0,0" ? Are they the same ?

(Background: I faced some trouble to play audio when I configured hw:0,0 , but "default" worked. Could not find what caused this)

Thanks

Answer 1

The default device uses the plug plugin to automatically convert sample formats and rates, and typically alsa uses the dmix plugin to allow multiple applications to access the device at the same time.