openSuSE 11.1, kde 4.2.1 phonon, alsa, mpd, vlc, mplayer

esd.conf

###[esd]
# autospawning is not recommended, since it can't really be done
# right.  If you want your login session to be using a sound daemon,
# you should start it from the session controller, not some random
# app inside.
###auto_spawn=0
###spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 2
###spawn_wait_ms=100
# default options are used in spawned and non-spawned mode
###default_options=-as 2
###orig commented by kfl62
#if you really need, it's working but poor quality
[esd]
auto_spawn=1
spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 2 -d default
spawn_wait_ms=100