remote access: extremely high CPU load and delays

[Rudd-O]

I'm using PA 0.9.8 and RTP to cast to another machine with a PA server, and alsa emulation. On the source machine, using amarok with either the pulseaudio or the alsa output plugins becomes impossible (the audio stutters uncontrollably) when a Flash app starts playing any audio. During all this, both amarok and pulse saturate my both cores in user CPU%. Actually, even when only using amarok (and artsd is also loaded), pulse consumes a hefty dose of CPU, and so does amarok.

I'm running PA manually upon login because PA refuses to autostart as well (tried the client.conf setting, to no avail, and strace gave me nothing useful except that pulse actually loads but dies when reading from a socket I think?).

Relevant files attached.

[Rudd-O]

I should mention that when I cast directly (NOT through a tunnel, but selecting the machine) using padevchooser, everything works smoothly. Of course, I wanted to cast over RTP by default because my house has several locations where I want to hear music.