Windows Multimedia Class Scheduler Service provides a way to mark threads as having audio-class priority. PA already uses this in the WASAPI and WDMKS implementations. We should use it for WMME, DSound and ASIO media threads too.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247(VS.85).aspx

This enhancement could be combined with a refactoring that creates a single set of common routines for creating and destroying media threads to be used by all implementations.