Squeeze: can Bluetooth headset work without pulseaudio???

[John <nesredep@gmail.com>]

 I have used pulseaudio in the past, and it was horrible to install
and understand.  But for a while, I had it working on some machine or
other, with Etch or Lenny (I think).  Sinks, sources, wonderful.  That
machine is long gone.

I recently installed Squeeze/KDE 4.45, and I wanted to use a bluetooth
headset.  My Googling led me to believe that it CAN NOT be done
without pulseaudio.  So I spent hours on getting pulseaudio working,
sometimes, except when it doesn't, and kaffeine freezes, or youtube
goes silent.  If it's not working right, just reboot and it might work
differently for a few minutes.  And, like all linuxers, I hate
rebooting.

I haven't even tried adding the headset yet, because pulseaudio isn't
working, not really.  What I really want to do is rip out all the
pulseaudio stuff and go back to straight ALSA or whatever it was that
was working so well before.

So my FIRST QUESTION, obviously:  Is there ANY way to run Bluetooth
headsets through a USB dongle, without pulseaudio, on Squeeze/KDE4.  I
figure if it's impossible, then choosing between using pulseaudio and
doing the impossible, I have to go with pulseaudio, but it's a close
call.

John