I'm just wanting to know what library would be the best for 3d audio because I'm not sure what the real differences are between them.

I'm just wanting to know what library would be the best for 3d audio because I'm not sure what the real differences are between them.

OpenAL is just an API much like DirectX or OpenGL. To use this API you will need some kind of software which implements it. For directX/opengl this is often done by the hardware manufactories (NVIDIA/ATI) in the form of drivers. There are few implementations of the OpenAL API, one from creative to support their hardware , some are based on other APIs (DirectSound) and some are written entierly in software without any hardware support. OpenAL Soft is one of the software only implementations.

As developer you have the option to develop using an specific API, the end-user have the option to choose the implementation of this API.

So OpenAL uses Hardware whilst OpenAL Soft uses Software?

What would you find better for a game?