Thought my sound problems had gone away, then pulseaudio updates and bang, no sound, nothing obvious in the logs and pavucontrol / alsamixer look fine. I have rolled back with timeshift and added:
IgnorePkg = pulseaudio pulseaudio-bluetooth pulseaudio-jack libpulse
Re-updated and I have sound.
Pulseaudio is truly terrible.
If you want your audio to work 100% of time - then route all your audio through jack, you’ll learn it one time with some curve perhaps, and then will have no problems in future like that…
or try to check out what’s up with pipewire (thing that will be hassle-free pusleaudio replacement, for now i think it’s dark waters still - but probably already works better)