Hi all,
I posted this question here, but just wanted to post its link here as well hoping that fellow Arch Linux users may provide more insight. Briefly, I lost sound and the ability to stream videos to my laptop from YouTube, Twitch, etc. during the last few days, regardless of the browser used. Losing sound means that playing back any mp3 or other audio formats via VLC does not produce sound on speakers or headphones, even though there is visual evidence of VLC doing the job. KDE audio settings indicate Analog Stereo Duplex is used for output but the speaker test again does not produce any sound. Only when I plug in or out the power supply the specific chime is heard, which indicates that the speaker hardware and wiring is actually OK. Kernel is 5.17.7, I am more than happy to provide more specific info as requested.
Edit: Downgraded to kernel 5.17.5-1. VLC playback of an audio file works again! Attempting to play YouTube stream not only fails but also breaks the audio system, the same audio file playback becomes silent after this failed attempt. Moreover, playing a local video file via VLC also breaks the audio system and is silent; however, you can actually see the video file playing, which is different than the streaming scenario. In summary, once a video playback is attempted, local or streamed, the audio drivers(?) break and stop producing speaker/headphone output. I tried this next with kernel-5.17.7 and got the same results. I also noticed that even opening Firefox or Chromium breaks the audio on my laptop during these tests. Yes, if one plays a song the first thing when the laptop boots up, it works. Just pause the song, and launch a browser, either Firefox or Chrome, then resume the audio, you will have no sound, despite the advancing play indicator. How weird is that?
Edit2: This link solved this problem for me. It is basically the wireplumber package not getting along well with pulseaudio, which needs to be replaced with pipewire-pulse. Please take note if you have the same problem. Thanks!