To be fair (with pipewire*) my audio issues usually related to HDMI audio output which has been a PITA for like 20 years since the days of Xbox 360.
I started using PipeWire as soon as Arch switched the recommended default and I agree, it cleared up a lot of issues and fixed my Bluetooth headset, which was nice.
My 3.5mm issues are complicated by the scenario where I have a extension cable always plugged in but not always my headphone cable (sennheisers stock cables aren't super long)
I just wanted to add this as a "to be fair" and there is a element of "user error" where I just haven't put enough time in to really learn pipewire.
Well last night I resolved my problems by making sure to kill all processed owned by the greeter (as seen in my other post thanks to OP^^)
`killall -u greeter'
Now I can enjoy my Ubuntu startup sound in peace /s /volume-warning