that is a solution
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/how-do-i-identify-my-sound-card-and-verify-the-proper-driver-is-installed/65984/11?u=simtoecoten
This appears to be about the 15th time in the last month that I could copy/paste same response
System has 2 active sound servers that are probably conflicting and causing audio issues
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.25 running: yes
You can choose either:
Disable the pipewire systemd socket and service to continue using PulseAudio
systemctl --user mask --now pipewire.socket &&
systemctl --user stop pipewire.service
(KDE requires pipewire base package so uninstalling it is not possible for this DE)
OR
Install manjaro-pipewire metapackage to get the additional dependency files for Pipewire to replace PulseAudio
and all them seem to be on KDE
Absence of similar comments for other DEs would suggest that only KDE has a dependency on pipewire