No audio heard, yet Linux thinks played successfully

I had audio working on my AlmaLinux 9 installation, using a USB sound card. I seemed to have changed something because I no longer hear audio (but AlmaLinux thinks its successfully playing a sound). I did switch from GUI to text mode on boot, but I don't think that should matter. I have no idea how to proceed...hopefully someone sees something wrong here: For example, the following command completes successfully: aplay /data/sounds/intruder_alert.wav Playing WAVE '/data/sounds/intruder_alert.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Mono I confirmed my USB audio device is detected on bootup (not sure if 'input,hidraw1' is a clue): [ 2.586749] hub 2-2:1.0: USB hub found [ 2.589077] hub 2-2:1.0: 7 ports detected [ 3.536316] usb 2-2.1: new full-speed USB device number 4 using uhci_hcd [ 4.432226] usb 2-2.1: New USB device found, idVendor=08bb, idProduct=2902, bcdDevice= 1.00 [ 4.432236] usb 2-2.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ 4.432243] usb 2-2.1: Product: USB Audio CODEC [ 4.432248] usb 2-2.1: Manufacturer: Burr-Brown from TI [ 4.524947] input: Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/0000:02:00.0/usb2/2-2/2-2.1/2-2.1:1.3/0003:08BB:2902.0002/input/input6 [ 4.583437] hid-generic 0003:08BB:2902.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Device [Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC ] on usb-0000:02:00.0-2.1/input3 and sound related drivers are loaded by kernel: lsmod | grep snd snd_seq_dummy 16384 0 snd_hrtimer 16384 1 snd_usb_audio 385024 2 snd_usbmidi_lib 45056 1 snd_usb_audio snd_hwdep 16384 1 snd_usb_audio snd_seq 94208 7 snd_seq_dummy snd_pcm 151552 1 snd_usb_audio snd_timer 49152 3 snd_seq,snd_hrtimer,snd_pcm snd_rawmidi 45056 1 snd_usbmidi_lib snd_seq_device 16384 2 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi snd 122880 14 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_usb_audio,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi soundcore 16384 1 snd mc 69632 1 snd_usb_audio Since I'm running pipewire and the nodes are pw-cli ls Node id 28, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3 object.serial = "28" factory.id = "10" priority.driver = "20000" node.name = "Dummy-Driver" id 29, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3 object.serial = "29" factory.id = "10" priority.driver = "19000" node.name = "Freewheel-Driver" id 31, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3 object.serial = "1736" object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:front:0:playback" factory.id = "18" client.id = "33" device.id = "44" priority.session = "1009" priority.driver = "1009" node.description = "PCM2902 Audio Codec Analog Stereo" node.name = "alsa_output.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00.analog-stereo-output" node.nick = "USB Audio CODEC" media.class = "Audio/Sink" id 37, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3 object.serial = "35" factory.id = "10" client.id = "33" node.name = "Midi-Bridge" media.class = "Midi/Bridge" id 42, type PipeWire:Interface:Node/3 object.serial = "1737" object.path = "alsa:pcm:0:hw:0:capture" factory.id = "18" client.id = "33" device.id = "44" priority.session = "2009" priority.driver = "2009" node.description = "PCM2902 Audio Codec Analog Stereo" node.name = "alsa_input.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00.analog-stereo-input" node.nick = "USB Audio CODEC" media.class = "Audio/Source" I also tried a simple speaker test: speaker-test -c 2 speaker-test 1.2.8 Playback device is default Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels Using 16 octaves of pink noise Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz) Buffer size range from 64 to 1048576 Period size range from 32 to 524288 Using max buffer size 1048576 Periods = 4 was set period_size = 262144 was set buffer_size = 1048576 0 - Front Left 1 - Front Right Time per period = 11.005656 0 - Front Left ^C 1 - Front Right Time per period = 5.263193 And I checked the aplay devices aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: CODEC [USB Audio CODEC], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 aplay -L null Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture) sysdefault Default Audio Device oss Open Sound System pipewire PipeWire Sound Server default Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server) sysdefault:CARD=CODEC USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio Default Audio Device front:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio Front output / input surround21:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio 2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers surround40:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers iec958:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output And alsa mixer says volume levels are up: amixer Simple mixer control 'Master',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 65536 Mono: Front Left: Playback 55864 [85%] [on] Front Right: Playback 55864 [85%] [on] Simple mixer control 'Capture',0 Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Capture 0 - 65536 Front Left: Capture 26213 [40%] [on] Front Right: Capture 26213 [40%] [on] I've never seen this before and I'm not sure how to diagnose this. Btw, I confirmed my speakers work fine (hear buzz when I touch the audio cable connections).