systemctl status --user pipewire

https://lemmy.world/post/45170184

Wow. I’ve just stepped out of the office for a rage break because pipewire shat the bed again. It’s amazing how sound seems to be a solved problem 5 or 10 years ago but now it’s just offal.
Yeah, it was working fine but then it got really hard to use pulse. Just when it was stable, we get a few good years before having to switch to a new unstable thing, since pulse lost support.
I used to have crackling issues with pulseaudio. It needed restarting constantly. Not issue since the switch to pipewire. So my experienced was the absolute opposite of yours.