I was using USB Audio, Altec sound system since, 1999/Windows 98. On some Linux I had by that time, as I tried, kudzu decided it's USB printer and suggested to print test page - I've refrained. Kept doing USB audio tests from time to time, and around 2008 something finally worked (had some issues with Firefox AFAIR, but other player was able to produce sound).

I have been driving bspwm for the last 4 years, and indeed audio has improved with pipewire.