Perhaps silly question, but do you use KDE Connect?
I noticed that my Android phone randomly by itself clopies and sends via KDE Connect what is in the pastebin with my computer, and whenever that happens, I get a sound notification (but no persistent notice).
but most of the debian specific results were about replacing pipewire with pulseaudio because pipewire was not working correctly.
so maybe verify which one you are currently running before blindly following some guide off the internets.
also be aware that pipewire is still very new, and debian may not have the latest version… which means you either need to compile it yourself of find someone who already has done so for your distro.
Maybe your speakers are automatically suspended when inactive to save power, and the act of suspending and waking them causes that audible crack.
In my case, I use TLP on my laptop, I removed that cracking sound by disabling auto-suspension for audio devices:
I set SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_AC=0 in /etc/tlp.conf and rebooted.
If you are not using TLP, maybe this link can help you.
The reason I ask the question is that I had a powered speaker which made noises (due to malfunctioning electronics - capacitors etc… initially fixed by replacing the capacitors and finally fixed by installing a better Class-C solid-state amplifier).
I would also like to investigate if this only occurs with a HDMI, Analog, or other kind of audio output (Bluetooth, headphones etc).
I would go with it being garbage on-board audio being used. I use to get similar I would not call them clicks but little pops all the time using it. Bought USB 5.1 sound device and have not heard a peep from them since, it now only plays sound when it supposed to have sounds. Best $20 I have ever spent.
Edit: and to top it off no useless BS trying to configure the sound, it just works with the USB device.
As OP didn’t see fit to include any information, we’re basically just fumbling in the dark…
Speakers is connected to the mainboard output plug with and aux cable.
From this we might assume it isn’t a laptop, nothing more… but a computer that requires you to plug in directly to the motherboard is weird - even my homebuilt potato has the motherboard connected to 3.5mm outlets on the case…
These outputs are also not designed to give POWER output, they should really be connected to amplifiers - but OP doesn’t even bother to let us know what is meant by ‘speakers’… for example, my Analog output is connected to Class-C amplification which drives speakers… but some speakers have amplification built in… and some speakers are utter junk.
Basic information should be required for every post, starting with:
I wonder if this is something about active speakers - I don’t know, because I use a separate amplifier…
But I guess you can check the speakers don’t make a noise from another source, then maybe your computer is power saving by turning audio on and off with a click or something.
I never get that though - I’m not sure how to troubleshoot that, some other members of Manjaro forum are good troubleshooting Audio (give sound advice lol) but I can only go from experience - Family Audio connected to a Class-D amplifier doesn’t give clicks on a fairly basic Plasma desktop installation.
I wonder about power profiles - it’s a desktop so shouldn’t bother power saving… I’m a bit stumped.
I’ve experienced something similar to what you describe from my 2 screens going into inactive mode and then snapping back quickly. I haven’t been able to get my dual monitors to ‘sleep’ properly after periods of disuse… They mostly stay on, with the little clicks (part of the ‘audio theme’) telling me every time one or the other ‘lights up’ or (briefly) ‘goes dark’.
Im on Fedora KDE 41 right now, dont know if it was a problem with some config on the last installed dist, or if fedora has newer/better fixed versions, but with this installation, i just lock the computer and screens goes to sleep within 60 seconds and stays off until i want them to wake up.