To save power, PipeWire's session manager (WirePlumber) puts your audio device to sleep a few seconds after the last sound stops. It wakes the device again when something starts playing. On many sound cards, amplifiers and speakers, powering the device on or off makes an audible pop.
Games and music players keep their audio stream open the whole time, so the device never sleeps and you don't hear it. Browsers close their audio stream a few seconds after a clip ends, so the device sleeps and wakes over and over.
Some onboard sound cards also have a separate kernel power-saving setting that can cause the same pop.
This fixes it for most people. Copy the whole block into a terminal at once:
mkdir -p ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d
cat > ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/51-disable-suspend.conf << 'EOF'
monitor.alsa.rules = [
{
matches = [
{ node.name = "~alsa_output.*" }
{ node.name = "~alsa_input.*" }
]
actions = {
update-props = {
session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0
}
}
}
]
EOF
systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse
Then play a short video, wait about 10 seconds after it ends, and listen for the pop. Your browser will still disappear from Playback Streams when the clip ends; that's normal. The pop should be gone.
This applies only to your user account. Other users on the same computer need to run it too.
Only try this if Fix 1 didn't help and you use onboard audio (the headphone jack or built-in speakers). First check the current setting:
cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
If it prints 0, power saving is already off and this fix won't help. If it prints anything else, turn it off:
echo "options snd_hda_intel power_save=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/disable-audio-powersave.conf
Then restart your computer.
If
/sys/module/snd_hda_inteldoesn't exist, your audio doesn't use this dret, a USB DAC or HDMI audio), and only Fix 1 applies.
To restore the default power saving:
rm ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/51-disable-suspend.conf
systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse
sudo rm -f /etc/modprobe.d/disable-audio-powersave.conf
If you removed the modprobe file, restart your computer.