The last two upgrades have broken my audio setup.
First the options for Network Server and Network Access in paprefs were greyed out and my sinks disappeared after upgrading to bookworm. I just had to create a link to an existing file and it was working again but, it's weird that it was needed in the first place. Pretty sure it has something to do with the change from pulseaudio to pipewire but I'm not very up to date on that subject and I just want to have my current setup to continue working.
Then yesterday I just launch a simple apt-get upgrade and after rebooting my sinks disappeared again. The network options in paprefs were still available, but changing them did nothing. I had to create the file ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/10-gsettings.conf and stuff it with "pulse.cmd = [ { cmd = "load-module" args = "module-gsettings" flags = [ "nofail" ] } ]" in order to have my sinks back.
I know it's not only a Debian thing, as I can see this happening to people on Arch forums, but as Debian is supposed to be the "stable" one, I find it amusing that a simple upgrade can break your sound.
I’ve never heard of someone doing something like this before, but it sounds like it could have some pretty cool downstream applications (thinking Bluetooth speakers)
With your setup would it be possible to pair your headphones to your phone (iPhone in my case) and be able to pass audio from different computers to a central one that my phone could then relay to my headphones?
I often walk around my house/yard while listening to something playing on my laptop/desktop. And if I get too far from the source, it breaks the Bluetooth connection. So I usually end up having to drag my laptop around the yard with me. A much nicer solution would be to have my phone on my person, and use the wifi to keep connected to my “audio source” without needing proximity to the actual pc playing the sound.
Audio over the network is a feature of pulseaudio/pipewire from a module aptly named "module-simple-protocol", and as simple as it is to make it work on Linux (when it works), it's unfortunately not as easy on other platforms. Technically speaking, it's possible to do that on Android with an app called "Simple Protocol Player" but it's apparently very glitchy and you're going to need some patience for the setup. It's from someone that wanted to stream audio from an HTPC with Ubuntu to an Android phone, but the author states that it's pretty buggy. Here's the link to their blog: https://kaytat.com/blog/?page_id=301
So the short answer is unfortunately "no", unless you want to practice your patience on a project.
Thanks for this. I guess I should have expected that answer. Bluetooth in general already tests my patience, so I’m not sure a new project revolving around things that already piss me off would be a smart move for my already rising blood pressure.
I’ll stay tuned to that protocol though, as it could probably help me in some other less complicated projects I’d like to tackle.