Audio (I assume you use pipewire)

aplay

Check all available hardware devices

aplay -l

Play sound to figure out which one it is:

#  (Internal audio = id: 0)
while read -r i; do echo "$i"; aplay -D plughw:0,"$i" /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Right.wav; done < <(seq 0 10)

Hint: For HDMI devices make sure the display is already used (visually).
e.g.
xrandr --output HDMI2 --same-as eDP1 --auto

pavucontrol

Check available audio devices (based on card-profile --> available to applications)

amixer

Get device volume via cli.

alsamixer

Change Playback and Capture settings (Master vol, Devices, PCM, ...)

pactl

list cards (profiles is where it's at)

pactl list cards

# not useful if you need anything other than the card name or numeric id
pactl list cards short

set-card-profile | set card profile | bad audio

# change audio profile for bluetooth device
# to improve audio quality
pactl set-card-profile bluez_card.<hardware-address> a2dp-sink

# reset to default
#
pactl set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3  output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo

# hdmi out (TV audio)
pactl set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3  output:hdmi-stereo-extra1

Hint: If the default profile (analog in/out; thinkpad laptop) profile is not displayed reinitalize the internal audio card (thinkpad laptop).

Hint: Find audio card profile via aplay -D ..., after listing all devices via aplay -l.
Check for device name in pactl list cards output. Use one of the profiles displayed in the "Part of profile..." section in the output of pactl list cards for this device.

get default output device

pactl get-default-sink

reinitalize card driver to default state

alsactl init <card-id-number>

# for internal card
alsactl init 0