The core issue on modern Arch distros (including CachyOS) is that DaVinci Resolve uses ALSA directly for audio, and while PipeWire handles ALSA emulation fine for most apps, Resolve often needs an extra bridge to avoid no-sound or latency problems.
The most reliable fix reported across Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Garuda, and similar (even into late 2025) is installing the pulseaudio-alsa package alongside your existing PipeWire setup. This provides the compatibility layer Resolve expects without switching away from PipeWire.
So install the package:
sudo pacman -Syu pulseaudio-alsa
(The -Syu will also update your system if needed—good practice.)
Reboot your system (important—restarting PipeWire alone often isn’t enough for Resolve to pick it up).
Launch Resolve and test playback.
Additional checks if it still doesn’t work:
Make sure you have the full PipeWire stack: sudo pacman -S pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse wireplumber (CachyOS should have most of this by default, but reinstalling doesn’t hurt).
In Resolve: Preferences > System > Video and Audio I/O
Try setting Speaker Configuration to “ALSA” if available, or “Automatic”.
Check “Mirror audio I/O engine output” if the option appears.
Test system audio first: Open a terminal and run speaker-test -c 2—you should hear pink noise alternating channels.
If your clips are MP4 with AAC audio, Resolve on Linux still doesn’t support AAC decoding natively (waveforms show but no sound). Transcode the audio to PCM (e.g., with ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a pcm_s16le output.mp4)