Cannot configure Dell USB Sound Bar Output after upgrade

[ChrisJUK]

Update:

After trials with live DVD/USB editions of Mint Mate, and a struggle with the pulseaudio documentation:

Live disc/USB Mint18 and Mint18.1 work OK

Live disc/USB Mint18.2 and Mint18.3 do not show the USB Sound bar in Sound Preferences/Output Tab, but will output at maximum volume (volume controls do not work) to the USB sound bar

The installed Mint18.3 (upgraded over time fro original Mint18 installation, so with the Mint18 Linux kernel) does not show the USB Sound bar in Sound Preferences/Output Tab and does not give any output to the USB sound bar.
Looking with pacmd, the pulseaudio sees the same sound bar source & sink in the installed Mint18.3 and the Mint 18.1 from live USB.
It is possible to set the pulseaudio (with pacmd) to output sound on the USB sound bar.

So - it looks like there is a bug in the Mint18.2 and 18.3 Sound Preferences SW.

Chris

Hello

System is a dual boot Intel NUC, with corei5 CPU, Dell display and Dell AC511 USB sound bar.
The SW is Mint MATE 18.3 64 bit updated from MATE 18.0, kernel 4-4-0-21-generic, or Windows 7.

In Windows 7 the Sound bar still works.

In Mint MATE the sound bar worked, up until (if my memory is correct) some updates 2 weeks ago that included an update from pulseaudio1.8.0-0ubuntu3.4 to pulseaudio1.8.0-0ubuntu3.7. (The system was updated from MATE 18.2 to MATE 18.3 about 4 weeks ago.)

In the Control Center 'Sound' window,
the 'Hardware' tab window now shows the USB sound bar with 1 input 1 output,
the 'Input' tab window now shows the USB sound bar, built in audio analogue and HDMI audio inputs
the 'Output' tab window now shows only the built in audio analogue output

so I am unable to configure the output to the USB Sound bar; the audio analogue output is configured (no other option presented) and works with my headphones.

Is there a known problem with the latest pulseaudio version?
Is there an easy way I can revert to the previous pulse audio version?

Chris