This is a revisit of previous threads dealing with pulseaudio and bluetooth devices. This problem is that there are two instances of the pulseaudio daemon running on the system. One for user Debian-gdm and the other for the local user. I have searched the debian user list archives (as I've seen and dealt with this problem before but forgot how to fix it) and none of the previously used solutions to this problem work anymore.
Previous solutions involved changing/adding a client.conf file in /var/lib/gdm3/.config/pulse which previously worked to solve the problem. This is no longer the case. Additional information indicated that deleting the symlink in /var/lib/gdm3/.config/systemd/user/socket.target.wants to prevent the startup of pulse audio. Implementing these, which did work on previous installations of Debian, now inhibits the extra pulseaudio server and allows bluetooth connection and audio to show up on my pavucontrol screen. However, all output devices disappear from the playback page and no actual audio comes out of the speakers (I can see the audio on the meter bar). The output devices available do show up on the Output Devices page and the Configuration Page, both show properly configured as far as I can tell. So, the net result is I can get audio with no bluetooth (two daemons running) or bluetooth with no audio (one daemon running). I have no idea where to go from here. The two threads on the user lists that I have found are as follows: https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2015/11/msg01119.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/03/msg00164.html I have a new laptop (an HP Pavilion) and have put a fresh installation of Debian 9 (Stretch) on this system. Though the specific hardware does not play a part in the problem. Thanks guys (and gals) for your help.