I am unable to change my audio device for Minecraft on Linux Mint 19.3.  I expect this issue will affect other OS, as per the bugs I will reference, however I am reporting what I am testing on.

When I go to Volume Control, I have the dropdown menu for audio devices, but selecting any of them does nothing. 

See this forum thread for more details on the troubleshooting I've performed:  https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=331982&p=1898021

According to MC-26748 and MC-25528, this was previously reported in 2013 as an LWJGL issue and was not pursued.  The workaround in MC-26748 of downgrading the LWJGL version to 2.8.0 isn't an acceptable solution, as the 2.x stream of this library ended in 2015. 

I raised this via the LWJGL forums.  Please see this thread for feedback from LWJGL developers:  http://forum.lwjgl.org/index.php?topic=7081.0:

What could be done to resolve this? Suggestions:

- Minecraft regularly queries alcGetInteger(device, ALC_CONNECTED), via the ALC_EXT_disconnect extension. If it returns ALC_FALSE, it automatically recreates the audio context.
- Minecraft regularly queries alcGetString(NULL, ALC_DEFAULT_ALL_DEVICES_SPECIFIER). This returns a string that describes the default audio device. If it changes, it automatically recreates the audio context.
- Minecraft queries ALC_ALL_DEVICES_SPECIFIER (also regularly updates it) and displays the list of available audio devices. Instead of changing the default audio device from the OS settings, users can change the audio device used by Minecraft itself. This is the simplest and most robust solution. I don't remember a PC game that doesn't have such an option in its audio settings.

MC-44055 is still open as unresolved since 2014.  There is a mod comment that it was resolved as "Won't Fix" as F3+T is an acceptable workaround.  Please note that in this scenario you are unable to change the audio device in the OS to force an update through F3+T.

Requesting the following:

1.  Confirmation that the issue is with Minecraft Java Edition integration either with OpenAL Soft or LWJGL.  Issue should be reproduced and confirmed where the problem exists, and a fix developed.  This issue has persisted since 2013.

2.  Feature Enhancement Request to have Minecraft Java Edition allow the user to use a "Default" audio device, or specify the audio device in the game client. 

3.  Feature Enhancement Request to have Minecraft Java Edition be able to change the audio device without having to use F3+T to reload resource packs.  Please revisit MC-44055 for this request, as it is still open.