Sources matter

Was listening to SiriusXM on my Mac, using the web interface.

SiriusXM web interface playing Korn.

Listening casually at not a high volume, I noticed a little harshness, likely compression artifacts?, in the sound, using my Loxjie A40 powering Klipsch B-100 bookshelf speakers. I’m new to this combination, so I started to worry a tiny bit - is the A40 a lesser quality unit than the A30? Did I maybe get a bad one? What’s going on?

A short while later I was watching a YouTube video of Biden giving a speech regarding student loan forgiveness, and it was definitely clipping. WTF?! This isn’t good ... But, wait. I downloaded the clip using a Firefox plugin and copied the audio track out into a stand-alone file: 

% ffmpeg -i President\ Biden\ gives\ remarks\ from\ Culver\ City.mp4 -acodec copy President\ Biden\ gives\ remarks\ from\ Culver\ City.m4a

A peek at the audio track in Audacity showed what I kinda thought it might: Blown out audio.

Audacity showing clipped waveforms.

Just to be sure, I fired up Cog and some FLAC files I’d personally ripped from my own CDs and knew to be high quality. Problem gone, everything sounds crystal clear and incredible.

Cog showing a Tool playlist. Of course.