[oldbrokentapes]

OK here we go, some clips.

Example 1 is the revelant sample taken straight from the source mp3. Oh that makes me a pirate. Go me.

Example 2 seems to be the widest stereo profile I can get, which worries me cos there's quite a lot of bleed, but while all the more reason to get a new soundcard, isn't the problem at hand.

Example 3 gives the best range of the lot, but it's short and changes a lot, so best open up in a waveform viewer:
0.2s-0.5s is "stereo"
0.5s-0.7s is left-channel-mono
0.7s-1.2s is probably left-channel-mono, or possibly both channels mixed to mono
then it's back to "stereo"

I haven't been able to generate an example of mixed mono this morning so I'm swaying back towards the idea that it's always the left channel that shows up in the middle. However I am increasingly establishing that there are various levels of the problem and not just an on-off.

Example 4 just shows how pausing the playback (at 13s) can get things back on track. Doesn't sound like the audio at the beginning of this example suffers any frequency loss, in fact the only bit of that I've got here is the 0.7-1.2s part in Example 2, but that's hopefully enough to hear what I'm talking about.

Enjoy!