The same saved music export sounds noticeably rougher on one pair of headphones. On the desk speakers I barely notice the passage, although the room is not particularly quiet. I would rather investigate before changing the source. The file is identical in both cases; I have not made a second encode or downloaded another version. I have been reading about ai audio artifact removal but I would like to rule out the playback chain before treating this as a repair problem. I plan to check whether an equalizer is active. Next I can listen again at comparable volumes. Would borrowing another pair of headphones tell me more than inspecting a picture of the sound? I could repeat the check in another player. I mainly want to understand the discrepancy. How would you order the remaining checks?