If you're very certain that nothing else is running in the background
when you experience the problem I would investigate the following:

1- Speakers not plugged in or blown?
2- ISP throttling your downloads?
3- Undetected malware.

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

cuppajava wrote:
> Thanks for the reply.
> The task manager indicates system idle process using 99% or so when the
> problem occurs. Just about all other processes were at 0% or so. ???
> This audio degradation occurs even when I listen to an internet radio like
> Launchcast or Radioio.
>
> "Leonard Grey" wrote:
>
>> Try this:
>>
>> Open Task Manager and park it in a corner of your monitor. Select the
>> Processes tab and display the process in decreasing order of CPU usage.
>> When you experience the problem, look over to Task Manager and notice
>> with processes are occupying most of the CPU.
>>
>> My guess is that there are CPU-intensive applications running in the
>> background - either intentionally or because your computer is infected.
>>
>> ---
>> Leonard Grey
>> Errare humanum est
>>
>> cuppajava wrote:
>>> When I playback either audio or video using any medium, WMP,Realplayer,
>>> Quicktime, the audio and video are degraded. Its like the file is slowly
>>> grinding down and speeding up. At points, it sounds normal yet slower than it
>>> should. Even the startup jingle for Windows sounds gravelly.
>>> Please help.
>>>
>>> Thank You