[AphantaZach]

Modern encoders (especially Opus) are indeed impressive at preserving the stereo image at high quality settings. If you are on a stable connection getting the full 192kbps+ stream, the phase error is likely negligible.

The issue is that we can't control the delivery.

Streaming platforms use adaptive bitrate. If a user's bandwidth dips on mobile, the player might switch to a lower tier where the model starts aggressively quantizing the Side channel (L-R) to save space.

Since the binaural effect relies entirely on that Side channel difference, I wanted to remove the variable entirely.

By generating it client-side with the Web Audio API, we get mathematical certainty regardless of the user's connection speed.

[LarsAlereon]

I think if you pitched this as "binaural beats that always work regarding of network conditions" that would be better-received. I don't think there's much of a scenario where streaming services aren't able to consistently deliver high enough quality for 3D positional audio. If there were, ASMR artists would be pushing much harder for alternate platforms.

[AphantaZach]

You make a great point. 'Determinism > Bandwidth' is definitely the stronger argument.

The main difference with ASMR is that it uses multiple spatial cues (reverb, tone) which survive compression well.

Entrainment is more fragile. For a cognitive tool, I wanted to engineer that risk out of the system entirely.