I think this is close to the most credible explanation for why you could ever hear a difference. High CPU load could result in buffer underruns, which can resul

I think this is close to the most credible explanation for why you could ever hear a difference. High CPU load could result in buffer underruns, which can result in audible artifacts (as there's not enough samples in the buffer to guarantee smooth playback). Although I highly doubt that this would be a problem on 2013 hardware...