Unbelievably, some "mastering engineers" have been known to deliberately clip the track in pursuit of loudness, often at an ADC stage, and then turn the level d

Unbelievably, some "mastering engineers" have been known to deliberately clip the track in pursuit of loudness, often at an ADC stage, and then turn the level down a fraction so it doesnt clip on playback. unfortunately, lots of DACs will produce inter-sample peaks under these conditions, which leads to that awful sound.