I'm hearing more and more people saying that inter-sample peaks (ISPs) are just a theoretical issue, and won't have any real impact on the sound we hear. Some have even gone as far as to call them a "hoax".

That's not my view - in my experience hard clipping is almost always a problem, and there have been plenty of times when I've thought I heard a problem with ISPs above zero. Plus the R128 broadcast standards and online streaming guidelines suggest we avoid inter-sample peaks above -1 dBTP.

But I've never tested this fully... until now.

In this video I explain what inter-sample peaks are and how they occur, and why they might be a problem.

More importantly I show you how to do a real-world test to see if ISP clipping can be audible – and the results surprised me !

Take a listen and see what you think...