Thanks for the guidance bdickens as further investigation of the windows 10 software gave a simple answer.
In relation to my post Nov 10 2021, it was a windows 10 setting playing my audio in mono and not stereo in case anyone else has a similar issue.
Turn off Mono Audio
Step 1: Right-click on the speaker icon on the bottom right corner of the Taskbar. Click on Open Sound
Step 2: In the Settings window, on the right-side of the pane, scroll down and under Related Settings, click on Ease of Access audio settings.
Step 3: In the next window, on the right side of the pane, scroll down a bit, and turn off the slider under the Turn on mono audio section.