screechy tinny sound quality

[John Radman]

When playing any video other than a youtube video, the sound quality is terrible. It's very tinny and screechy as if it were blowing out the speakers, but even at quiet noise levels. I've tried numerous fixes including editing the config files for pulse audio, adjusting the sound levels in pulseaudio volume control, adjusting the speaker levels in alsa mixer, messing with the levels in pulse effects.

Pulseaudio config editing attempts I've tried:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1108825/laptops-speakers-sound-bad-poor-sound-quality
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/PositionReporting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmHVgCSpQQ

It is a Realtek ALC3204 sound card on a Dell Inspiron 3501 laptop.
Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
5.11.0-38-generic

I can "fix" the audio issue by playing a youtube video (which always plays with good sound quality) and then playing a different video simultaneously. This causes the other video to play with good sound quality. I can then close the youtube video and the other video continues playing with good sound only as long as I don't pause the video or it buffers.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.11.0-38.42~20.04.1-generic 5.11.22
Uname: Linux 5.11.0-38-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.20
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: matty 1950 F.... pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Oct 23 18:49:06 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-10-11 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20210819)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Title: PCI/internal sound card not detected
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/19/2021
dmi.bios.release: 1.8
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1.8.0
dmi.board.name: 0PY8NM
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr1.8.0:bd07/19/2021:br1.8:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron3501:pvr:sku0A25:rvnDellInc.:rn0PY8NM:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.family: Inspiron
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 3501
dmi.product.sku: 0A25
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.