diff --git a/python/voice_to_notes.spec b/python/voice_to_notes.spec
index ed82974..aaa7348 100644
--- a/python/voice_to_notes.spec
+++ b/python/voice_to_notes.spec
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ a = Analysis(
     hiddenimports=[
         "torch",
         "torchaudio",
+        "soundfile",
         "huggingface_hub",
         "pysubs2",
         "openai",
diff --git a/python/voice_to_notes/services/diarize.py b/python/voice_to_notes/services/diarize.py
index 3a8ed69..0f8691a 100644
--- a/python/voice_to_notes/services/diarize.py
+++ b/python/voice_to_notes/services/diarize.py
@@ -36,17 +36,26 @@ def _patch_pyannote_audio() -> None:
     _patched = True
 
     try:
-        import torchaudio
+        import numpy as np
+        import soundfile as sf
+        import torch
         from pyannote.audio.core.io import Audio
 
-        def _torchaudio_call(self: Audio, file: dict) -> tuple:
-            audio_path = file["audio"]
-            waveform, sample_rate = torchaudio.load(str(audio_path))
-            # pyannote expects (channel, time) tensor and sample_rate
+        def _soundfile_call(self: Audio, file: dict) -> tuple:
+            """Load audio via soundfile (bypasses torchaudio/torchcodec entirely)."""
+            audio_path = str(file["audio"])
+            data, sample_rate = sf.read(audio_path, dtype="float32")
+            # soundfile returns (samples,) for mono, (samples, channels) for stereo
+            # pyannote expects (channels, samples) torch tensor
+            waveform = torch.from_numpy(np.array(data))
+            if waveform.ndim == 1:
+                waveform = waveform.unsqueeze(0)  # (samples,) -> (1, samples)
+            else:
+                waveform = waveform.T  # (samples, channels) -> (channels, samples)
             return waveform, sample_rate
 
-        Audio.__call__ = _torchaudio_call  # type: ignore[assignment]
-        print("[sidecar] Patched pyannote Audio to use torchaudio", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
+        Audio.__call__ = _soundfile_call  # type: ignore[assignment]
+        print("[sidecar] Patched pyannote Audio to use soundfile", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)
     except Exception as e:
         print(f"[sidecar] Warning: Could not patch pyannote Audio: {e}", file=sys.stderr, flush=True)