[quote name='bmachine']All of my old Smiths and Cure stuff is really quiet. I've always assumed it's just the quality of the original recordings. I don't have any popping/crackling, though...that's really weird. All of my stuff is ripped at 192kbps.
I know Zune supports VBR up to 320kbps. What quality are you ripping at?
Speaking of The Cure: did you see the new 21st anniversary box set of
Disintegration that comes out next week? It's wicked sexy.[/QUOTE]
I just did a random run of a bunch of songs and each one (VBR, 128kpbs, 320 kbps) starts with a loud buzz, with the song kicking in at a low volume at first, then seemingly auto adjusting (it will either quieten if loud, or get louder of soft). Plus it just sounds off, is there no equalizer hidden somewhere? I use winamp with an equalizer plug in, so i'm real used to the way that sounds.
And yeah, i've been seeing rips of the new 3 CD (?!) set online since last week! That's when I realised it was coming out...pretty cool, my 1st and pretty much overall fave Cure album! I never even wanted to listen to them (South Park references always went over my head and I figured I wouldn't like the music for some reason), but that was MONTHS ago

now i totally dig. they're my top artist on my zune plays i think (since i switched over to my XBL account, my other account had almost a whole other set of stuff i listened to and burned out on)