Hi Tony.

I have to disagree with you on the normalization issue to some extend.
First let get a simple fact straight: A sine wave form that is going the full 16bit range .WAV files offer (i.e. using 100% amplitude) will appear to be of different volume depending on the frequency. That is why some normalization software tries to work on the "power" of the sounds instead of their amplitude like most of them do.
Now, I checked 10 randomly picked CDs out of my collection of 50 (well, I have more on MP3, but those were already normalized while ripping). Only 5 of them (all containing (only) songs that were first published within the last 3 years) where showing 95%-98% maximum amplitude, the rest varied from 75% to 90%. (Yeah, I love my plextor, couldn't have checked this fast without it.) Getting more investigative, I checked another 10, but the picture was about the same. Only those CDs that contained recently produced songs where normalized like you say (to about 95-98%). Those CDs that contained older songs (from 60s to mid 90s), even if they were produced lately (e.g. a sampler with irish folk (first published 1972), remastered 2000) varied from 70% peak amplitude to 99% peak amplitude.

In most cases, I wouldn't want to change the recorded volume anyway, as they mostly match the music (slow classic being more silent than Rock'n'Roll), expect for some occasions (empeg in car or on parties).

cu,
sven