I have always used WMP, Realplayer, and sometimes just direct drive burning but my music doesn't sound good. I try to DL music at the highest bitrate and burn at the highest bitrate. I have a friend that burns his CDs somehow and they are like 3x louder than mine. Mine sound okay but his push my system to its limit and he wont tell me how. I also use CD-RW wich may not be the best choice either. But how do I burn a for optimal loudest?