I agree wholeheartedly, and I'd even take it a small step forward from there. I think audio should be at least normalized. I DO NOT mean tweaking the inherent dynamic range here, I simply mean bringing the whole thing up to having the peaks hit 0 db. Let's face it, sometimes our recordings don't even come close to having the levels up enough. I personally don't think normalizing is a big deal, you either do it in post or someone is going to do it with their volume control -- and either way, the noise level will be increased. And like you said, some devices that don't pump out enough volume will result in a bummer when you max out your volume control and it still isn't loud enough. Now, COMPRESSION is a different story, which some people alluded to hear. Personally, I like a little compression, but only when it's subtle enough to squish a few transients here and their, which helps when normalizing to the peaks. But, that is much more controversial from an archival perspective and I totally get that. However, I will always compress/limit just enough to fix any clips I might have -- I'd rather not ever have a clip in a finished product, so I might run Sony's Clip restoration in a couple of spots here and there when needed. Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying I'm with you man...