Alex Renwick writes:

>Most of both CD's are barely audible for two-thirds or so of the disk.
>Toward the end they approach what could be considered a reasonable
>volume.

I would suggest that this is a problem with the software decoding system
you use with your iMac.  This may have something to do with the fact that
classical CDs are all published at a much lower transfer level than say
Jazz or popular music.  Most software decoding programs are likely to
be geared only towards higher transfer level CDs.  I have to date not
encountered your problem with my Windows Media Player, although I must
say I seldom use it to listen to music.  This is to say you are likely to
sooner or later encounter the same problem with CDs from other companies.

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia