Sound degrading when exporting

Hi I have been using Audacity2.0.6 on windows XP for some time now and through experimentation I managed to restore an old cassette recording I made years back. I have it sounding pretty darn good on the program player just using a standard Sound Max card but when I go to save it as a wav, or burn a C.D. the sound degrades some what. I’m not sure if the indicator spectrum lines on the player are anything accurate but it shows a flatter response when the either a c.d. or data stick version is played as compared to the spectral response on the program. I tried saving as 16 bit pcm and it’s even a little worse than the 32 bit float. I don’t want to go with a newer version because I find the noise reduction on this version to be more accurate but perhaps it has something to do with the plug ins ? Any suggestions ?

I have it sounding pretty darn good on the program player just using a standard Sound Max card but when I go to save it as a wav, or burn a C.D. the sound degrades some what.

About the only thing that can change is that Audacity won’t clip, but your exported WAV can be clipped. Do you have Audacity configured to [u]Show Clipping[/u]?

And, save a “CD quality” (16-bit, 44.1kHz) or better.

I’m not sure if the indicator spectrum lines on the player are anything accurate but it shows a flatter response when the either a c.d. or data stick version is played as compared to the spectral response on the program.

You’re comparing apples to oranges… Different recordings/different songs will have different spectrums and you won’t get the same quality for a cassette that you get from a CD or digitally-sourced MP3, etc.

I tried saving as 16 bit pcm and it’s even a little worse than the 32 bit float.

Again the only difference should be (potential) clipping in the 16-bit integer version.