n80
... most of what people hear through ear buds is normalized ... if that normalization decreases the volume of overly compressed songs there is no real benefit even where there is background noise. The softer bits will be made softer by the normalization. To hear them the volume has to be turned up by the user.....just like with an uncompressed song.The use of normalization has nothing at all to do with the industry's overuse of compression. A listener typically sets volume by adjusting it to not allow the level to exceed a certain amount. That's how quiet passages get lost in ambient noise on a recording with wide dynamic range.