OK, now I'm really perplexed!!!! So I'm burning the CD copies for Newbee this morning and use a direct-copy software (one disc in one drive copied to one in another). I just went to play the burned copy in my system to confirm that it played fine before sending it out, and to my amazement not only does it play fine, but it sounds superior to the SACD, and does not require nearly as much gain (I'd say it's a good 5db higher in gain overall). I put in the original SACD and sure enough, the sound was more distant and required going from 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock on my pre to get a similar volume to the copied version!!! WTF! Now this does NOT explain why on my friend's system, which as far as I know is a CD-only player, the disc had a similar sound and similar issue with gain as it does on my own SACD player!!!! The disc had to have been playing its CD layer on his system, yet it required a very high amount of attenuation from his pre too. Somebody give me a clue here!!! This is VERY ODD!
I've just started a new thread that will be up as soon as the moderator approves it. I think this issue is worthy of a thread of its own at this point.