I've noticed that when I mix down to a wav and play the wav file back in an external player, the sound quality is not as crisp or clear as my overall mix during playback inside of SONAR Professional.  I've been using versions of Cakewalk since sometime around 2001 so I'm no freshman, but is it possible I'm missing some export setting or buffer size?  The output is a little muffled and slightly over compressed and has more mid-low and less crisp high end.  Sounds great inside of SONAR, after exporting it sounds passable but not great in the wav output.  I've played around with different sample rates and no luck. What gives?
 
 

Quite possibly, it is your player.  Many media player have built in filters to make stuff sound "better".  They can also be using different audio interfaces, if you have more than one installed. 
 
Try importing the file into a new Sonar project and play it there.  If it still sounds off to you, make sure you are exporting with all of the options you want enabled.
 
Regards,
Dan

When in doubt tinker some more.  It would seem I had the fast bounce checked on the output and was getting some degraded mids and highs.

I never use fast bounce for anything.

I always use fast bounce for everything.
 
And all of my exported wav's will null with the project when re-imported into SONAR and A/B'ed

Fast bounce is the same in quality as real time.  This has been clearly stated by CW many times. 

Always use fat bounce and all my exports are identical to the original playback. 
I use whatever Sonar defaults to, only thing I've ever changed is the bit depth from the default of 32 down to 16. 
One thing I ( and others too) do is before export I use "SELECT NONE"   CTRl/SHIFT/ A  
I find it always works perfectly where as I have had issues with Select All. Try that. 

^Same here. I only switch Fast Bounce off if a VST in use doesn't like it.
Posts about exported project not sounding the same outside SONAR are actually
not very rare. My understanding is the most usual cause is the combination of WMP and
different volume. It sounds different but it isn't.

maestrostephent
When in doubt tinker some more.  It would seem I had the fast bounce checked on the output and was getting some degraded mids and highs.

This should make zero difference to the quality of your export.
 
Prove it to yourself:
 

1. Export your project with whatever settings you like
2. Re-import it into the same project on a new track
3. Route it directly to your Main Out/Interface, bypassing your master buss
4. Flip the phase and play. This should result in near or total silence

 
 

Bristol_Jonesey

maestrostephent
When in doubt tinker some more.  It would seem I had the fast bounce checked on the output and was getting some degraded mids and highs.

This should make zero difference to the quality of your export.
 
Prove it to yourself:
 

1. Export your project with whatever settings you like
2. Re-import it into the same project on a new track
3. Route it directly to your Main Out/Interface, bypassing your master buss
4. Flip the phase and play. This should result in near or total silence

It may, depending on what is being bounced. Some (very few) VSTi's can fail using fast bounce. One of the reasons I print VSTi's to audio before I start mixing.
 
Regards,
Dan