joeyfreeze
Anderton - Thank you for suggesting that I import the exported WAV into Sonar, because the dynamics sound perfect in there, so it must be something that Windows is doing. Just hope it doesn't end up that way on Soundcloud or whatever...

I don't think it will. Today I was using WASAPI and a drum loop sounded horrific - noisy, compressed, just generally sucky. I looked in the control panel and found an entry for "SRS Premium Sound Pro." The "enhancements" box was checked, so I unchecked it. That exorcized the Audio Tools of Satan, which affect only playback on that system.