MP3Gain - Any reason to Album Gain higher than 83dB? Options

[BFG]

I'm planning to apply replaygain MP3Gain (album) to my entire set of ripped CDs. I know that the default setting for MP3Gain is 89dB, which gives around 14dB of headroom. But I've read up on some industry standards - notably, SMPTE RP 200:2002 and EBU R128 - which recommend 83dB and 80dB respectively. Furthermore, I tend not to listen to music at very high volumes - typically I never go over about 40% of max - and the Replaygain MP3Gain analysis shows I would have to go down to 82dB or lower to avoid all clipping.

So, is there any reason NOT to go down to 83dB or 80dB? Am I reducing the dynamic range of the music by doing so (i.e. could I be causing some sections of the music to have a 0dB volume)?

And, an associated question - what does a blue track with ??? for clipping indicate in ReplayGain MP3Gain? I can't find any documentation on this.

This post has been edited by greynol: Nov 13 2012, 01:07

Reason for edit: replaygain -> mp3gain

[saratoga]

You're wasting some of the dynamic range of the DAC, but probably not of the music. Unless your system has very low snr its probably no disadvantage in practice.