Forgive me for this noobish question, but does normalizing and/or changing a WAV file's volume (to make it louder) affect the overall quality of the track? I suspect it does but is it OK if you do so without any clipping?

Here's my situation. I have a ton of WAV files ripped from various CDs which are all of generally the same volume except for one track that is substantially quieter than the rest. I want to change it's volume and make it louder without losing sound quality. I know how to change volume with various programs (normalizing is easy in EAC) but does it affect quality too much to the point where it's not a good idea? Loudness wars come to mind...

Basically I'd like to know a way to change the volume while retaining as much of the quality as possible. Any help would be appreciated.

Why not convert to a lossless codec and apply ReplayGain? This does not alter the audio data but merely tells the player to gain shift on playback.

The audible result of permanently amplifying that track with proper software will be exactly the same as amplifying it with the volume control on your HiFi amplifier: it will be louder; nothing else will change. It is the rare music recording that doesn't have its amplitude adjusted one or more times on the way to final production.

Don't worry! That's a different issue. The CD producers are using (nonlinear) dynamic compression and boosting the levels into clipping.

Normalization is a linear process.

...Well, since it's a digital process, you do get non-linear rounding errors, but this is theoretical issue... You won't be able to hear any quality loss.

NOTE - If the "quiet track" has one peak that's zero dB, normalization will not increase the volume. Or, if it has a few peaks near 0dB, the volume increase might not be enough to match the other tracks, because the quiet tracks are generally less compressed and less "dense". Still, it's worth trying on the too-quiet tracks.

It should be noted that normalizing will not necessarily (and probably won't) equalize volume. If you're interested in changing PCM data to achieve equal loudness, try WaveGain.