[Romeo Rondeau]

It's not difficult to extract the full dynamic range of a CD
these days. What're we talking about? Maybe 6 dB? And since most
consumer electronics has a maximum output level of around 3 volts RMS,
that's not hard to do either. Given the nature of "full scale digital"
it's easy to predict the absolute maximum level coming out of the D/A
converter and design so that the analog circuity doesn't clip.

Shouldn't be (as Romeo noted) anything analogue about this path at all.
And having a 16/44.1 CD extracted to a 24 bit PT file in a serious state
of repetitive clip is just a nuisance to look at. I can't really hear it, and
if I get into the waveform, it's hardly obvious at all.... except for those sucky
red lights.

No one in the building can explain it any better than Romeo when he said that
PT probably just has an "idiot protection" sensitivity.

And when you think about it, just 1 sample at full digital scale is more
than likely a clip. As a matter of fact, at 16-bits, there's only a 1 in
32,768 chance that it's NOT a clip (a negative clip is just as bad) :-)
I'll take those odds and my guess is that ProTools does as well :-)