Also the music compression rate was lower in the 80's so I have to crank my player up to 21-22 to get a good loud sound (as opposed to the typical 18-19 for a normal CD).
That's actually a good thing. Throughout the years they've tended to increasingly raise the levels while mastering CD's. This can cause distortion and "muddiness." It's better to amplify a slightly quieter source than to record too loud. A lot of people don't realize that a lot of newer remastered versions of CDs are actually inferior to older versions for this and other reasons. Not that I'm a big audiophile or anything but I do some mixing and I suppose I care about this type of thing more than most.