Gain levels after ripping...

A pure unprocessed rip of a CD will retain the volume data exactly as it was on the CD.

Some ripping programs may allow volume adjustment when ripping but that can be turned on or off, if even present.

And many of the programs for computer play of ripped music will allow for replay gain adjustment, but that is for playback only and doesn't permanently change the file itself.

Yes, some software will have an option to normalize, I think thats what it's called and it rips all cd's to same sound level.

What are you finally storing as? I just replaygain all my flacs in foobar for playback.