Audio Mixdown Sounds Drastically Different From Stereo Out

[Nico5]

maybe check your Windows audio chain - there may be sound modifications lurking in there.

EDIT:

a recent related thread:

Difference between exporting Stereo Out AIF vs. Adobe Audition

So I export the final version of a project, using Stereo Out (24 bit, 48K for film scoring) to AIF. When I import the exported file in Adobe Audition before shipping it to the client (to triple check levels are good, etc.) it sounds different. Not huge, but since it’s the AIF I’m shipping, I regularly have to go back into Cubase to adjust levels to get what I hear in Audition to match what I thought I had set in Cubase. Why could this be?