One would hope that someone would notice if they were listening to headphones vs gimmick "computer speakers" vs proper speakers.
VLC player shouldn't be suspect. Works transparently for me in OSX anyway.
Your OS audio control panel has the options to alter audio.
Reaper has monitor fx options.
Reaper has many render options. Leading to it being possible to choose a lower quality render format.
Before any of that even...
Could be simply a level mismatch somewhere. A volume control not at 100% somewhere. And the "brighter and more detail" is actually simply louder.
A common 'not paying attention' scenario already mentioned is having a limiter on your master bus dialed up with a boost for the render. Then forgetting to bypass it and listening to your render run through that boost a 2nd time. That would make it louder and emphasize the lower dynamic content.
Start with all that.
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