Whenever I hook up my speakers/headphones i have to set the windows volume down to like 5% in order for it not to be extremely loud. Is there any way to set the base output volume to be lower so at 50% it'd be my normal listening volume and 100% would be pretty loud but doable.

I understand exactly what you mean. There might be a way in the registry but I haven't looked. Something you can do is set the max volume of the sound device in the control panel and then the max sound will not go beyond that level even if you set them to 100% in an application. Control Panel - Sounds - select the playback device (your sound card) and then configure it. This way you can set the max level.

Whenever I hook up my speakers/headphones i have to set the windows volume down to like 5% in order for it not to be extremely loud. Is there any way to set the base output volume to be lower so at 50% it'd be my normal listening volume and 100% would be pretty loud but doable.

Edited January 14, 200719 yr by Spooky

the thing is, I love the new feature that the new audio mixer allows you to set each apps volume, if there's no software sol'n i'm gonna solder a resistor into my speaker wire or something.

i've been though as many of the gui based options that i could find (running vista) but cant find any appropriate settings.

Edited January 14, 200719 yr by Swimming_Bird

Thats what i'm trying to tell you, there is a way. I'm not talking about the mixer. The max level you set in the control panel/sound/your sound device will be as high as it goes. The application might say 100% but 100% will be what you set 100% to be in the control panel sounds settings. So if you say for example set the control panel sound settings to 50%, then use an application that has a control that goes 0% to 100% when you set the applications control to 100% it will only actually be 50%. Thus you have achieved what you wanted to do.

Your sound card does show up in Control Panel/Sound/ on the Play Back tab ?

the thing is, I love the new feature that the new audio mixer allows you to set each apps volume, if there's no software sol'n i'm gonna solder a resistor into my speaker wire or something.

i've been though as many of the gui based options that i could find (running vista) but cant find any appropriate settings.

i understand what you mean, thats the main mixer, built into the OS. I'd like to use that mixer though, rather then the ones built into every app. Thats because

1. not all apps have internal mixers
   
2. i use a remote control and keyboard volume controls which use the built in Volume Mixer.
   

also vista doesn't work the way you're talking about, it's not a card based sound sytem anymore. now it's an input/output system. you adjust things for each output/input, a much better system imo.

Mines different then. In my control panel I had the Sound settings that affect the overall levels for the card, but I also have a seperate mixer that does what your talking about.

i understand what you mean, thats the main mixer, built into the OS. I'd like to use that mixer though, rather then the ones built into every app. Thats because

1. not all apps have internal mixers
   
2. i use a remote control and keyboard volume controls which use the built in Volume Mixer.
   

also vista doesn't work the way you're talking about, it's not a card based sound sytem anymore. now it's an input/output system. you adjust things for each output/input, a much better system imo.

this is the levels i was looking at, notice it's at 1%, as i change that it changes the normal mixer found in the taskbar.

Edited January 16, 200719 yr by Swimming_Bird