After I got home, I decided to get off my ass and fix this. This post is for all of you having volume troubles, in that sound plays but not at the levels you would like, and Kmix is of no use. Also, if your sound levels are inconsistent, this will probably help. Your phonon backend won't make a difference, but I use VLC instead of Gstreamer (in case you were wondering).
- K Menu/Application Launcher >> Sound & Video >> Pulseaudio Volume Control
- Go to the Configuration tab, and select Analog Surround 4.0 Output from the dropdown menu.
- Exit the program.
- Install Veromix--a widget for your panel. It's the most downloaded mixer, so finding it is simple.
- Drag Veromix onto your panel.
- Right-click your system tray. Check Veromix as an extra item.
- Remove Veromix from your panel. Both Veromix and Kmix should be in your system tray. Veromix can handle volumes for individual applications, while Kmix handles global. Veromix can also handle global volume. The difference being that Kmix is attached to your volume keys on your keyboard.
When playing through headphones, I like to turn down the volume on all my applications, and adjust the global volume slider. Whatever works for you...
You now have the full volume spectrum. So turning the volume down to whisper level with headphones--headphones are quieter than speakers--and turning the volume up to screeching, gain-saturated volumes with the speaker(s)--speakers are louder than headphones--are both possible.
