[pulseaudio-discuss] PA is very silent; doen't use the max hardware volume

[Nikos Chantziaras]

It seems that PA refuses to use the maximum hardware volume of my sound 
card (Asus Xonar D1). As a result, the audio is very silent. I have the 
volume sliders in pavucontrol set to 100%, but PA only uses 40% (-20db) 
on the hardware mixer.

In order to get acceptable sound, I have to:

   pulseaudio -k
   sudo alsamixer
   [raise volume to 0db manually]

Isn't PA supposed to use 0db on the hardware by itself?