Every time i play a game for the first time i have to immediately turn the volume down to like 10 percent. Does anyone play games at 100% volume? Are games being made to accommodate people who are hard of hearing? Why does the game need to be so deafeningly loud what the fuck.
This is complicated by different operating systems handling volume differently. Some of them have their "neutral" volume (i.e., source-matched +/-0dB) at points other than 100%.
The goal for highest audio quality and greatest comfort is to keep everything at neutral and only adjust the last link in the chain. So if you're playing a movie, you keep the movie at 100%, keep the OS at 100% (or whatever neutral is), and only adjust the volume on your speakers/stereo. You also want to turn off OS-level adjustments, like auto volume leveling and other things which might make it harder to get the exact results you want.