Hmm. I assume that when you say that ALSA gives no reference point for 0dB on a card, this is because the cards themselves have no such reference point, correct? If every card had the same reference point, then ALSA could randomly choose one (standard, "max" amplification), and thus it would choose the same one for all cards -- you guys are pretty smart, you'd be able to figure out which reference is really being used, and correct for it. Since that's apparently tough, I'm assuming it's a per-hardware difference. (There wouldn't be any reason for ALSA to pick arbitrarily difference references for hardware that all worked the same way.) Next question, for the curious: how does PA know how to shift the dB scale to where 0dB matches maximum amplification, if ALSA itself doesn't know? I've noticed the "base volume", glad to know where that comes from. So what you've said is basically -- "Yes, we know this is weird, but we have a new volume scaling formula in the current tree that should help balance out your volume control a little bit." Right?
