I have been listening to radio, music and videos on the Web using tools like WinAmp, flash players and embedded Windows Media Player and QuickTime. For some reason, even though the volume on my PC is set to as low as possible without being 0, the sound coming through my headphones is always extremely loud. Is it really necessary for this sound to be so loud? Why do programmers feel the need to set the default volume so darn loud?

People are not naturally deaf, nor should we have to anticipate deafeningly loud sound coming from the speakers.