How to lower USB headphone audio levels on Windows

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When connecting my headphones via a simple USB-plug, the audio levels are often way, way, too loud. Today I had to turn the volume all the way down to 2% for the audio just to be OK'ish. That's not very usable, and also kind of scary...

Finally found something to fix it!

  1. Install Equalizer APO
  2. Open up "C:\Program Files\EqualizerAPO\config\config.txt"
  3. Replace its contents with:
Preamp: -30 dB
  1. And adjust that level as necessary...

Now I can finally use the volume bar in Windows, and the volume media keys on my keyboard properly. And no longer do I need to be afraid of suddenly having my eardrums shattered if the audio were to move a percentage or two... or, even worse, reset to max...