I've been reading all the complaints about the volume being too low just after I ordered my NWZ-A845. I was afraid I would be disappointed, but with the 'standard' (they're really good actualy) earplugs 20/30 on older music and 16/30 on newer (due to loudness war) music sounds really loud to me. I don't think I'll listen to anything over 20/30 as it actually hurts my ears....
So my questions to you: are you either a: starting to become deaf (which this whole law is supposed to prevent :smileygrin:) or b: using large (high impedance) over-ear headphones?
A possible solution in both cases; buy a battery powered headphone amplifier. Amazon or ebay have them. Another possibility: use more efficient headphones or ones with a lower impedance.
Anyway, In my opinion mp3-/mp4-players should still give the option to increase the volume. It's a good thing the EU wants to 'protect' people from deafening themselves but sometimes you need more power. For example when hooking up to an amplifier or carstereo that work best with 5v in. Just make the default setting 'save' and add a setting to change this default to a higher output. You can display a clear warning of the risks every time someone raises the volume past a certrain level. If people ignore that it's their own fault and their own responsability. You could even add some sort of parental control for the parents that want to protect younger kids that don't/can't read the warning (or just ignore it :smileysilly:) .
