[LAU] Advice on Multiple Volume Settings

I want to ask the "experts" on this mailing list a question I've had for years. It involves "best practices" for the multiple volume settings available on most computer systems ... Say I am playing an audio stream from 'last.fm'. The way I see it, there are *four* different possible volume settings: "line" (e.g., PCM) volume, application (e.g., Rhythmbox, TVTime, ...) volume, mixer "master" volume, and speaker volume. I would guess that the last (speaker) volume should be set (dynamically when needed) to whatever is currently most appropriate for the listener. But what about the other three? Should they all be set at 50%? If not, what other values should be used? Can anyone give some guidelines? Thanks for your comments! -- Prof Kenneth H Jacker khj(a)cs.appstate.edu Computer Science Dept www.cs.appstate.edu/~khj Appalachian State Univ Boone, NC 28608 USA