ALSA volume sensitivity

Question

Hello all, I have an Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 audio card + Sennheiser HD 555 headphones. This conjunction is very, very loud. When I want to get lower volume, I do:
[mk@linux ~]$ amixer -- sset Front playback -126dB
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
Capabilities: pvolume penum
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 1 [0%] [-126.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 1 [0%] [-126.00dB]
Louder: [mk@linux ~]$ amixer -- sset Front playback -125dB
Okay, that's enough: [mk@linux ~]$ amixer -- sset Front playback -124dB
It's still 1% in alsamixer. So basically it's impossible to set volume through any graphic mixer or audacious, because gain goes immediately to 5% which is way too much. I'm thinking of taking off headphone amplifier jumper but as far as I remember when I tested both settings after buy, it didn't make a difference. Any suggestions apart of using software volume control in audacious? Thanks.

Answer 1

Use with xbindkeys / khotkeys or whatever can make a global shortcut or a mouse gesture or whatever
Louder:
#!/bin/bash
#by mkkot, 15/04/2012, Public Domain
#This script can be used for precise volume level increasing in Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 Advance DE within ALSA
volume_level=`amixer |grep "Left: Playback" |cut -d ' ' -f 6`
volume_level=$[volume_level + 1]
amixer -- sset Front playback $volume_level
Quiet:
#!/bin/bash
#by mkkot, 15/04/2012, Public Domain
#This script can be used for precise volume level decreasing in Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 Advance DE within ALSA
volume_level=`amixer |grep "Left: Playback" |cut -d ' ' -f 6`
volume_level=$[volume_level -1]
amixer -- sset Front playback $volume_level