I was very disastisfied /w the sound volume while using a headset: Bose QC3. And the MP3 play back volume over built in speakers was terrible too.

Having come from PPC (Samsung i730 /w Mobile 5 on it) I was not used to the profile mechanism on in Smartphone on the Q. It took me a while to realized that sound was affected by the profile and that I frequently have all day "meetings" that impact the profile used.

When my sound went entirely away today, I traced the problem down /w the suggestion here: Earpiece Volume. Now after setting that at full and modifying all profiles to be max volume: The profile is good for me. Now, I'll set the silent profile to vibrate and use it when I am truly in a meeting that needs peace & quiet.