Beyond the inefficient audio design of the headphones it feels like there should also be a better audio feedback so users are aware of how loud the sound is. Why can't the device read you back the volume level in words when you change the volume so you have an objective measure of how loud the volume is? The computer could say a number 1-10 based on the sound level. It makes sense that older devices wouldn't have this feature but a modern computer or phone should be able to do this without a custom app.
On linux you could hack something together to speak the alsa volume level like amixer set Master 2+ && amixer get Master | grep dB | awk '{print $4}' | espeak -s 300
Do other people use something similar?