I have an issue in Skyrim (PC) where voices just are way too quiet. I placed the ingame settings to max and my headphones to max, but it just isn't loud enough. I can hear it a bit however. In other games however I can easily hear, unlike Skyrim. I don't mind opening some documents and changing a few lines if it will fix the issue.

Do you have stereo headphones? Maybe an issue with the wrong sound settings.

Have you tried a quick game cache verify?

Except your headphones, are the volume OK on external speakers ???

I am using headphones at the moment (They don't have a volume setter on them).

Set the sound to Studio quality 24 bit, 44000 Hz in your Control panel sound options.

Also on the control panel > select your speakers then > properties > then go to enhancements tab > and check the "loudness equalization."

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Try adding or adjusting fAudioMasterVolume under the [AudioMenu] property in your SkyrimPrefs.ini, located in C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\

For instance: fAudioMasterVolume=4.0000

This should be enough; I've had the same issue recently. Once "loudness equalisation" checked, the sound got back to normal.

Good to know. !!!

I third the loudness equalization suggestion. I had this problem too when the game first came out and it worked for me.

Edit: also another possible thing to consider. If you play in 3rd person (like I do) voices are going to be a little quieter, because the loudness of sound in the game is determined by camera position. So going into 1st person will make NPC voices louder, if you're in 3rd.