Here's the deal: new machine, fresh installs of everything, including Steam and Skyrim and all my mods. So now, when I start the game, the first loading screen "thunder" roll is about 3 times as loud as it used to be. Now, WAY back when (at release AAMOF), I remember this issue - and there was something you could do (fairly simple fix IIRC) to fix it.

Well, I don't have the right keywords I guess 'cause I can't find it, and 5 years on, I have NO CLUE what the fix was. Help? and thanks in advance!

You mean the intro video (bethesda studios) or after that?

The intro video with the Bethesda logo, before the menu loads.

That's a .bik (Bink video) file located in the data/videos directory. The thunder does have some good base to it.

What is your sound setup?

Plantronics gamecom 780 headset using the on-board sound chip (no idea who the mfr is - device mgr just shows "hdaudio device"). The game sounds really good through the headset, the only issue I have is how loud that particular sound clip is. I don't remember that I had to get rid of the .bik file - but as I said, that was 5 years ago.

Either adjust the volume or disable the intro video. http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/37277/is-there-a-way-to-disable-the-intro-video-of-skyrim

Thanks for that - I'll see about it. I don't want to adjust the volume for the intro vid, because then I have to re-adjust it when I get into the game.

[ETA: I renamed the .bik file, and it works fine. Straight to the menu screen, and normal music volume. Thanks again!]

Yes thanks for the tip. I just deleted the .bik file and it worked.