gnome-volume-control does not allow to configure necessary mixer settings such as the PCM volume.

Binary package hint: gnome-media

The new gnome-volume-control (gnome-media version 2.27.4-0ubuntu2) does not allow to configure the separate volume channels. I can imagine the usual reasons for that (it's an advanced configuration hence gnome must not have it). But it can't work.

I agree that all these settings are to be done once in a lifetime, and appreciate a lot the new, very clean interface, but it's impossible that a machine guesses the correct setup. A way to configure these settings at least once without resorting to alsamixer is needed. Example: a laptop with low-quality speakers will need pcm set almost to the maximum to maximize the volume, while a 5+1 speaker system connected to a good sound card will need pcm at about 70% so that distortion will be unlikely.

Also (but the problem above is enough IMHO) there are many switches in soundcards which are a "trial and error" system, e.g. to enable 5+1, 3d, digital input, mic autogain etc. I dislike all of that, but it's reality, we can not act like these problems do not exist. I typically set them only once for each new installation, but the interface for doing that needs to be discoverable by all users. If you want alsamixer to be the only way, then you should link alsamixer to the volume-control for discoverability.