Android still doesn’t handle USB audio very well. USB DAC dongles have their own volume settings, however Android doesn’t ever change this. This means that if a dongle has a preset volume level that is relatively low, android can never go above this.
Someone on Reddit has written a better explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11wfe05/android_dongle_volume_issue_lets_ask_for_a_fix/
Help us get this issue higher up on android’s priority list by pressing the +1 button. I know it probably doesn’t affect many users here but thank you anyway!
I must be lucky, because this has never affected me. I have two different USBC dacs that I use on my android phones. The first one (super cheap one from eBay) defaults to max hw volume when plugged in, that happens to be a pleasant listening volume when the software volume is at 70%. The second (nicer, better) one has much higher drive capacity, but it defaults to 50% hw volume when plugged in, so again happens to be exactly the right listening volume when sw volume is at 70%.
I can also use UAPP to manually change the hw volume if I need to. The downside is UAPP for some reason always puts the good DAC to 100% hw volume by default that is enough to hurt my ears and damage my cheap earbuds.