max volume not max volume

[Anil Duggirala]

Im running Stretch and Gnome with whatever sound setup corresponds to that. I 
turn my volume completely up from my my DE (Gnome), however the volume doesnt 
actually go to its max. Running alsamixer in the terminal, initially also shows 
the master to be at the max, pressing F6 and choosing a different sound device 
(not default) shows me more controls and shows me a master slider that is not 
at the max level. Could someone please explain what might be happening and how 
to correct this?
thanks,