[orca-list] initial volume of espeak too low on my laptop

[Labrador <labrad0r edpnet be>]

Hi forum people,

since the Ubuntu Hardy release I noticed that my initial speaker volume of 
espeak is quite unaudible, I mean not loud enough. 
This is annoying for me since:
a) English is already *not* my mother language
b) + a low volume .....
So: is there a trick and can it be remastered with a 100%
loudness as it was before (Gutsy / Feisty) ? How to perform this ? 
thanx!

Labrador:~$