Uhm... the audio from a DVD is in no way decoded by the drive; it's embedded "alongside" the picture data and is almost always an "encoded" format like MP2 or AC-3 and I've *never* seen a DVD playing app that required an analog audio connector be present between the DVD drive and the computer's sound card. (All that analog wire is for is playing "Red Book" format CD audio tracks, which almost no modern software does anymore.) If the picture plays acceptably I can't even begin to come up with a reason why the SATA-PATA adaptor should affect the audio volume level.