xmms volume knob - seemingly all or nothing

I have not set up 4.x on this hardware, in fact one reason for using 5.2
was because it is relatively new hardware, and the onboard NIC wasn't
supported under 4.x it seemed.

Anyway, the volume control in XMMS seems to do nothing at all from about
the 5% mark to the 100% mark, music plays at the same volume no matter
where the slider is in this range.  between 0% and 5%, the music fades
from silent to full volume.  I have never experienced this phenomenon, and
am wondering if I can adjust some non-xmms mixer setting to get the
expected behavior, or possibly adjust xmms somehow.  I don't even know
where to start really.

pcm0_at_pci0:31:5: class=0x040100 card=0x72801462 chip=0x24d58086 rev=0x02
hdr=0x00
    vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
    device   = '82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller'
    class    = multimedia
    subclass = audio

FreeBSD wkstn.homenet.mine 5.2-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.2-CURRENT #0: Thu Feb 26
02:00:59 EST 2004     root_at_wkstn.homenet.mine:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
 i386

if any more information is necessary just let me know and i'll do what i
can to provide it...  any suggestions welcome, of course.

Aaron