I even messed up my correction to my original post.  It should have read, ""The speaker volume was usually OK".   [NAME]  I'm well aware of the lower right speaker icon and its volume control.  I mention it in my OP.  My point was, even at the max volume, some site's audio was too low.  The steps I listed in my OP corrected the situation for me.   Hope this is clear now despite my typo and incorrect attempt at correcting it. 
I'm posting in case this helps anyone. I Have an Inspiron 15 3000. The speaker volume was usually OK on on most sites, but sometimes it was extremely low even at its maximum setting. This morning I found a setting that fixed it to the point where you could never set it to max volume. * Right click on the speaker icon in the systray* Click Open Volume Mixer* Left click on Speakers* In the Speakers Properties window that pops up, check Loudness Equalization* Click OK That's it!        
Low speaker volume fixed