Are you shooting in RAW or jpeg? If jpeg, what sharpness level are you using? If you're sharpening the jpegs in camera, then usually when you run a USM pass, it becomes oversharpened. I generally shoot in RAW and then 1 pass of USM 100,0.3,0, and then an extra pass on eyes if the subject is a person. With objects, generally just one pass of USM, maybe a contrast pass, but that's about it.
Back on topic. So what volume do you use with your phones. You said volume doesn't change until 9 and it might be too loud?