The problem in a nutshell:

My laptop at work - connected to external speakers which are turned all the way up, system volume is maxed out, WMP volume is maxed out, and the volume is just a little too low.

My desktop at home - connected to speakers which are nearly as low as possible, the windows volume and WAV volume are almost at minimum, and if I ever want to increase the volume a little, I need to make minute adjustments to one of these or the volume jumps way up.

Is there a common solution to both problems?