It's worse with just the built-in speakers for sure. Not as bad with headphones although presumably this is because the sound is being pumped straight into my ears. To put it into perspective, my Dell XPS 15" from almost 10 years ago has far superior sound quality and volume with speakers and headphones. Surely this isn't just how the Alienware 17 R5 is made? You would expect tremendous sound quality and decent volume. This thing is barely loud enough to be heard in the same room.

Hi, 

Is this audio problem only happening with the speakers or does it also happen with the headphones? 

Certainly have, should have mentioned that in the original post sorry. Everything is throttled to full. Any other Alienware 17 owners who can testify to their own experiences would be awesome. My XPS 15 practically booms at full volume.

Realtek High Definition Audio is what's listed in my device manager under Audio I/O and Sound,Video, and Game controllers.

Sometimes the audio isn't routed through the Command Center software and is very quiet. I downloaded the Realtek Audio Control App from the microsoft store and set up the EQ there as well. Now my audio is loud and clear no matter what app is using it.

have you tried adjusting the EQ in Command Center yet?

Forgot to mention my system is a 15 R4. Same motherboard, speakers, and drivers as the 17 R5.

Yes it should say Realtek High Definition Audio. You have the wrong drivers. My laptop is VERY loud and full sounding. Among the loudest laptops I've heard.

Thank you for the advice MotorDonkey, but it doesn't seem to help the output at all unfortunately. Would you say that having only 'Realtek(R) Audio' in the device manager is odd then? I definitely expected it to read 'Realtek High Definition Audio'. Would you say your sound is loud when turned up to full? Mine definitely sounds fairly unremarkable and tinny.

Do you have Realtek driver 6.0.1.8557 installed?

I did definitely want to hear that it wasn't just a bad speaker they've used in their system - unfortunately the driver I have is 6.0.1.8557 (driver date 17/10/2018), which I believe is the latest. Any suggestions for a replacement driver or somesuch?
It's entirely possible that the speakers in this laptop are just faulty, but I want to make certain I can do everything possible on my end first. It's still well under warranty if that's the case.

I've played around with the equalizer settings as well and while there is a slight difference in the way the audio "sounds", it really doesn't change the volume or the tinny-ness.

As to the equalizer and audio effects settings in the Command Center, I agree that turning it off has a better effect on the volume but the sound is still tinny and not as loud as you're describing. My XPS from years ago is beside me (both playing Michael Jackson's Thriller) and the old XPS is outclassing the brand new Alienware by leaps and bounds.