iPhone 5 with EarPods and EU volume limit barely audible

I purchased, directly from Apple in Spain, an iPhone 5 (32GB) to replace my aging 3GS.

I received the new phone and transfered all my data from the 3GS to the 5 using iCloud.

In my 3GS I only used the Apple provided headphones, with volume limitation (as normally, the volume will be too lowd, specially with modern, post "lowdness wars" records), to about 80-75% of the total volume.

I'm actually using the provided EarPods with the iPhone 5.

Now, aside from the difference in sound characteristics (the EarPods sound is more "round", with noticeably more bass), I immediatly noticed that the overall volume coming from the iPhone 5 is lower than the 3GS. I can safely use the phone with max'ed volume, without fear of damaging my ears.

And when I turned the "EU volume limit" feature, the sound is barely audible, specially in noisy situations, like the subway or a bus. The feature is just useless.

This is even true with clear "lowdness wars" records, that sounded too lowd in the 3GS.

I would dare to say that the max settings in the iPhone 5 are similar to my volume-limited settings in the iPhone 3GS.

Again, I never used other headphones other than those provided by Apple, and the songs are from the same files, as I restored my settings from my previous phone.

Anyone seeing similar volume problems, specially with the EU volume limit settings?