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Try encoding it as a wave file.... well if you use MeGUI it'll have to be flac for lossless..... convert the flac file to wave and open it with an audio editor (Audacity or something similar). Most audio editors have a normalise function. If you use it and the volume doesn't increase (it won't) then the peaks were already at maximum.
Or scan it with ReplayGain. Foobar2000 can ReplayGain scan anything it can decode, which is most audio formats (third party plug-ins can be downloaded to decode AC3 and DTS. The scan result will include the peak levels. "1" is maximum. Sometimes it'll be a little more.... 1.04562 or something similar.... sometimes a little less, but it should be very close to "1" if it's been peak normalised.
I use foobar2000 for most of my audio encoding. For AAC in an M4A or MP4, after a scan foobar2000 can use the result to adjust the volume losslessly (same for MP3). Because lossy encoders can store audio above "0" or maximum for a wave file, you could increase the volume a little more that way and make the peaks +3dB to squeeze out a tad more volume. I probably wouldn't increase it much further than that, but it can be done. Losslessly for AAC and MP3. Or you could re-encode the audio while compressing it to reduce the peaks levels. foobar2000 comes with a couple of limiter DSPs you can use when converting and it also has a downmixing DSP, although I'd recommend using the Matrix Mixer DSP instead as it automatically normalises and you can configure it any way you like.
After a ReplayGain scan a peak value of roughly 1.4 is a peak of +3dB.
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