Louder, not worse
Loudness has two enemies: clipping (boosting past digital full scale, which sounds like crackling) and over-limiting (squashing every peak flat, which sounds lifeless). The chain here boosts cleanly and limits only what would clip - the honest middle. If the goal is matching a broadcast or streaming loudness target rather than raw volume, use the volume normalizer, which works in LUFS; measure what you actually have first with the audio analyzer.
The companion tools: Volume Normalizer · Audio Analyzer · Ringtone Maker · MP3 Cutter