Bulk buy EL panel sensitivity

I pulled out my EL panels tonight to have a look at them and to access how the rugmonsters are going to have them attached to them. I noticed 2 things. The first was that they look freaking cool but the second was more important. The volume sensitivity was WAY down on what you need unless you really have the music belting out loud. I found that with the box at a distance of about 300mm even a loud conversation level with the sensitivity set to max doesn't even get the lights flashing. Has anyone done any fiddling with these as I'd hate to try to re-engineer the wheel if it's already been done.

The bulk buy is this 1 http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,1971.0.html