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I found a 2 year old thread where the Sonos people said they were “working on this”.  I guess they must work pretty slow.  Anyway here’s the old thread:

https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/alexa-voice-volume-too-loud-6798465

Maybe a new thread will get them to actually do something? 

What the heck is up with Alexa on the Sonos in general and the Sonos Beam in particular?  So I’m listening to TV.  Everything is fine.  I say “Alexa what time is it?” and she SHOUTS “ITS FREEKIN 10 ‘ CLOCK!” at the top of her lungs causing the dogs to start barking.

OMG!  I can’t use Alexa on the Beam if she can’t learn to use her indoor voice.  How did this thing even get to market like this?  Have any Sonos engineering people ever used Alexa on a real Amazon Echo device?  She doesn’t scare little children and cause plates to fall out of the cupboard.  She sounds normal.  And if she’s too loud, you can turn her down.  Music and Alexa are always at the same volume.  Everything works fine.  

But on a Sonos?  Nope.  TV volume is fine, Alexa is out of her mind.  Or Alexa is fine and TV audio is basically off.  WHY?!?!?

And while on the topic, what on earth is that “chime” noise?  Tell the truth.  You sampled a Tuba or maybe a harp seal?  Good grief!  I disabled that one pretty fast.  Unfortunately it keeps coming back.  

Come on Sonos… this is simply stupid.  I’ll have to unlink Alexa.  And if I’m doing that, why do I need the Beam?  I might as well grab a Playbar.  I know it’s older technology and costs more but it sounds way better than the Beam.  

So?  Am I right?  Or did I somehow miss a patch, fix or tip?

Hi @rbhamilton, thank you for reaching out to us, and welcome to the Sonos community. We appreciate you for letting us know about your concern and for sharing your feedback. Let m help you with this.

The volume of Amazon Alexa is directly tied to the volume of the speaker. For example, if you turn down the Sonos Beam, the volume of Alexa should go down as well. At the moment there is no way to control the volume of Alexa separate from the volume of the speaker but I'd be glad to forward this request along to the team for consideration.

If you experience other issues using Alexa with Sonos, please see our troubleshooting article for additional help. Please feel free to reach out in the future if you have any other questions. The Sonos Community is always here to help.

I believe you are intentionally misunderstand my concern.  In case you really didn’t understand what what I was saying, you are right that Alexa gets louder as you increase the volume of the speaker system.  That was never in doubt.

The problem is that if your speaker is set to a quiet normal speaking voice, Alexa will be SET TO VERY LOUD SHOUTING THAT SCARES LITTLE CHILDREN. 

As you increase the speaker volume to say as loud as a person in a crowded room ALEXA FREAKES THE HELL OUT AND SOUNDS LIKE A CRAZY PERSON BEING STABBED. 

If you have your speaker set to very loud like somebody cheering at a football statium, ALEXA IS FREEKIN OFF THE CHARTS LIKE A NUCLEAR BOMB.

How did you guys screw up something this simple?  It should have been caught on day 1 when you first tested the system.  It’s something anybody could have pointed out in 10 seconds.  It’s so defective I can’t even believe you bother to mention Alexa is available - in it’s present form it’s unusable.  It should never have come to market in such a defective form.

As for the idea you will “pass this along” that has been the response for at least the past 2 years based on posts in this form and on reddit.  You have not addressed it yet.  So pardon me for doubting you will fix it any time soon.

 

 

 

 

Hi @rbhamilton, thank you for the quick response. I do understand that Alexa is not behaving as expected on Sonos devices. The volume should vary on the assigned volume on your speaker.

Let me suggest the following troubleshooting steps to see if it will work for you.

  1. Open the Alexa app on your iOS or Android device.
  2. Open the menu in the top left and tap on Skills & Games > Your Skills > Sonos > Disable Skill.
  3. Deregister your Sonos speaker from Alexa by following the instructions on Amazon's website: Deregistering a device.
  4. Disable Voice Control in the Sonos app. From the Settings tab, tap Services and select Amazon Alexa under Voice. Select the voice-enabled speaker from the list of Sonos Products, and tap Remove Alexa.
  5. Log out of all Amazon Apps on the mobile device, including the Amazon app, Alexa app and Amazon.com in your mobile browser.
    • To sign out of the Amazon mobile app:
      • On Android devices, open the app and tap Menu > Your Account > Sign Out.
      • On iOS devices, open the app and tap the menu icon in the top-left corner, and then choose Settings > "Not ;name]?"
  6. Using the Sonos app, complete Alexa setup again. Follow the steps to log into the appropriate Amazon account when prompted to do so.
  7. Once completed, try giving Alexa another command.

If the steps listed above do not resolve your issue, please contact Sonos Customer Care for further assistance. Our phone support has the tools to check what's going on in your system and to remotely access your device to provide the best option for you.

Please feel free to reach out in the future if you have any other questions. You're always welcome here.

Just for fun I did all that for the 8th time.  Of course it didn't work.  The Alexa volume is simply way too high.  None of these steps would or could change that nor would anyone expect them to change that.  This has been a Sonos bug for years and it's been reported dozens of times in this forum and others.  Not on my Sonos.  On ALL Sonos systems.  You know it.  I know it.  Rebooting won't change that.

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