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Hi there,



I already read some posts about other people heaving problems with alexa's voice volume on the Sonos One. Some say it's not loud enough, when they have low music playing. Some say it's too loud.

For me, the problem is, that Alexa is way too loud. When I mute the Sonos One and ask Alexa a question, she responds at a volume absolutely inapropriate. So I won't ask Alexa a lot in the evening, because I'm scared to wake someone up.



Is this just normal on the Sonos One, is this a bug? And is Alexa supposed to be muted, when the Sonos One is muted?



I would appreciate any advice. Does anyone have similar experience with the Sonos One?
At least it’s not just me! Alexa shouts! LOL

I’ll follow to find the solution. Thanks.
I just wanted to add I'm having the same problem. Alexa is deafeningly loud and completely impractical to use at night.



There must be a way of turning it down to a normal level.
After spending a bit of time talking to support today they confirmed that the massive difference between the Alexa voice and the music you are listening to is "intended". Which would be a truly weird design choice.



I have found a workaround. By disabling Alexa on my Sonos One and adding the Sonos skill to an old Amazon Dot I can get most of what I need.
The ability to set Alexa voice to a static level is desperately needed. Streams on Tune In have wildly fluctuating volume levels and often require raising the volume to achieve a moderate listening level, in these frequent scenarios Alexa's voice is far too loud.



I also don't really get the need of fixing Alexa's voice to the device volume level, the active audio fades anyway before she kicks off so it's not as though she needs to compete with it.



Count me in as another who's disabled Alexa which is a real shame, I bought the gear as a music playback solution for my other half who's not good with technology but good at talking!

She found the whole thing very obtrusive and I have to agree.
Found this post whilst trying to find a way to turn Alexa's voice down on our new Sonos One. It's fine during the day, but it's in the evening/at night, the voice is way too loud when the One's volume is set to quiet.



They really need a way to change the average or minimum volume of Alexa. I'm worried that this thread is a year old with no fix, despite how 'closely' they're working together. Considering returning and buying a new echo dot and an Audio pro Add-on T3 instead as the Sonos one the way it is now just won't work for our circumstances.
Found this post whilst trying to find a way to turn Alexa's voice down on our new Sonos One. It's fine during the day, but it's in the evening/at night, the voice is way too loud when the One's volume is set to quiet.



They really need a way to change the average or minimum volume of Alexa. I'm worried that this thread is a year old with no fix, despite how 'closely' they're working together. Considering returning and buying a new echo dot and an Audio pro Add-on T3 instead as the Sonos one the way it is now just won't work for our circumstances.I was wondering if we are trying to shoot the messenger in this case and perhaps not realising it?



I’m just considering if this is maybe a limitation of the Amazon Alexa system ...and that Sonos are having to comply with the Alexa volume being set relative to the audio output of their Speakers and perhaps for this to change, that Amazon needs to alter that restriction within their own system, or adjust an agreed policy. Otherwise, I think Sonos would probably have done this piece of work by now.



Obviously if that is the case, then Sonos would also perhaps not choose to say anything about the matter publicly, as it may be seen (possibly) as a criticism of their partner. Sonos can only make Amazon aware of what people are saying and then this could be an issue for Amazon to address.



I’m not saying that this is definitely the case here, but that it is looking more and more like a possibility, I think.
Found this post whilst trying to find a way to turn Alexa's voice down on our new Sonos One. It's fine during the day, but it's in the evening/at night, the voice is way too loud when the One's volume is set to quiet.



They really need a way to change the average or minimum volume of Alexa. I'm worried that this thread is a year old with no fix, despite how 'closely' they're working together. Considering returning and buying a new echo dot and an Audio pro Add-on T3 instead as the Sonos one the way it is now just won't work for our circumstances.I was wondering if we are trying to shoot the messenger in this case and perhaps not realising it?



I’m just considering if this is maybe a limitation of the Amazon Alexa system ...and that Sonos are having to comply with the Alexa volume being set relative to the audio output of their Speakers and perhaps for this to change, that Amazon needs to alter that restriction within their own system, or adjust an agreed policy. Otherwise, I think Sonos would probably have done this piece of work by now.



Obviously if that is the case, then Sonos would also perhaps not choose to say anything about the matter publicly, as it may be seen (possibly) as a criticism of their partner. Sonos can only make Amazon aware of what people are saying and then this could be an issue for Amazon to address.



I’m not saying that this is definitely the case here, but that it is looking more and more like a possibility, I think.



It may be an Alexa problem. The minimum volume when Alexa speaks is at least a 4 on my Sonos One. For example, when I have music at volume 1, Alexa is at the equivalent of 4 - ie I need to set music at level 4 for it to be as loud as Alexa's voice is at 1).



This makes it unusable in the evening or early morning. It wakes everyone up even if I set volume to 1 before asking anything.
It may be an Alexa problem. The minimum volume when Alexa speaks is at least a 4 on my Sonos One. For example, when I have music at volume 1, Alexa is at the equivalent of 4 - ie I need to set music at level 4 for it to be as loud as Alexa's voice is at 1).



This makes it unusable in the evening or early morning. It wakes everyone up even if I set volume to 1 before asking anything.My Sonos 'Alexa Enabled' devices are not anything like that at all.. The Alexa volume is directly 'relative' to the speakers audio-output volume, but if my volume is/was perhaps set too low, then the Alexa stays slightly higher, so that I can hear the responses being said, just about.



If my audio is/was set loud, or louder than say volume level 2, then Alexa gets louder also, in line with the current output, so I can just hear her responses clearly, when the audio 'ducks' to hear my voice instruction,



Maybe your speaker is faulty?? .. I would perhaps record/video the issue that you are currently experiencing and then send it onto Sonos and see what they have to say about it. I don’t really find my Beam, or any of the Sonos One's that we own an issue at all that would cause me that degree of concern, like you appear to mention in your post. Slight adjustments are maybe on the cards, but certainly nothing that I would call drastic, or unusable in our case.
It may be an Alexa problem. The minimum volume when Alexa speaks is at least a 4 on my Sonos One. For example, when I have music at volume 1, Alexa is at the equivalent of 4 - ie I need to set music at level 4 for it to be as loud as Alexa's voice is at 1).



This makes it unusable in the evening or early morning. It wakes everyone up even if I set volume to 1 before asking anything.My Sonos 'Alexa Enabled' devices are not anything like that at all.. The Alexa volume is directly 'relative' to the speakers audio-output volume, but if my volume is/was perhaps set too low, then the Alexa stays slightly higher, so that I can hear the responses being said, just about.



If my audio is/was set loud, or louder than say volume level 2, then Alexa gets louder also, in line with the current output, so I can just hear her responses clearly, when the audio 'ducks' to hear my voice instruction,



Maybe your speaker is faulty?? .. I would perhaps record/video the issue that you are currently experiencing and then send it onto Sonos and see what they have to say about it. I don’t really find my Beam, or any of the Sonos One's that we own an issue at all that would cause me that degree of concern, like you appear to mention in your post. Slight adjustments are maybe on the cards, but certainly nothing that I would call drastic, or unusable in our case.



Thanks Ken. I have the same issue across 3 Sonos Ones around the house, so I don't think it is the speaker itself, although there may be a general settings issue that I'm not aware of. I tried setting a low maximum volume (14%) on the Sonos Room Settings to see if that worked. I can barely hear the music, but Alexa is still just as loud, so Alexa appears to ignore the maximum volume control with sonos.
Thanks Ken. I have the same issue across 3 Sonos Ones around the house, so I don't think it is the speaker itself, although there may be a general settings issue that I'm not aware of. I tried setting a low maximum volume (14%) on the Sonos Room Settings to see if that worked. I can barely hear the music, but Alexa is still just as loud, so Alexa appears to ignore the maximum volume control with sonos. I’m fairly sure the 'volume limit' option in the 'room settings' of the App is not related to the Alexa component part within the speaker. That limiter runs between 1-100 whereas the Alexa volume controls are between 1 and 10 .. Have you tried the instruction ...”Alexa set your volume to 1”.. does that help you at all? (Or you can set the Alexa volume to 2, 3, 4 etc.) I find setting her to '2' or '3' is about right for me, but admittedly I don’t often use the volume-limiter options.


I’m not saying that this is definitely the case here, but that it is looking more and more like a possibility, I think.



On what evidence is it looking more and more like a possibility?


I’m not saying that this is definitely the case here, but that it is looking more and more like a possibility, I think.



On what evidence is it looking more and more like a possibility?The passage of time since the matter was initially reported here and the inaction we see. Coupled with the possibility that no one 'appears' to have considered it might be an Amazon issue and chose to take up the matter directly with them... that’s judging things by the comments seen in this thread, at least.
I have a similar problem but appears to be tied to setting the volume on TCL tv. To hear tv with my play 3's attached at a decent level with ARC i have to set volume to 5 or 6 or 7 ..... if you FORGET to set it back to 1 it can blow the beam from the loudness of ALEXA. 2 being WAY TOO LOUD! Maybe independent VOLUMES or Normalization of some sort, or volumes that stay attached to the input. In addition to some people here, mine changes on its own. So I can set it to 1 at night and ask for a flash briefing and its set to 2 on its own.
I have a beam and am experiencing the exact same issue. Television audio and music playing is a reasonable level throughout the volume settings but using Alexa is unsettlingly loud. Definitely has put me off using the service.



My Sonos One is less of an issue but it’s extremely irritating when the long explanations of why Alexa can’t do a command are blasted around the house late at night waking the family and neighbours.
@Edward R and all other people having this issue,



Many users are unhappy with the volume of the voice of Alexa (I am one of them). For some people it way to loud, for others it is way too low.

I understand that your vison is to keep those two, the volume of Alexa and the volume of the music, related to each other and therefor there is still no solution or an independent volume control for Alexa.



To make everyone happy and keep the volume of Alexa related to the music volume, maybe it is a good idea to create a setting where you are able to define how much louder of lower the volume of Alexa should be in relation to the music volume in percentage.

So if you increase the music volume, the volume of Alex's voice will increase too, but will always have the right volume for everyone.



Please let us know what you think about it, because it is taking too long now to get a proper solution for is very annoying issue.



Thanks!
This serious problem has been reported for over a year. The fix is to separate the music volume from the Alexa volume, i.e. provide two separate, independent settings. Jesus Christ, will you just get it done? What's the matter with you, Sonos?
Is anyone from Sonos even looking at this thread any more??? Seems like Sonos has no problem turning down the volume on the Community 😞
Why is it taking such a long time to solve this problem? What for is the firmware update...?
@Ryan S

Optional volume control for voice assistants would be great to keep neighbors happy 🙂
Sonos... please fix this. It makes Alexa unusable and it’s a bad look for your brand to have such an unpleasant experience with your product. Separate volume or different volumes similar to beeps on a camera... anything
I have multiple Alexa Dot and Google Home Mini units, and this is a problem with all of them. The many different music and streaming sources all have different levels, and neither Alexa or GH seem to make any attempt to balance them with the voice level. But I agree that the problem is worse on my new Sonos One - the voice is much louder than the music.



In theory if everyone followed standards this would not be a problem. But this is the real world, and a method of adjusting relative volume of voice vs. music is badly needed.



Given the many problems I'm seeing with the Alexa implementation on Sonos, I wonder if the real holdup with Google Assistant integration is that Google is insisting that Sonos do a better job of fixing these issues before associating their brands.
Add another vote for more granularity in Sonos/Alexa volume increments. Having just 1-10 is not at all acceptable.



For background music, I always need to use the Sonos app, rendering voice control control over Alexa.



Clearly this is an other ignored issue (alone with independent volume control of Surround speakers).



Anyone know if Google Assistant, now supported by Sonos, provides more granularity? Really don't want yet another voice eco-system in the house - but if that is a solution I'd jump ship and use Google instead.



Thanks
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