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Alexa volume issue since 12.1



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Any one have this problem that's managed to get a fix for it?

Userlevel 1

Hi any update on this? I'm having the same problem volume to too low to hear alexa unless I turn tv volume way up but then when it goes back to tv the volume rocks the house. I've not issue with alexa on my sonos move. 

Same problem here. Alexa has become unusable on Sonos since the voice volume is too soft relative to music.

I agree mega90, the moderator or whoever is responsible for pushing that response from three months ago to the “best answer” status, which also does not resolve or acknowledge the issue at all, is bull.  Seems like Sonos is pretending that the issue doesn’t exist.

Now I’m wondering, do they even use their own products in their own home?

They have marked the best answer I have 2 full set ups in my house and will now be leaving Sonos.  They have messed up this time by trying to act like a problem doesn’t exist.  Beyond done with Sonos

 I would have to agree  with Chris, here I would like to also know weather or not  you all are having this problem with or with out your sonos products connected to a tv, also; if you could tell us what if anything you might have done to the settings that  might shine a light on to what is happening, with the arc you deffinitly need to have an HDMI 2.1 cable, also the HDMI arc port needs to be an E arc port.

 

Ron

 

OK, so a few things here.

 

First of all, let me begin by saying I’m not Sonos staff… Let me get that extremely clear right from the bat get go, so please don’t put the blaim of this problem directly on me.

 

I simply would like everyone however though extremely unacceptable and terrible as this is, to just calm down for a minute, and hear me out on this. Just humor me here. I’m not gonna say you all are wrong, Sonos is right, I promise, so please just listen to what I’ve gotta say.

 

I read literally through all the responses on this thread, as I’m having just the oppisit issue. My problem with both a Beam, and also with a Roam is that Alexa’s volume is way way way too loud in perportion to the other audio volume such as Apple music etc.

 

First off, am I understanding all of you correctly that this is only happening when connected to a TV audio source either via HDMI arc or via optycal?

 

Here are some things which would be helpful rather than just saying damn it Sonos, fix it! First, what version of HDMI are you using? Like, version 2? version 3? etc. Also, are you using a cable that supports that version of HDMI? I know you’d not think the cable would matter. Neither did I at first, so fair assumption, but actually, yeah, it does, believe it or not.

 

Also, is this happening for anyone of you with things aside from TV audio output regardless the method of connectivity?

 

Also, I assume you all have power cycled the speakers. I know, that’s not going to probably solve it, as clearly, this is not isolated to just a few people. I get it, but seriously, you’d be amazed at how many times just something that simple will fix things. Sounds crazy, I know, but trust me, you’d be surprised… really you would!

 

Now as for the two voice assistants, keep in mind, if I can be so blunt to say this, with all due respect to all of you, actually, no. It’s not as easy to fix as you all make it sound. Here’s the thing, and I think one of you said you were a coder, so you should know this if that truly authenbticly is the case…

 

Amazon through their S3 AAS cloud services offers all these companies who integrate Alexa into their devices what is known as an SDK. In other words, a “software developer’s kit.” Essentially, within that kit, you have various different API’s. For the less tech savvy, all an API is is a go between, if you will, that allows a product to call back to and communicate/talk to the Amazon servers to send and receive things from Alexa. So, let’s say you was to say, What is the weather for Chicago IL? Using the API specific to weather queries, Sonos, in this case, goes out through means of that API, contacts Amazon’s servers, says, hey, Joe Blow wants to get the weather for X location. Where X is whatever, fill in the blank as you see fit.

 

So, there are other API’s as well, like for instance volume. So, when you say, set the volume to 4, we’ll just say, an API call request is made, the Server is contacted, then an API string, or key, rather, is then incrypted and sent back to be decoded/descrambled by Sonos. Sonos then says, ok, command received, command initiated. Then an API response is made. This could be in the form of Alexa verbally responding, or maybe just her/him reacting to your command. I say him, as you may have it set to Ziggy instead of Alexa. The point is, a response in one form or another is made.

 

Now, take Amazon, and let’s take Sonos completely out of the picture entirely. They also have their own API’s that they internally use, which aren’t released to the public. They’re most likely if I had to guess things that allow the A.I part of the assistant to work.

 

So here’s the problem with this whole volume issue that Sonos probably is up against. It’s a bit difficult to totally trouble shoot this, as we don’t really totally know where the problem is breaking exactly. I mean we know the end result, true. But what we don’t know is is it breaking before it hits the Amazon server, is it happening between receiving the command, then sending back the response to Amazon, or to Sonos, is it coding in the action itself response result that’s botched up, or is it indeed within the Sonos firmware.

 

I truly agree with all of you all. It’s probably in the Sonos firmware, but, let’s be really fair. Even for Sonos engineers, this would be like tracking down a needle in a haystack. I didn’t by any means say it’s impossible… let me be very clear… and further, almost a year out still having no sollution is, I agree, totally unacceptable in most cases.

 

Realize though the tree you’re barking up against. If we could pinpoint down exactly where down the chain of things the problem starts to break, then you’re right… it would be super super easy then to fix.

 

The issue isn’t that it’s not easy to fix. The issue is more finding exactly where things start to break, and then once we know that, then figuring out exactly why. I mean, it coudl be a number of things. It might even be something as easy as a setting which you’d never in your rightest mind think would effect this nor be even remotely rellavent, but it wind up being the nail dead on the head that fixes it.

 

It’s really just tricky to say.

 

I hope this is taken the way it’s meant. Again, I’m no staff member, though I’d love to be, LOL! But I just want you all to maybe look at this a bit from another angle. K?

 

Chris.

 

Same problem as well… I think originally (like over a year ago) Alexa’s voice was louder, and not directly relatively to the streaming volume, as it seems to be nowadays. Especially having some silent background music in the morning Alexa’s responses are inaudible over the normal noises of the family.

Could we, please please, have a setting for ”Voice assistant volume”, which would be independent from music/streaming/tv volume?

Userlevel 1
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This problem has now been going on since 12.1 and still not fixed

DO NOT BY SONOS IF YOU WANT ALEXA TO WORK PROPERLY 

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @dynAdZ.

Thanks for reaching out and bringing this up to us.

We appreciate all your feedback here in the community, and changing the voice assistant volume separately can be a very useful feature for sure, but this is not yet available at this time. We don't have any specific details that I can share around if this can come to Sonos, or when it might, but I'll make sure to log this as request and pass it along with the team. We work closely with the Amazon team too, but it's always best to let both sides know if there's a feature you're looking for.

Please let us know if you have additional concerns we’d be happy to send them up for you.

Just to add to the list of complains and make it clear is not a few showing the problem. My Beam presents the exact same issue as mentioned in other posts, please fix it.

Userlevel 1
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Every body on here whom are having problems please contact sonos support and they will need to do  something about it

My “new normal” is to hold my ear next to the Sonos when I ask Alexa a question. I have tried the suggested solutions in this thread. It is a trivial problem for Sonos to solve. I returned to this thread because I received a notification of a “best answer”. The best answer would be for Sonos to allocate 3 hours of engineering time to solve this problem. 

Userlevel 1

I've been waiting patiently for 2 months now for sonos to resolve this issue. Seems a lot of people are having this issue as well. Wasted so much time messing around with sonos set up and alexa set up with no joy. It's about time sonos took this issue serious. 

Experiencing this as well with my Era 300. I think what is fundamentally missing is that it's very possible you may want your voice assistant coming out of one speaker to be at a different volume than your music coming from the entire system. 

Leaving some negative reviews on their products where I bought them. They can't claim to have voice assistants when it's this dysfunctional. This may be the only way to get them to listen.

Same problem here. We have a One in every downstairs room of the house, but Alexa is barely usable because you cannot make out the response. You literally have to stop doing whatever you are doing, and stand right next to the One in silence and concentrate to make out any responses.

I think it'll never be solved. If they were really there to help it would have already been fixed.

Think I know what is stands for.

So: no's.

 

That's what I experience.

Same problem here. TV has to beblaring loud to even hear the Alexa voice on my Arc. Very annoying that this is still an issue.

Lip sync is also awful and not correctable. Likely sell the junk and get something else.

 

Carl

Saying “Alexa set your volume to 5” works for me with my Sonos Arc…but then it puts the volume of the TV or streaming music up to 10x that.

Please, Sonos - a fix?

Just registered to add my name to the list of folks displeased with sonos for this issue. Was working fine with Alexa - now it’s pretty much worthless unless you blast the volume. Reading this thread just pisses me off at sonos customer service. 

Userlevel 2

6 months later, issue still present.

Well played SONOS...

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reaching out and letting us know about what’s happening.

It would be best to reach out to Sonos Support, as we can take a closer look and discuss it with all of you individually in           

real-time. I suggest our phone team, for they have more resources and tools available for advanced troubleshooting.

 

Please let et us know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to reach out, we’re always here to help.

Userlevel 1
Badge +2

I'm experiencing the same problem 

MY SONOS SYSTEM HAS BEEN A BIG LETDOWN FROM DAY 1 FIRST LIP SYNC PROBLEMS WHEN PLUGGED IN VIA HDMI LEAD NOW THIS PROBLEM WITH ALEXA 

SONOS THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH WHEN PAYING PREMIUM PRICES 

Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Same issue here with Alexa volume using a Sonos Beam.

Same here on Beam. This volume issue and the no ducking option when removing Alexa built-in from Beam and use Echo instead are so frustrating to the point I’ve been looking at other brand alternatives. Such a shame because the sound is great but Alexa built-in rubbish in my opinion. It looks like Sonos is really slow at fixing issues too.

Well just spent £1000’s putting Sonus into my new house… after having to move from S1 to S2…. I have chosen enough Alexa enabled devices to cover my house but this volume issue renders them unusable… first I find that the Drop in feature isn’t supported so I can’t use my system as an intercom and now I find that at low volumes I can’t hear Alexa replies at all ! This is happening on my Moves and Ones - Sonus please acknowledge the issue and schedule a fix please...

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