I’m experiencing issues related to the volume of Alexa since the Sonos update to 12.1. I’m using a surround setup with one Sonos Beam and two Sonos Play:1 in my living room. Since a few years, the Alexa response volume was just static and not related to the music volume set by Sonos. This was a good thing because you could listen to music in very low volume while you could talk to Alexa and get a normal, relatively loud response.
Since 12.1, the Alexa volume seems to be related to the overall speaker volume. Now when the volume is set maybe between 1-20%, it is just impossible for me to communicate with Alexa because her responses are extremely quiet. I can only start to understand her again when the volume slider is maybe at 25-30% or higher, but then of course the music is also proportional louder, which is not good.
Is there any way to set the Alexa volume independent of the music volume?
Thank you very much in advance.
Best answer by nabheet
Well I have an interesting update. I am not sure but the I may have accidentally fixed my Sonos Beam Alexa volume issue.
I am not sure what exactly fixed the issue but I had made quite a few changes. I started with enabling Trueplay in the Sonos app. Then set the treble/base/midrange volume to maximum values in the Alexa App → devices → [sonos speaker], then changed it back. I also enabled the loudness radio button in the EQ setting in Sonos App. Then I had also changed the speaker in the Alexa App for the Sonos speaker from Built-in to itself, basically the name that Alexa thinks it has. And then changed it back.
I don’t know how to validate my changes as I think my Sonos Beam is working fine currently. Both my TV volume and Alexa volume seem to be in the same range.
also, forgot to mention that my TV is really old so I have used the included Fiber Optic output sound to HDMI adapter.
Hoping this will help someone else or invalidated.
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I’m experiencing same issues related to the volume of Alexa after the new update at 14.6.
Over two years later for this original post and several updates later and a old problem rears its ugly head at Ver. 14.6. Premium prices with poor responses and no fix or solution to a long time problem 🤬
I joined this post so that Sonos can hear from one more.
Still a huge proble on Sonos one in may 2022. Come on SONOS. I know you have jumped on the greed bandwagon and sold your souls but think about your customers or you won’t have any left!
SONOS, THIS HAS BEEN AN ONGOING PROBLEM FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS AND NO FIX FOR THIS ANNOYING PROBLEM.
THE ALEXA AND GOOGLE ASSISTANT REACT THE SAME. I HAVE TRIED TO CONTACT YOUR USELESS SUPPORT TEAM ON THREE DIFFERENT OCCASIONS AND EACH TIME I WAS ASKED TO GO THROUGH A SERIES OF STEPS…. AND THEY ADMIT THAT THEY NEVER HEARD ABOUT THE PROBLEM. A TECH SUPERVISOR INFORMED ME THAT IT IS AN AMAZON PROBLEM BUT LIKE I SAID EARLIER, THIS HAPPENS WITH GOOGLE'S ASSISTANT AS WELL.
SO WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR SONOS TO START LISTENING TO IT'S CCUSTOMER! SUCH PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR! GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK!
This is a community website, not a direct way to communicate with Sonos. If you want to speak with a Sonos employee, your best bet is to call SonosSupport directly.
I have resorted to keeping my Echos and set them for Sonos as speaker output (instead of itself) and then disable Alexa on the Sonos speakers. The only real fix until they decide to may attention to this serious flaw that renders Alexa integration useless. I use several Echo 4th gen - glad I didn’t throw them out when I upgraded to Sonos.
Thanks for the suggestion. I still have two DOTs unused. I have also contacted support and asked to log and forward my enhancement request to the appropiate engineering department. I agree it is a missed capability.
That is just one of the many problems I have with Alexa on SONOS. The big one (which may me Amazon and not SONOS) is that it doesn’t have the same capabilities and the microphone is not very sensitive (alexa in the next room will frequently response rather than sonos). I can tell an Alexa device what to play and it will play correctly on my SONOS devices. It will give you usual responses. It will also control lights. Alexa on SONOS is much more limited. I can start / stop, play a playlist and some basic questions. It will only control lights occasionally.
I gave up with Alexa on sonos and put an Alexa device in the room. I may try Google or the sonos control but have never been happy doing much music control by voice anyway.
@Maddyindc I actually experienced Alexa on Sonos to be much much more sensitive than Google. Even a whisper can sometimes be enough. Google more frequently miss executed commands. While I can have Alexa enabled on both Sonos Ones, with Google I can only have it on one of the stereo pair. I have Alexa on Sonos One control soup to nuts at home without any problems (Lights/HUE, AV/Logitech Hub, Nest, etc.). So I am happy with the performance except that I can’t hear Alexa well with the volume being low.
It seems to be working fine here and is clearly dependent on the TV volume level - all seems okay with my LG C9 TV - volume level is around 35-40% in the Sonos App and Alexa sounds about the correct volume for that TV output level.
So it’s still completely locked to the volume of the audio output - for Apple Music it’s really jarring as the audio tends to be louder so I use a lower volume by default
So it’s still completely locked to the volume of the audio output - for Apple Music it’s really jarring as the audio tends to be louder so I use a lower volume by default
Maybe use an echo dot by your seated position instead - that’s what I’ve seen others here choose to do … then you can set its volume independently.
Ended up here after trying to figure out why the alarm I set on my sonos arc via alexa didn’t wake me up (the volume was whisper quiet when I tried to recreate the alarm).. It blows my damn mind that sonos refuses to fix this in software by separating the volume level of the digital assistant from the system volume.. Shame on you, sonos.. You need to remove your digital assistant feature listing from the specs of your devices if you refuse to make it functional for your customers that drop thousands upon thousands of dollars on your product.
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.
Its not so great having alexa yelling at you when you leave the sound too high.
Alexa volume must be separated from the system, if that not do able from some reason please offer a work around, like auto set the volume to X% after 1 hour the system is idle.
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