Alexa volume VERY low on Sonos Beam

Hi @antny024.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for bringing this to our attention. I understand that it can be quite frustrating being unable to hear the response of Alexa to your command and when you raised the volume on your Sonos Beam, the audio is way too loud. Allow me to share some recommendation to help out.

I would like to ask some information to better isolate and understand the issue on your situation.

1. Can we try unplugging the Beam from power and plugging it back after 10-15 seconds? does the issue still persist?
2. Can we try checking for updates if you are running on the Sonos S2 app by going to settings » system » system update » check for update? Did it help?
3. Can we try listening to music through your Sonos Beam and check if the behavior is the same with voice response volume level? 
4. Can we try to follow the guide about how to reduce wireless interference? 
5. Can we try to remove and re-add the voice service on the Sonos App? Is the issue persistent?

Allow me to recommend the following guides and please do follow accordingly. (if the above situation does not help)

1. Log out of ALL Amazon-related apps which are and not limited to the following. (Amazon Prime, Amazon Shopping, Amazon Alexa, etc.) 
2. Open the Amazon Alexa app and disable the Sonos Skill.
3. De-register any Sonos product on the Alexa App.
4. Open the Sonos App.
5. Remove the Alexa Voice service.
6. Force close Sonos app.
7. Force close the Alexa App.
8. Reopen the Sonos App. Add Alexa as a voice service.
9. Open Alexa app Add Sonos as skill
10. Register Sonos speaker
11. Add music service.
12. Test to check if it works.
13. Submit a diagnostic to capture all information performed on the Sonos devices.

Please let me know how it goes and keep me posted.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

I’ve done all that. TWICE!  I was on with a chat agent and that was their suggestion as well. I did all the things you listed. I did submit a diagnostic. They found nothing wrong.  I don’t think anything is actually wrong. Like I said  When I listen to music or the tv at a reasonable volume (18-24 or so) If I ask Alexa a question, her response is barely audible through the Sonos beam speaker. It’s VERY annoying!  It makes using the Alexa device very difficult.. The use of the voice assistant directly through the speaker was a HUGE selling point for me… I was going to buy rear surround speakers and a subwoofer, but now I won’t waste my money if this is as good as it gets.  Very disappointed…  Had a terrible experience with Zvox, my initial experience with Sonos isn’t much better...

I am experiencing the exact same problem.  Certainly hope there is a solution to this issue.  Can we get an update please.

Seriously not even an update here.  I would expect better from the company that is suppose to be a leader in this space.  Have yiu recognized the fact that this is an issue that needs to addressed or are you just simply ignoring it.

I’ve asked the same question.  Seems they don’t really care..  it’s pointless to connect an Echo or Google assistant if you can’t hear when they speak..  Not at all happy with Sonos as a company  or the Beam as a speaker.

Having the same problem here and found several other exact same complaints....thinking if just returning now since it looks like Sonos doesn't care .. such a disappointment 

Hi everyone, thanks for reaching out to the community.

I just want to clarify that the volume of the voice assistant is directly linked to volume the of the Beam (or any voice-enabled Sonos product). 

At the time of writing it’s not currently possible to independently control the volume of the voice assistant compared to the overall system volume, but I have passed your concerns over to our development team for consideration. 

As a slight workaround, it may be possible to lower the volume of your TV source device and slightly raise the Beam’s volume to make the transition between content and the assistant’s voice less jarring, though I appreciate this isn’t an ideal solution.

James L., with due respect, I’m not sure you are capturing the problem correctly. It isn’t that the Alexa volume and the speaker volume are linked (though I agree being able to change them independently would fix the issue). The problem is that they are WIDELY disparate. At a volume in which the speaker is deafeningly loud, Alexa is still barely audible. If they were the same volume, that would be much, much better than the current status quo. As is, it is literally unusable, so I have to turn off Alexa on the Beam (despite being one of its main selling points) and use an old Echo that I’d rather put in a different room.

I'm having the same problem and this is on going for about 6 months and still no solution. I have the problem in two different rooms but my sonos move works perfect. Every update I expect it to  get fixed but after the last update its still the same. There is loads of threads on this issue, strange it hasn't been resolved yet. 

We’ve had a beam connected to the tv with Alexa for a while now. This was not an issue previously but now it is something we are experiencing so something must have changed which surely can be resolved.

Same issue is discussed here https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/alexa-volume-issue-since-12-1-6848860

No solution for  6 months!

Funny thing is, that the volume was okay before update 12.1

We’ve found that it’s the tv volume that is disproportionately high. Volume on both music and Alexa needs to be turned up much higher than tv volume to be properly heard. 

Issue is also present on devices which are not connected to a TV, e.g. a One

Don't know if it helps anyone but I had the same issue but seems better after reducing my TV (not beam volume) to zero. I forced my LG TV to select internal speaker, not HDMI then reduced the volume to zero. Then when it switched back to HDMI input increased beam volume to comfortable level. Alexa voice level is OK now. I guess the voice assistant level is preset in relation to beam volume and if the input from device (e.g TV) is different this screws it up. Would still be great to have a separate voice assistant volume in the sonos app. 

The Alexa volume problem still exists but is more intermittent than previously 

Have tried lowering tv volume before connecting sonos beam but it still happens 

Yes I am pissed off as well with problem that has happened after a update. Have alexa loud enough to hear and get blasted out the lounge when it goes to TV/Nvidia Shield.

Surely Sonos could throw in a couple lines of code and put a slider switch in the app so us users can  balance alexa volume to our TV volumes...It shouldn't be this hard, Sonos broke it so Sonos fix it simple…

Same problem with my Beam.  (When TV is acceptable level, Alexa is barely audible).

NOTE: I have the beam connected to my TV Out via the optical to HDMI connection,

In spite of trying all the solutions suggested the problem still persist can barely hear the alexa which for many of us was the reason for selecting the SONOS over others at the time.

I dont think Sonos is even trying to resolve this. Its been months… Overall very disappointed with Sonos  software and their problem handling ….
Updates on macbooks  give you an UPDATE FAILED ERROR require u to uninstall and install the software nothing has changed there too. This issue perists.

Any progress yet?

Do I have to return my arc since its apparently broken? 

I have the same problem after purchasing a new tv, the Sony Bravia kd-50x80jp.

I found a solution but it is not acceptable!

From the audio tv, select “audio pcm” instead of other options.

In this manner you can control input volume of the tv and have the Alexa volume quite equal of the tv.

But, yes… pcm! This means stereo.

So the compromise is losting sorround or dolby.

On my tv there is also audio1 and audio2, but audio1 sounds really strong, and audio2 really low. And you can not adjust volume input when  selecting that audio.

This is a joke already. He Alexa is basically useless unless one wants to listen to their TV at deafening volumes. Its INSANE that Sonos engineers havent been able to create a separate independent volume control to solve the problem. Its been MONTHS. I have several SONOS products and wont be buying any going forward if they refuse to fix a simple problem.

Still no update on this in today’s update v13.4 :(

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3521?language=en_US

Its absolutely astonishing that SONOS wont address this issue. Im so pissed off at this point. I have several SONOS products and until they fix this I’m never buying another one and will continue to tell friends/family to buy something other than SONOS.

For what it's worth I fixed this by lowering my surround audio offset from +15 to -15 on both tv and music. 

Settings>System>Product Name>Surround Audio

I also set the volume limit to something that made sense for me. This fixed the issue realted to volume being set by Alexa. 

I hope this helps someone!

Walt

Just bought new ARC this needs to be fixed considering what we are paying for. Probably will hook echo dot back up for now.