When my Sonos Beam volume is set a comfortable level for watching tv and I ask Alexa a question, the volume of her response is too low. I am unable to hear the answer. If I raise the volume of the Fire Cube it doesn’t change the volume on the Beam. If I raise the volume of the Beam I can hear her response, BUT the volume is WAY too loud to watch tv..
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We recently bought an Arc, same issue. While TV/music is at a comfortable volume level, Alexa is super quiet and we can’t hear her. When turn up Alexa, the TV volume explodes. Issue still persists after 2 years, sadly!
Userlevel 1
I came across across this thread in search because I have the same issue.
I’m not sure when it started but for quite a while now Alexa’s volume has been way too low in comparison to the normal listening volume of both my Beam and my Arc (separate rooms/setups). I normally use my Arc (paired with Sub3 and Play 1’s) at somewhere around 8% to 15% volume for general listening whether it’s TV, Xbox, etc but Alexa can barely be heard at those levels.
Just bought new ARC this needs to be fixed considering what we are paying for. Probably will hook echo dot back up for now.
Same issue here… how is this still an issue?!?!?!?
Userlevel 6
+17
Hi
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.
- Can we try unplugging the Beam from power and plugging it back after 10-15 seconds? does the issue still persist?
- 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?
- Can we try listening to music through your Sonos Beam and check if the behavior is the same with voice response volume level?
- Can we try to follow the guide about how to reduce wireless interference?
- 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)
- Log out of ALL Amazon-related apps which are and not limited to the following. (Amazon Prime, Amazon Shopping, Amazon Alexa, etc.)
- Open the Amazon Alexa app and disable the Sonos Skill.
- De-register any Sonos product on the Alexa App.
- Open the Sonos App.
- Remove the Alexa Voice service.
- Force close Sonos app.
- Force close the Alexa App.
- Reopen the Sonos App. Add Alexa as a voice service.
- Open Alexa app Add Sonos as skill
- Register Sonos speaker
- Add music service.
- Test to check if it works.
- 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,
Same issue with the arc on a Sony TV
Any solution for this yet?
I just want the option to increase the volume on Alexa. Seems an easy solution? (But I understand that Sonos and Amazon don't totally get along as they have competing speakers.)
Userlevel 2
Same problem in my Arc, and has been forever.
Come on Sonos. Pull your finger out. Give us separate volumes for Alexa and other sources already!
Any progress yet?
Do I have to return my arc since its apparently broken?
Same issue here with new ARC. They just need to update the software to have an independent volume setting for Alexa, sounds simple ?
I imagine the fundamental issue is the software simply isn't that "advanced" and was designed to simply have a single overall volume level.
This is why Sonos have kept very quiet about it for years, in the hope of sweeping the issue under the rug.
It's evident when I'm using my Beam. I'm constantly having to adjust the volume depending on how I'm using the speaker... either as a voice assistant, streaming Spotify, or using it for TV sound. The software really should remember a separate volume for each.
I have a Beam Gen 1 and the Google Assistant volume is far too quiet.
People buy these speakers because they're smart speakers, but not being able to set the voice assistant volume independently of the overall volume makes the product unfit for purpose, in the case of the Beam.
Sonos... You absolutely need to solve this issue above all else, by either increasing the volume of Google Assistant / Alexa, or allowing the user to set the voice assistant volume independently.
Sounds more like a hardware issue to me, software can be amended.
It depends, but I doubt the hardware is the limitation. Software should always be able to manipulate the sound output level.
I design and develop software for a living, and Sonos may have painted themselves into corner with how the software is designed, meaning independent volume levels aren't completely impossible, but would require a lot of work to implement.
What I can't get over is that the software already knows when speakers are in streaming mode, Bluetooth mode, TV mode, smart assistant mode, etc. so I personally don't see why the Sonos devs can't write new logic to artificially increase / decrease volume based on these modes.
Same issue here with new ARC. They just need to update the software to have an independent volume setting for Alexa, sounds simple ?
It seems like it might already have independent volumes - given that it seems it is when I am listening to TV that the Alexa responses become very quiet - probably Alexa volume 1 or 2. It seems to adjust to a much quieter Alexa volume than what I have the volume of the Sonos for the TV input set to. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it does. It might be setting Alexa to a percentage of the TV volume but then it leaves it at that volume when the TV is off. I know this much. When Alexa is too quiet, I can say Alexa, set volume to 4. Then later on after watching TV and with TV off, it is set much lower.
Sonos - just explaining exactly how it works as a start I think would be really helpful for all of us having this issue. Ignoring us is the opposite.
Same issue on:
Sonos Beam Gen 1
Era 100
Era 300
Sonos Arc
Ridiculous. Hire better Software Engineers.
Same problem: Alexa is barely audible on my Sonos Beam. This is unacceptable, to the point that marketing the Alexa compatibility for this device is a wrong information, for the voice assistant is practically unusable.
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
2 years and no fix! Cannot hear Alexa from 6” away!
Just came looking for the same thing. Alexa volume on Sonos Arc is way too low for us, enough to be unusable. I don't want to reduce the volume of our surrounds to ‘fix’ it, and I'm not clear how setting a max volume would change anything.
Shocking to see this still isn't resolved given how old this thread is, and these products aren't new to market!
I spent over an hour with supervisor Hugo L demonstrating this problem on a Sony Bravia A9 and an Arc over 4 months ago. Having such a critical problem with top of the line components is very disappointing.
Case 03465294
The comfortable listening volume on my SonyXBR77A9G which is eARC connected to a Sonos ARC is 30. When Alexa responds it does so a volume level that sounds like about 3 which is barely audible. If I increase Alexa volume to a comfortable 5 using either the Sonos App, ARC buttons, Sony Remote or Alexa commands, the Alexa responses are audible at this level but the TV level moves in tandem to 50 which is way too loud. Because they are tied together, either the TV is too loud or Alexa is not loud enough. When you set Alexa using ARC to 5 the TV goes to 50 and vica versa. It feels like Alexa responses are delivered at the reduced Sonos “ducking” volume rather than the current volume setting in effect which makes them barely audible. There appears no way to set Alexa and TV to operate at the same volume level. This makes Alexa useless while the TV is on and your users are quite upset about it.
Sonos community threads describing problem (there are many).
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/alexa-volume-issue-since-12-1-6848860
I have re-installed Alexa without effect. Also I tried Google Assistant and it has the same problem so the problem is not in Alexa. Because the Sonos App sets the Sony TV to a louder volume that doesn’t match Sonos Music or Alexa the problem is not with SONY. You really need to correct this problem that affects your top of the line component.
Same issue here Sonos Ray + Fire TV Cube ... Can barely hear the voice assistant on the cube...
Turn it up using the Volume+ button on the Cube itself.
So I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Sonos 2 today and this is a problem now, no issues before. Can hardly hear Alexa at all now!
I am having the same issue. It makes Alexa or google useless.
Same issue Seems to make use of alexa worthless
I’ve been experiencing this issue for years. It’s so frustrating. I’ve missed work due to the alarm being too low. I’m not going to be purchasing anymore Sonos products at this point.
Same here with arc and lg oled
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