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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After having Sonos and hitting this issue I now know where Sonos stands for!
So-not-steady
Unbelievable that you have and advertise with built in alexa and it is cpuple with sound volume!!!
Unusable this way!
Spoke with Sonos support and they've been able to repro this issue, but said it won't get prioritized for resolution until more users file tickets complaining about it.
Moderator Note: Recorded and removed Case number. Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.
I have tried adding an actual Amazon Alexa a couple of times, but I can’t seem to get the sound from the Sonos to “duck”. I think it is now possible to add the Sonos to Alexa speakers as a group, so I need to look at that again, but I just have not been able to make the separate Alexa solution work reliably because the TV sound overwhelms it
Just place the Alexa components in the first or second section of the Alexa ‘enabled’ group to duck their audio -see attached example of a Group from the Alexa App.
I have tried adding an actual Amazon Alexa a couple of times, but I can’t seem to get the sound from the Sonos to “duck”. I think it is now possible to add the Sonos to Alexa speakers as a group, so I need to look at that again, but I just have not been able to make the separate Alexa solution work reliably because the TV sound overwhelms it
That makes sense to me, if what you were told is true. It’s probably easier to add the Alexa voice assistant to a nearby HT surround (if compatible surrounds are in use), or just add an echo Dot nearby instead. The latter are often a ‘steal’ anyway whenever Amazon have their sales.
So, I have recently been told by a former Sonos employee that the problem is probably never going to be fixed. I was told that the core of the Sonos software was written long before there was an idea of personal assistants, and that, while the issue seems trivial to fix, it is not because it requires modification of the core. They have apparently looked at a couple of other ways of doing this, but none of them worked in a satisfactory manner - and they are not about to mess with the core because it’s worked well, and they are not about to do anything to jeopardize the basic functionality. I was also told that the problem varies in its severity depending upon the particular TV the Sonos is connected to and that it is highly variable even within TV brands. This makes sense because a TCL TV I had previously was horrible, but my Sony seems to almost work well. And we all know that the real root of the problem is money – they are not willing to make what apparently would be a substantial investment in software development, and testing to fix a problem that a lot of people apparently don’t notice 🤨
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.
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 issue. Come on Sonos, fix this please.
Same issue on:
Sonos Beam Gen 1
Era 100
Era 300
Sonos Arc
Ridiculous. Hire better Software Engineers.
2 years and no fix! Cannot hear Alexa from 6” away!
100% agree with all, here, this is ridiculously annoying. We love our sonos, but we used Alexa announcements etc to reach the kids in other rooms. Now impossible to do that.
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.
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.)
Same issue with the arc on a Sony TV
Same here with arc and lg oled
Same issue here… how is this still an issue?!?!?!?
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!
found this discussion as this same problem with my Beam/Alexa and LG tv is driving me CRAZY. How did they not fix this yet?
Same thing with my new ARC. Thing is my old ARC is fine, the new one has much lower volume for Alexa commands than for everything else.
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.
It seems it is just something we have to live with. One note on the above - when the Alexa volume is too low, if I say “Alexa, what is your volume”, it still responds with 4 even though it is clearly not 4. Then, saying “Alexa, volume 4” sets it where I want it. I do think it is something Sonos should be able to fix but perhaps it is not a very high priority or there is some technical complexity that they cannot overcome.
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.
If it’s software surely they just amend the software and push out an update, not sure how you can be backed into a corner other than hardware. If current mode = Alexa is speaking look up stored Alexa volume level and set volume to it, if current mode = TV then set volume = stored TV volume. I know that’s an oversimplification but not hard.
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.
Sounds more like a hardware issue to me, software can be amended.
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