I just noticed that my Sonos system adjusts the volume automatically between loud and quiet songs. I haven’t noticed this before. It is extremely annoying, and especially noticeable when I play an album where the songs run into each other. The system also inserts a little gap between the songs. ALSO extremely annoying. I tried playing the same music files on another player, and there is no difference in the volume and no gap between the songs on that player, so it’s not the files that are ripped that way, it is the Sonos system that plays around with the volume. Like I said, I’ve never noticed it before. What has happened? Where do I turn it off?
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Userlevel 5
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Hi @captainknut.
Thanks for reaching out and for your detailed post, let me help and try to figure this out.
Is this happening on all music sources?
On what speakers you observed this behavior?
NOTE: The Sonos players will get the audio at whatever the service sends over, we don't do any built-in processing of volume.
If this is about volume normalization for streaming services, I’ve found this relevant thread in the past that you take a look at:
To better understand, kindly submit a diagnostic report through the Sonos app when it happens, and reply with the confirmation number. I'd start by reviewing your system, it will help in identifying if there’s an issue with your system.
If you have any other questions or run into any issues, please do not hesitate to reach out, we are always here to help.
Thanks for replying!
I listen to my own music files stored on my local NAS, so this is not sourced from any streaming service.
This happens on all my Sonos units - Play:1, Play:3, Play:5 (Gen 1), Play:5 (Gen 2), Connect.
Since I have a mix of old and new units, I’m using the S1 controller.
If I play the same files on other players, e.g. my NAS’s dedicated proprietary player, the files play just fine. This only happens when I use the Sonos Controller to play the music files through the Sonos system.
I have sent you a diagnostic. The confirmation number is: 25995743
Thank you!
What format are the files? And have you actually checked whether they contain volume normalisation tags: ReplayGain, iTunNorm, etc?
Sonos has had patchy support for volume normalisation for years. It used to be described in a now-removed FAQ.
AAC .m4a
How do I check a file for normalisation tags?
Well, there are umpteen ways of viewing metadata, from Windows itself to tag editors to media players.
Where they ripped in iTunes? If so was Sound Check enabled?
You can’t find the tag in iTunes itself, but I installed Mp3tag, and apparently there’s a tag called ITUNNORM, which Sonos—apparently—reads and applies, whether you want to or not.
I ran a known offending album through Mp3tag, deleted the ITUNNORM tag from all the songs and listened to it again on Sonos and—hey presto!—the normalisation was gone!
So the solution would seem to be for the Sonos team to update their code to either ignore this tag, or—given that so many people seem to want normalisation—give us an option to turn it on or off. I mean, the Sonos software OBVIOUSLY can already handle normalisation, so all they have to do is make it a configurable option for the users.
I said Sonos offers patchy support for volume normalisation, and that situation hasn’t changed for over 10 years.
Different tags apply to different file formats, and it’s not supported across all formats.
It only supports track-based gain adjustment (not album-based); the volume adjustment is restricted within certain limits (+/-10dB evidently); and there’s no means to turn it off short of stripping out the tags.
Since the FAQ which explained what it does do has been withdrawn, and Sonos is very much focussing on services now, rather than library play, my guess is that the situation that’s prevailed for at least the last decade is unlikely to change any time soon.
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