Lower minumum volume level

It's funny. I haven't seen anyone in this thread defend themselves. Only three people defending others. Which is what I don't understand why you have the need to do. If you are not a shill.
I am certainly in right to accuse the company of not listening to their customers - because they obviously don't, when a forum sponsored by the company contains old threads which aren't responded to by the company. If you believe that is "to come in guns a blazing", I say you are in want for some reality adjustment.

But thank you nonetheless for explaining the lingo to me. Apart from that, none of the three "pro-everything-sonos-do-is-great" posters have contributed with anything but criticism of something that is not their business. That isn't lazy. That is useless. Thus not to be argued.

If you DO use sonos in the bedroom to fall asleep to gentle tones, then feel free to share your experience and thoughts. Because that's what was being discussed originally. However, I have observed an utter lack of this subject in the last posts. And that, my friend, was "the first bullet". But I guess we never will agree, so I'll call this an interesting debate and get on with something important. Like life.

I have a Play 1 in my bedroom that I use as my bed side radio and alarm clock. I'll admit I thought about it a fair amount before I took that plunge - it was my 4th Sonos unit so I was familiar but had never had the need to use alarms (on the Sonos units).

The use of Sonos as an alarm clock is going to depend on which controllers you have and whether they are portable - I expect most people will have at least 1 tablet or smart phone that is Sonos controller capable but not all will have. It is obvious that the Sonos eco-system was not designed to be an alarm clock and in my opinion it is testament to it's extraordinary quality of sound, array of audio sources, ease of set-up and looks that people like me actually use Sonos for this purpose. There are even people on this forum who mention they have a Play 3 or 5 in their bedroom and sometimes even 2!!

Now, of all the shortcomings of a bedroom replacement for the alarm clock volume is NOT one of the problems I have had. I set an alarm in the evening that plays Radio 5 Live - a speech based news and sport channel and that starts at level 27. In the morning for my wake up alarm the level is set to 25 on Radio 4.
At times I have to raise the volume in the evening (that is rare) and maybe if there is a boxing commentary or similar I may turn it down. But those volumes are fine for me. Certainly not loud, I wouldn't describe them as quiet either but then I do actually want to hear the discussion or news event or whatever.

It's funny. I haven't seen anyone in this thread defend themselves. Only three people defending others. Which is what I don't understand why you have the need to do. If you are not a shill.
I am certainly in right to accuse the company of not listening to their customers - because they obviously don't, when a forum sponsored by the company contains old threads which aren't responded to by the company. If you believe that is "to come in guns a blazing", I say you are in want for some reality adjustment.

But thank you nonetheless for explaining the lingo to me. Apart from that, none of the three "pro-everything-sonos-do-is-great" posters have contributed with anything but criticism of something that is not their business. That isn't lazy. That is useless. Thus not to be argued.

If you DO use sonos in the bedroom to fall asleep to gentle tones, then feel free to share your experience and thoughts. Because that's what was being discussed originally. However, I have observed an utter lack of this subject in the last posts. And that, my friend, was "the first bullet". But I guess we never will agree, so I'll call this an interesting debate and get on with something important. Like life.

A shill or a plant is someone being paid by Sonos to pose as a normal poster in order to talk up the product. Since you asked "But you are working for them, don't you?", you accused John B of being a shill or plant. You attacked the poster as being illegitimate so you wouldn't have to contend with his message, which is a lazy way to debate.

As to your ideas of what a forum should be, you are welcome to your opinion, but that is not the reality. You post your ideas and opinions on a public forum, you should expect them to be critiqued. This is no "safe space" for people to always agree and sing kumbayah, it is a forum for the exchange of ideas, which by definition entails criticism of said ideas. And accusing us of not welcoming all opinions is the height of irony. Only you have called for people to not post or demanded people leave the conversation, whereas I most certainly have not.

As to making it a battlefield, maybe you shouldn't come in guns a blazing, making baseless accusations of both the company and the posters if you do not wish it to become a battlefield. Accusing posters of being a shill or accusing the company of not listening to their customers was you firing the first shot. If you thought you could shoot up the forum with your rhetoric and not have anyone defend themselves, you thought wrong.

I stepped in mainly because you immediately resorted to the typical lazy response by throwing the out accusations of being a shill or plant. In addition, in a thread which calls for Sonos to assign valuable development and testing personnel to a feature, others who may not need this feature should certainly be able to express an opinion. This isn't the Star Chamber, it's a forum where all opinions are both welcome, and subject to the critique of others. You want the volume lower, others would rather they spend the resources required on something else. Both are legit ideas, so may the best opinion win.

Once again, Sonos employees are clearly marked as such. It is a lazy form of debate when one resorts to calling others shills and plants just because they disagree with you. Very lazy.

As to the request, this thread is over a year old and is at barely a page and half of posts, some of which disagree. Not exactly a pressing issue, and certainly not worthy of the accusations that "Sonos doesn't listen to its customers". More like "Sonos listens when customer disapproval reaches a certain limit".

And other systems? All but one don't have a mesh, some rely on Bluetooth, some use more bandwidth, some don't have Home Theater components, the vast majority are more expensive, by all accounts all of them are less reliable, all support far less music services, and at least one of them (the one who copied the mesh) is being sued by Sonos.

Need more?

I'm sorry if I stepped on your toes. Troll. I must have misunderstood a thing. I thought this was a community debate facilitated by SONOS (points to them for allowing/paying for that). But you are working for them, don't you? Because that last comment is pretty biased, if you are just another customer! What do you care about my opinions on this subject, if you so strongly disagree? Leave it be, and get a life instead of wasting mine.
If you ARE in fact hired by SONOS to mess with/engage in discussions on the community forum, then this isn't the way to do it. Present yourself as support personnel and let's handle the conversation on a chat. That works so well for a lot of other companies; I'm sure it would work here as well.

As for the last comment. Well, you haven't mentioned any feature which competitors don't handle just as well. And SONOS isn't market leader. They are first mover, and there is a difference. The equipment is expensive and not interchangeable. That means I am not going to buy MORE if I start thinking that SONOS is losing the grip. But it will take years before this trend can be seen in their books.
And no, there are not "hundreds of such features" asked for. Volume adjustment is a basic feature. Like lack of bass, poor sound quality, and "the speakers keep shutting down" would be. Fortunately, they got them right (now).
And no, I am not threatening to leave. And I am not a supporter. And I am not indignant. Where do you get your ideas from?? I am a customer. I am disappointed that SONOS continues to do nothing about something which is obviously called for. And I am simply stating that if they don't build the equipment I want to pay for, I will not buy the equipment they are producing. Simple as that. Compared to some other people it seems, I am not religious about music players. I just want music in the bedroom - and preferably integrated with the rest of the sound system in the apartment.

Yes, that's exactly how it is possible to even get at "1/100". Otherwise the volume move in steps of 5.
And I might add: The music is definitely not "almost inaudible" at this level. It is loud. In all but the noisiest environments.

It is so sad this is still something discussed in the community - instead of something addressed by SONOS!
I couldn't agree more. We have used a PLAY:1 in our bedroom for more than a year now, and the music playing is far too loud most of the time.

The volume scale tells me I am listening at "1/100" - meaning it can be 100 TIMES AS LOUD!! That is crazy! In the silent night, I have no problem hearing the music from any part of the apartment. I believe "1/100" should be like a whisper. And "50/100" should be around where you would consider the party getting started. As have been stated by others: We rarely use any volume setting above 20 on any part of our SONOS system, on any occasion. That means I have 80 % of the scale labeled "useless". If this isn't fixed by the time I need to change any part of the system, I am close to deeming SONOS itself "useless" and go for someone who listens to their customers.

I completely agree. I think it would be better suited to an exponential curve kind of function. That sounded pretty technical for me.

I run into the same issue. This is the reason why I have sold both my Play 5's. I used a Play5 in the kitchen and 1 Play5 in the home office. But for both rooms, the minimum volume was too loud. In my experience, the Play1 lowest volume is definitely lower than a Play5's. I now use a single Play1 in my office room and 2 Play 1's in the kitchen. A single Play1 in the kitchen (40m2) lacked "punch", so I placed an extra Play1 there. This improved sound, but now the minimum volume is too loud again... Guess I move back to the single Play1 in the kitchen. The single Play1 in the office (20m2) is perfect.

To my experience, the best volume finetuning/ lowest volume is obtained via the app (iPad/ iPhone). On the devices themselves, the volume "steps" are too big. I never use a Sonos (Play 1, Play 5, Connect:amp) above the 25% volume level.

My suggestion for improved volume control would be to 1) keep the single volume slider for the "big steps"; 2) next to that add an insert box which ranges from 0-100 (either a pull-down menu of free insert), for the "finetuning". The slider position should then change accordingly and vice versa. 3) Also, add a maximum volume increase/ "Party Blast" button which is standard in "non-selected mode". E.g., looking at my current Play 1 volume levels, it has a maximum volume level. If you guys implement the suggestions that I made under 1) and 2) for the range 0-50% of my current Play1, and add 50% by enabling this "Party Blast" button, then the slider gets double the accuracy already from which it has now.

Keep in mind, I would really like to buy/ have a Play5 for my kitchen but I am stuck to a Play1, just because of this minimum volume level issue! In simple English for Sonos Sales guys: this issue costs you sales, mr. Sonos! 😉.

The solution should be just software related, or is there a hardware reason that each speaker maybe has a minimum volume cut-off point?

The highest volumes are too high, I never use them. I'd like te be able to fine tune the lower volumes in an easy way using my iPad or computer. My suggestion is two volumebars instead of one: one for the first 10% and one for the other 90% of possible volume. It's like being able to "zoom in" on the lower spectrum.

Interesting suggestion, I'll pass it on to the team for you. On the high end, I do know plenty of people who love upsetting their neighbors and playing some tracks as loud as possible. Thanks!

Hello Ryan, I tried to adjust the volume in different ways. I have the Sonos app installed on my iPad and iPhone. Using the slider or volume buttons on iPhone or iPad does not make any different. You are right that the volume out of the tv is lower. When the slider is on approx 10% the sound from the tv is almost off.
What I also observe (when using spotify or tune-in) is that there is no difference noticable between the last 2 slider steps before the sound is muted.