Lower minumum volume level


Userlevel 3
The lowest volume is too high. I'd like to make use of the sleep-function of the play 3. Works flawlessly, but the lowest volume is still too high. Please set the lowest volume to be less loud, so i can fall asleep peacefully with some music.

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143 replies

I completely agree. I think it would be better suited to an exponential curve kind of function. That sounded pretty technical for me.
Totally agree, lowest possible volume is still too high. Would be great if this could be fixed in a next release.
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.
May I ask if you have tried the following on a phone controller? Slide the volume bar to zero. Then tap the volume bar once instead of trying to slide it back. For me this produces a volume level that is almost inaudible, and lower than I have been able to achieve with any other method.
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.
OK fair enough. But as to Sonos being "useless", despite its market leading multiroom capabilities,great sound quality, huge range of streaming sources, easy switching between sources, simple set up etc,... well you are entitled to your opinion. And as for "not listening to its customers", this invariably translates to "Sonos isn't prioritising the particular feature that I and a few others want implemented". Unfortunately there are dozens or maybe hundreds of such features on this forum, all with a few indignant supporters threatening to leave. I hope you find this feature on another system that is also as good as Sonos in every other respect.
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.
Userlevel 5
Badge +11
I must applaud your sensitive hearing. I wish mine worked that well.

I am puzzled a bit though. If you find the lowest setting as suggested by John B as being too loud then playing the speakers at 20% volume must be, to others standards, positively deafening for you. I find the lowest volume setting on a pair of Play 1 and also on a pair of Play 5 to be very quiet amd much quieter than any back ground noise.

Ah, these ageing ears...
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?
@jgatie What are you talking about? No one has disagreed in this thread before John B. Now, I've obviously triggered a lot of faithful defenders to chime in.
I just don't get why you do that. Some people have problems with the volume being too loud in their bedroom installation. Others don't. Good for you! I really don't find that of relevance to this thread. I'd much prefer official SONOS personnel answering questions - maybe just stating what is obvious to everybody: that they don't perceive this to be a problem, and they are not going to do anything about it.

I just personally think it is a wasted opportunity to satisfy even more customers. But hey, that's just me.
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.
I am sorry. You beat me. I'm clueless. Please explain the "lazy" part? And please explain what on earth is "shill" and "plant"? I am pretty sure that I haven't accused anyone of being those terms.
And no, it obviously isn't a forum where all opinions are welcome! You are stepping into a thread where you have no part. And your language is frankly quite offending and disrespectful.

I guess we have different opinions regarding the purpose of a community forum. I believe it is to be a place where people can help each other and opinions can be pooled for the company's decision makers to see. Whether they choose to react on the topics discussed is entirely beside the point.
But I see you want to make a battlefield of it and play the part of the company. That just makes the entire forum useless. But hey, that's just me. Have a nice day trash talking to strangers.
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.
Oh and by the way, I have no problem with Sonos both lowering the minimum volume and giving a smaller granularity in the volume steps. Ironically, you would have had my support if you hadn't presented it as you did. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
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.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
Hi everyone,

We haven't made a post in this thread for a while because we don't have any new information to share. We don't comment on possible future products or features. We do still keep an eye on these threads and take note of the features that the community requests. Many of the current features came from requests like this one.

I'd like to remind everyone to be friendly and helpful. Not everyone has been on the site as long as others and may not understand why some requests have not yet been implemented.

Also, so there is no confusion, Sonos employees are all marked as such.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
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.
I have vast experience with listening to Sonos at a low volume at sleep time, for I have a playlist of ocean sounds and various other white sound type tracks that I listen to regularly during sleep. I have absolutely no problem with the lowest volume setting, though I do have to lower the slider to '0' and tap it once to get the lowest setting.

And Sonos does listen to its customers. If you are interested in proof rather than your own pre-conceived notions due to a few outstanding issues which may or may not be on the radar, I can supply ample proof. Something tells me your eagerness to correct your accusation will not be as quick as your eagerness to "fire" it off in the first place, n'est pas?
I have been out and about, but just dropped back to confirm that I am not paid by Sonos. I do love my Sonos system and admire Sonos as a company.
I have no objection to the opinion that Sonos should have a lower minimum volume level. It is an entirely reasonable request. What I thought it reasonable to challenge was the suggestion that the entire system was "useless" because it lacked a feature 99.999999% of users don't care about. Also worth challenging was the suggestion that because a particular feature request hasn't been implemented Sonos doesn't listen to its customers. Sometimes it listens and says "not worth limited development resource because only 0.0000001% of users care about it".
I just sold my Samung because of being too loud and having too coarse volume control. Next on the list to try was Sonos Play:1 but now I am confused, as it seems to have the same problems as Samsung. Were there any updates about lowering the minimum volume (1/100) or giving more fine tuning of the lower volumes?

Could I buy a Play:1, try the volumes and return it if it is too loud?

Related question: can I have my alarm clock volume (e.g., TuneIn Internet Radio) to rise from 0 to 25% over a first minute or so? My samsung sometimes scared me to death, because it just played the radio immediately at the final volume that was definitely too loud for the first seconds of a day. I put a lot of hope in Sonos to implement it better than Samsung.


Could I buy a Play:1, try the volumes and return it if it is too loud?

Related question: can I have my alarm clock volume (e.g., TuneIn Internet Radio) to rise from 0 to 25% over a first minute or so? My samsung sometimes scared me to death, because it just played the radio immediately at the final volume that was definitely too loud for the first seconds of a day. I put a lot of hope in Sonos to implement it better than Samsung.


If you buy from Sonos.com yes you can return it. They have great return policy. But IME if you want super granular volume control you should be looking at a Connect with external Amp/Preamp that would allow fine volume control when necessary.

Regarding alarms, you can't adjust fade in. I don't really notice but I think there is a slight fade in and fade out 10-15 seconds.


Regarding alarms, you can't adjust fade in. I don't really notice but I think there is a slight fade in and fade out 10-15 seconds.

Thanks a lot!
I would really appreciate if you could check the fade-in at the next occasion. 10-15s is much better than 0.
Just tested and yes faded in for 10-15 seconds.
I totally agree that the lowest volume needs a few more settings. It is too high for me listening in my small office if I just want background talk or music. I love the product but for that reason I will likely be returning it. Sonos! Listen to your customers! A few more lower settings will not hurt anyone who likes to listen at higher volume levels but will help out a vast number of your customers and potential customers.


Could I buy a Play:1, try the volumes and return it if it is too loud?


If you buy from Sonos.com yes you can return it. They have great return policy. But IME if you want super granular volume control you should be looking at a Connect with external Amp/Preamp that would allow fine volume control when necessary.

I bought it and it is too loud 😞 Even louder than my previous Samsung. I wait about 2 months for an update on this. if the update is not there, I will sell it as second hand.