Volume normalization
I’m surprised there are not more people complaining about this topic. I have been annoyed with this so much. I cannot mixed playlists as one songs are on different levels of loudness. I often have to change the volume manually multiple times. I would expect such as premium product to have solved this issue. For me this is something to look for alternatives. Especially if one looks how long this topic has been discussed here. Sonos product management must be sleeping.
It’s a long thread, but take a moment to read through the first page to get an idea of some of the possible complications/reasons with volume normalization through Sonos. And honestly, 129 replies over 4 years is really not a ton of complaints, particularly considering that many are duplicate posters and some people aren’t really complaining about it, just commenting.
I’m not at all against the feature, whatever way it would need to happen, but I just don’t see how it’s it’s terribly surprised given a little background history. Also think it’s understandable to want to look elsewhere if the feature is that important to you, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the feature is hard to fine in other multiroom audio systems.
Have you look at using airplay or casting directly from streaming apps?
Relatively new to Sonos, and have been frustrated that this feature isn’t available.
I have had to give up trying to play classical music as background or to sleep to, as there are some songs I literally cannot hear at all, but another song can be so loud it will wake me up in a jolt!
Come on Sonos.. please get cracking on this update!
Will add my confusion to this one. The Spotify app has built in normalisation which works great when I connect to my Move via Bluetooth, however it is disabled on the Spotify app when casting to sonos via WiFi. The difference can be very jarring.
I am very surprised to see the volume normalization is not yet implemented. Very annoying and I hope Sonos will soon figure out how to add this feature.
I’m fairly new to Sonos but am somewhat baffled this feature is not supported. Spotify has a “volume normalization” option for accounts but Sonos ignores it. As a result when listening to music on the 5 Sonos One and Sonos One SLs I recently purchased I am constantly having to adjust the volume. It is really annoying and not particularly acceptable in what is supposed to be a fairly high end solution like Sonos. Heck, even my ancient Logitech Squeezebox players have this feature.
Even if Sonos can’t integrate directly with the Spotify normalization it should be possible to offer a volume normalization in the Sonos app itself when it is playing so that you can normalize the volume.
This and the poor Alexa skill capability with Spotify have me somewhat soured on the entire experience when I was initially very excited by what Sonos can do to improve my audio listening enjoyment and I bought numerous speakers and even considered purchase of additional speakers and a Move for patio use.
Hard to understand how any company can be so unresponsive to its customers on such a nagging issue. If you don’t want to do it or cant do it, say so and give a reason...hopefully the real one.
Answers like:”We’ll send the request to the responsible department” don’t meet even the minimum customer care response.
Not surprised.
I have been a sonos customer for five years or so. The techs are fine when there is a question or problem but I have seen no evidence at all that this company gives a tinkers damn what their customers think. They seem to consider themselves experts in this technology and that is what they will market. If you don’t like that, then there are other options.
Some people are OK with that, but to just refuse to engage with your customers cancels out a lot of the product advantages, and that’s a fact.
We use Sonos in our retail outlet. It’s generally fantastic.
BUT sudden surges or drops in volume are very inappropriate in a retail setting - we want a constant level of (gentle) background music to build a calm retail atmosphere.
Big booms are the most disruptive, but major drops in volume are also unwelcome. If it goes too quiet, it is really noticeable and adds a kind of tension to our space where previously there was a nice feeling of calm.
We would absolutely love to see Volume Normalization added to Sonos. You could add a “normalization speed” setting - i.e. how responsive is the normalization. Clearly it should be fast if there is a sudden big boom -- but if it goes quiet you don’t want to amplify it too much unless it stays quiet for a long while.
Or best of all, the system could “listen ahead” to a stream and determine the optimal level of normalization so there is never any sudden change in sound pressure.
Many Sonos products even have a microphone built in (for Alexa). Surely added some kind of sound-level monitoring is not a massive engineering problem, but I see that this issue has been open for several years.
Would be great to see this solved.
In a retail setting, I would think there would be streaming services available that not only have the appropriate license for commercial use, but handle any normalization or compressing that would be needed. I’m guessing though.
Add me to the list of folks clamoring for this.
One of the big selling points for me to go with Sonos was the ability to switch between different music sources with ease. So, I build playlists/queues using Spotify, Bandcamp, my own local library and a couple other sources. I love being able to switch between these sources so a normalization that worked across different sources is what I’m looking for.
I only have a playbar so far, but really want to invest in more Sonos equipment for around the house, this is literally the single issue that gives me pause to invest further.
Seeing how long this discussion has been going on, I really think Sonos needs to either get off the pot and do whatever it takes to add this feature or they need to let us know it’s not possible for whatever reasons so that we can move on from the discussion.
TLDR:
Hi
Convinced normalization was a feature in the Sonos 1 app but has disappeared from the new Sonos 2 app. Would love to see it reinstated please. Having major volume issues with the new app.
Many thanks
No, it wasn’t. Nothing’s changed in that regard.
It can never be a feature of a controller or, more specifically, the players unless normalisation tags are provided along with each track. The services don’t offer this to Sonos, and the solution for local music library files has been half-baked for years and years.
Hi
Sonos is positioning itself as a “premium” version of an Alexa speaker, but without having a working volume normalization when listening to Spotify, it feels very dated and is certainly not something I would ever recommend to a friend. I can understand that implementing volume normalization may not be trivial, but it is handled on almost any other solution and is a de-facto standard for playing music through Spotify. For a $200 option Sonos speaker, it’s embarrassing that this feature has not been implemented after hundreds of requests from paying customers and reason enough to make a change to a different brand.
Adding my own “Please add volume normalization.” Its not Spotify’s responsibility. When I play Spotify thru Sonos, Spotify’s EQ and sound modulation is disabled. Sonos should have this option.
As far as I can tell, doing slight Google research, it’s a part of EVERY other lower-cost system. I’m not interested in buying the Sonos “name.” I want Sonos to be a speaker that functions just like every other cheaper version does—all the bells and whistles—just better.
And the whole “they don’t reveal when they’re gonna fix things” is, pardon my French, bullshit. No one else gets away with that. Why should the Sonos developers?
I definitely will not buy another Sonos system unless this feature is installed. /googles Roku
And for anyone interested, a link to a topic on the same issue that I started two years ago, that got no replies, less than two hundred views, and was closed down!
+17
The differences in volume you experience are based on a choice by the people making the radio program. Your remark should be adressed to them, not Sonos.
I second this. Please add volume normalization. It is very annoying when you have to change volume to hear the music.
As reported in another thread, this works if the music being played on the Spotify app on the phone is sent to the player wirelessly by either bluetooth or airplay. And also will therefore work via wire to line in.
And it works quite well, so there is a way to get this operating for those that must have it.
Upvote to Spotify and downvote to Sonos for not being able to do this.
If you create a playlist that contains a wide variety of music, RMS peak normalisation would really be a neat feature. Today’s music is leveled out to maximum amplitude, whereas songs from the 60/70/80s had so much more peak varation.
Please, Sonos, fix this!
+1
Be careful what you wish for! If you want the best audio quality then you probably don’t want to be using any automatic gain boosting or limiting. Probably fine for background music, but I would imagine it would be a poor compromise on hardware and software like Sonos which streams content from lots of different sources. Spotify know in advance what they are streaming as they benchmark every song as they encode it and send the volume data along with the music file. Sonos would no doubt have to use a very blunt instrument to achieve the same result with many different sources.
I’m surprised there are not more people complaining about this topic. I have been annoyed with this so much. I cannot mixed playlists as one songs are on different levels of loudness. I often have to change the volume manually multiple times. I would expect such as premium product to have solved this issue. For me this is something to look for alternatives. Especially if one looks how long this topic has been discussed here. Sonos product management must be sleeping.
Please do this, this is such a basic thing that is needed. I'll be honest I wouldn't have bought this if I knew every time I played a play list it would go from dead quiet to screaming loud. Come on Sonos, sort it out.
Yes ridiculous that this option is not present{..}
Thanks for your tips kaosnews. I presume this works only with local libraries and not with any major streaming services? Or am I wrong thinking so?
Tschus
The normalization works indeed on local libraries and it works for me with Deezer (don’t know it it works Spotify etc.). Downside to use Logitech Media Server is that you need to install this server on your computer or NAS (I use it on my NAS), but it got tons of features I miss with Sonos (I’m long time Logitech Squeezbox user, still use it btw).
Just found this after scaring the s**t out of my family when an old CD rip from the 90’s segued into a CD released more recently.
The lack of SOME kind of volume leveling within the SONOS playback is, at this point, a ridiculous oversight. With major streaming platforms offering SOMETHING (Spotify->Volume Normalization, Apple Music->Sound Check) and for those who care enough to support a standard, the ReplayGain tag, there doesn’t seem to be an excuse for not leveling playback volume for those who want it.
And worse than having not implemented this seemingly standard functionality is the fact that SONOS has ignored a two-year old thread with nothing but the old go-to: “We’ll tell the programmers about your revolutionary idea.” It’s embarrassing to SONOS as a “leader” in audio hardware and simply infuriating to anyone who has sunk multiple thousands of dollars into it.
Not trying to promote Logitech Media Server :) but there are some more nice feature[...]
Just tried it and honestly that is NOT an easy set up, at all!!! I gave up after 3 hours of hassle and hair pulling. On top of that, it’s not a workable patch for users controlling their sonos solely via their android or iOS app :(
Can anyone from the Sonos team please come forward and shed some light on this issue? I am considering returning my speakers if this is not getting implemented.
Hi there, Tampadoug. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. I am happy to forward this along to the team for consideration and visibility. Thanks again for the feedback and keep it coming.
This war 3 years ago! I spoke to live chat today and got the exact same reply. It doesn’t seem like there is any interest from the Sonos team in implementing this feature. All we get is the same generic semi automated reply.
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