Amazon Music Unlimited Dolby Atmos low volume thru Arc

  • 26 December 2021
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Userlevel 4
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When playing Amazon Music Unlimited Dolby Atmos tracks through my Arc/sub/One SLs the volume level is ridiculously low. It doesn't happen with HD and Ultra HD tracks. Looked around and found this reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/rc5zqb/low_volume_on_amazon_dolby_atmos_music/
 

Tested the suggested workaround of simply pausing the Dolby Atmos track and restarting and it automatically fixes the volume every time. Crazy and annoying. But it avoids the problem of manually increasing the volume of an Atmos track only to have the next non-Atmos track blow you out of your chair.


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19 replies

Userlevel 4
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I should add this issue occurs for me when listening to Channels via Amazon Music Unlimited that are selected from the Sonos app, but not when an individual track or album is specifically searched and selected.

I have the same annoying issue. Seems like a bug and needs to be addressed by Sonos!

Userlevel 7
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Since Sonos might not have seen this thread, maybe you could contact them and alert them to the problem.

Experiencing the same issue here - but when pausing, then resuming the Dolby Atmos track sees the volume increase exponentially i.e. MUCH louder.

My feeling is that my system (also Arc, One SLs G2 Sub) has an issue when switching through Amazon's HD or Ultra HD tracks to Dolby Atmos.

Hi together,

Same issue here. 
Has someone already contacted Sonos?

 

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I have spoken to Sonos, but it has been difficult to recreate the problem while on the phone with support. For me, it only occurs while listening to Amazon Stations (I inadvertently referred to Channels in an earlier post above, but I meant Stations). And it only occurs when it automatically transitions from an HD or Ultra HD track to an Atmos track. Unlike a specified list of songs found in Playlists, songs played in Stations are more random in nature, so it really isn't possible to select a Station and know in advance exactly when an Atmos track will be played after an HD or Ultra HD track is played. Of course, Stations do eventually repeat tracks but not always in the same order. So recreating the issue while on the phone with support is not straightforward.
 

Another quirky aspect (other than the “fix” of pausing and restarting an Atmos track to correct the volume) is that if a Station is playing an HD or Ultra HD track and I manually skip tracks (which is possible with the Amazon Music Unlimited subscription) until an Atmos track appears, the volume of the Atmos track will be fine, presumably because it was manually initiated versus normal autoplay.
 

For anyone that is also experiencing this problem please contact Sonos directly to report it. The fewer people that report it, the less attention it will get. This really ruins the music listening experience from my HT setup (which is my only Sonos equipment capable of playing Atmos) so I really hope it gets the attention it deserves.

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Same here on Beam Gen 2. I have been complaining to Sonos support since December with no luck. I have sent a video to them today showing this issue. Let's see...

Userlevel 7

The majority of my Amazon Music listening has been Dolby Atmos only playlists that I’ve created.

Consequently, I’ve been able to recreate the low Atmos volume issue fairly easily using “My Soundtrack” station.

The following diagnostics submitted when the playing Dolby Atmos track was near silent.

Diagnostic - 1980618125 - Tones and I - Dance Monkey

Diagnostic - 1383364548 - Dua Lipa - Physical

Diagnostic - 1036342532 - Imagine Dragons - Believer

Will raise these with Sonos Support tomorrow.
 

Perhaps you can send a screen capture of your Queue or Playlist..

Userlevel 7

Perhaps you can send a screen capture of your Queue or Playlist..


The Queue is not in use when the issue occurs. It only applies to Stations ie. Amazon Radio.

Spoke to Sonos who say it is “normal” behaviour as the radio stream switches between different codecs. Diagnostics show nothing is wrong.

I’ve sent a video of the issue to forward onto the engineers, but I wouldn’t expect a fix to be forthcoming anytime soon.
 

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Spoke to Sonos who say it is “normal” behaviour as the radio stream switches between different codecs.

Well, IMO it shouldn't be considered as normal behavior but as a bug to be fixed. At least I would like to see Sonos acknowledging the issue and including this on their to-do-list.

Userlevel 7

Spoke to Sonos who say it is “normal” behaviour as the radio stream switches between different codecs.

Well, IMO it shouldn't be considered as normal behavior but as a bug to be fixed. At least I would like to see Sonos acknowledging the issue and including this on their to-do-list.


It’s definitely a bug. If it was normal behaviour there wouldn’t be a dramatic volume change when pausing and restarting the stream, without any adjustment to the volume slider.

Does a reboot of BEAM or ARC improve the situation -- at least for a while? With respect to ARC, are any channels missing when the Volume decreases?

Userlevel 4
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Spoke to Sonos who say it is “normal” behaviour as the radio stream switches between different codecs.

Well, IMO it shouldn't be considered as normal behavior but as a bug to be fixed. At least I would like to see Sonos acknowledging the issue and including this on their to-do-list.


It’s definitely a bug. If it was normal behaviour there wouldn’t be a dramatic volume change when pausing and restarting the stream, without any adjustment to the volume slider.

Exactly!!!

Userlevel 3
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Does a reboot of BEAM or ARC improve the situation -- at least for a while? With respect to ARC, are any channels missing when the Volume decreases?

No, reboot doesn't help at all

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Just upgraded to 14.4 hoping it could solve this issue, but not yet 😕

Userlevel 7

Just upgraded to 14.4 hoping it could solve this issue, but not yet 😕


I’ve emailed Sonos Support twice with a video evidencing the issue.

Both times they have came back with the same scripted response. It’s like they don’t even read the email, or acknowledge the issue.

The other known bug with Amazon Music (Ultra HD not playing when an individual speaker or stereo pair is bonded with a sub gen2) is at least acknowledged by support, but still outstanding after 3mths+ since the launch of Amazon Music hi-res on Sonos.

Userlevel 3
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I’ve emailed Sonos Support twice with a video evidencing the issue.

Both times they have came back with the same scripted response. It’s like they don’t even read the email, or acknowledge the issue.

The other known bug with Amazon Music (Ultra HD not playing when an individual speaker or stereo pair is bonded with a sub gen2) is at least acknowledged by support, but still outstanding after 3mths+ since the launch of Amazon Music hi-res on Sonos.

You can try forwarding these emails to: ceo@sonos.com

Userlevel 7

 

You can try forwarding these emails to: ceo@sonos.com


I did send an email to the ceo address after I initially received an automated response from the support email address saying the mailbox was no longer monitored. Not sure if that was due to not having an open ticket at the time, as it worked for my subsequent reply.