Volume normalization

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.

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.

Is there any other similar to Sonos in features make that offers this? It would be a big selling point if it did…

I agree that doing this would be far more useful than faffing around with the red herring of Hi Res audio, but I don't think any other make offers this either; it is not that easy to implement for music from streaming services, I suspect. 

Spotify offers this for music played on the phone, and it is then available on Sonos if the phone audio is sent to Sonos via bluetooth; but that is a clunky way when Spotify connect can move the music stream to Sonos - but via that mode, normalisation is lost.

 When can we  normalize the volume between songs?
This is a must to have for a system that’s build for streaming music.
 

There are actually two issues: “Normalization” and “Compression”.

Consider two tracks: Track 1 has levels that range from 2 through 8 and Track 2 has levels 3 through 10.

Normalizing can set the max levels to be equal. The result after normalization could be: Track 1: 3-9 and Track 2: 2 -9. However, the range of Track 2 is still wider than Track 1 and it is possible that the lower levels of Track 2 will disappear into the room noise. It is also possible that one note in Track 2 will be at 9 and overall Track 2 will still seem quieter than Track 1.

Compression attempts to limit the range. Track 1 could be compressed to: 5-8 and Track 2 compressed to 7-10.

Compression alone would still result in a level difference, but Track 2 could be normalized to 7-10.

Due to normalization with compression both tracks would likely sound similar.

Rock and Roll fans should consider what compression and normalization would do to the Speak to Me track on Dark Side of the Moon. Part of the fun in this album is its dynamics. It’s not quite the same album when compressed and normalized vs its original dynamics.

I think that this outcome is what most users asking for the feature would be fine with. It would retain dynamic differences - desirable - within a track, without having to reach for the volume control every few songs when overall one sounds louder or quieter to the extent that it intrudes on the listening experience.

The problem is that no one seems to be doing this well.

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.

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. 

How many requests do we need for Sonos to give priority to this?