Volume normalization

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.

That’s a pretty strong and ignorant statement.  While it is true that within an album there can be intentional large volume differences between tracks it is quite normal for lower volume “casual” listening to normalize the volume.  In fact pretty much every radio station has been doing just that for at least 30 years.

All we’re asking for is the OPTION to normalize volume during playback.  I listen to a large variety of music and often at lower volumes to make it more comfortable for the rest of my family.  It’s frustrating to have to constantly twiddle the volume when going from a quiet track that was recorded in the 60’s or 70’s to a super loud track from a modern album.

@jmpage2 : if you use the spotify app to control the music play, and connect to a target Sonos speaker from within that app, does volume normalisation not work?

Does this mean that normalisation is possible for the local library resident on the NAS? If yes, what stops Sonos from doing this in an effective way?

IMO, instead of faffing around with the Hi Res red herrings and hype, this feature, be it for local stored music or for streamed music would make a real difference to elevate the listening experience. I have said just this on this community years ago, that Sonos should do this instead of spending development resources on silly UI cosmetic changes that we have to periodically suffer.

I completely get what has been said about building a playlist with consistent sound levels as a choosing criteria; that is why I never use mixed source playlists like for instance Apple Music and local NAS. And why I often have to edit a playlist to delete a liked track that still becomes an issue because it can't be heard at volume levels that are correct for the large majority in the list; and the whole idea of a playlist is to have it play without user intervention.

And to repeat a question - when music play is initiated from the Spotify native app and cast to a Sonos speaker via the native app, does this normalisation become available and if so, is it effective?

Further while I agree this should be optional where different sound levels from one track to next from one album are by design as for classical music, I fail to see why normalisation in general has “butchering” effect on sound quality. And the “Connect no longer bit perfect” thing has nothing to do with this; who says this has not understood that very trivial issue.

I see that when Spotify plays on my phone, volume normalisation is turned on; but as soon as the music is transferred to a Sonos speaker, the part of settings is greyed out and no longer accessible. Why that should be the case is a mystery unless the normalisation is being done in the phone where music is being played on it. In which case, it will be available for bluetooth wireless play from the phone, but not from the supposedly better quality way of playing it via Spotify Connect+Sonos.

Who is this down to - Spotify or Sonos?

Don’t know as it’s not really my use case.

I bought the Sonos system so I could control it with Alexa voice assistant.  I set up a separate Spotify account on my Premium Family plan for it so that anyone in the home could listen to whatever they wanted with voice control and it wouldn’t affect my own playback in my car or on my headphones.

It is a pretty basic feature and could be done completely separate from Spotify just within the Sonos hardware so I’m somewhat baffled it’s not available.

I would think it isn’t something Sonos can do because it doesn't know what's coming down the pipe. But the Alexa initiated play is also something like Spotify Connect in the sense that Spotify knows what is being piped to Sonos at all times, so why this should not work as it - I suppose - does when music is playing via Spotify on the phone, isn't down to Sonos, I suggest.

And when it does work, is volume normalisation really effective? In the car or on headphones, playing from the phone, does it do a good job of maintaining sound levels the same in a long playlist?

Volume normalization is very highly effective and has been used in terrestrial and satellite radio for decades. 
 

it does change the audio quality but this isn’t much of a concern for casual BG listening. 

Where radio is concerned, it has to be getting done at the radio station then, not in the receiver. If the analogy applies, Spotify has to do this, and not Sonos.

Hey @Edward R 

can you tell us what did the department needed for this functionality respond when this issue was reiterated with them? What are the limitations and reasons why the normalisation doesn’t exist yet? How is this feature prioritised - near top of the backlog or somewhere down the line?

Thanks!