Feature request: "Default volume level"

  • 15 August 2015
  • 9 replies
  • 1364 views

Userlevel 2
It would be *very* useful to have the option to define a sound volume level that each Sonos unit would default to every time music is starting (not only after power has been switched off and on again).

E.g. this way I avoid my young son getting chocked when he starts playing some children’s music at the sound level last night’s party ended at… :)

Kind regards
Michael

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9 replies

It's a nice idea, but I suspect it would be pretty unusable in practice. The main issue is around the definition of "every time music is starting" as this is, at best, fuzzy.

Having had a number of birthday parties for teenagers and older where Sonos provided the music, I can tell you that the music was started and stopped and restarted numerous times during the celebrations, and it would have put a severe damper on the party if, every time it did, the volume dropped down to a "reasonable level".

A more useful approach would be to have the unit revert to a specific volume at a specific time which could be defined by the user to be whatever they like. So you could set it to reset the volume at 4am every day, for instance.

The good news, is such a capability already exists on Sonos via the Alarms. Basically you can set an alarm to go off at a particular time (say, 4am) with a specified volume and specified content. Set the alarm for 15 minutes and give it a track of silence to play so it doesn't disturb anyone) and, voila, the volume will be reset. You can define multiple alarms for different zones at different times.

Cheers,

Keith
... and, voila, the volume will be reset. You can define multiple alarms for different zones at different times

Creative - I like it 😃
Userlevel 2
Hi Keith

I have been a very pleased with the way I was able to configure default volume levels in each room with my pervious B&O link system.
I do see your point – Sonos is a completely other way of thinking. On and Off (from “the old way” of thinking) vs. Sonos’ Paus and Play are not similar system states.
And your suggested approach works too. It is however a workaround which clutters up the list of alarms configured. Having several people waking up by sounds from Sonos at different point in times throughout the week, one more alarm per room will not do any good for the simplicity and overview of the alarms.

So combining the best of both suggestions might give the R&D folks with Sonos input to consider for future releases.
One combination could be:
• Reset the volume level to the desired %, as you describe. Just having is as a system setting, this way avoiding “ghost alarms” for this purpose.
• An option to this feature could be to define a specific point in time to do the volume level reset (e.g. 4am as per your example) *or* define an idle period after which volume level should be set to the pre-defined default level (e.g. after 60 min of idle time).

I am sure this would add a lot of sense to the Sonos user community.

Kind regards
Michael
I would like to see this as a feature request "Add the option to set a preset start-up volume when switching from a Music Source to TV and from TV stand-by."
When switching sources makes a lot of sense to me.

Cheers,

Keith
I think that when switching to a line-in source a default volume should be able to be set. Line-in can trigger the Sonos on currently and it's the only source that doesn't require opening the app to start audio. Therefore it's a prime candidate for this behavior. Another reason for this to be a starting point for this feaure request is that there is already a configuration screen for Line-in behavior - so default volume level could easily be added to this screen without having to tackle the bigger UI/UX question of how this can apply to every software audio source. Tackle it first at the hardware level then expand from there if demand persists.
+1 this is a must. I just switched from a Yamaha SoundBar and concept of "presets" was amazing where you could set default volume among other things. Pretty much any AV receiver / high end sound bar has this type of feature. Multiple presets should be supported and should span volume and EQ settings.
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
I +1 this too, exactly what I’ve been asking for too...
Happy to finally join this group and discover I wasn't turning into an old luddite because no matter how many ways i looked to set the default volume on surround sound i coudn't find it, and, more importantly, it never occurred to me that this feature was actually unavailable.
Has a commitment been made to get this into an upcoming release, i plead?
also, forgive me if this has been answered in some other part of this support database.