Lower minumum volume level


Userlevel 3
The lowest volume is too high. I'd like to make use of the sleep-function of the play 3. Works flawlessly, but the lowest volume is still too high. Please set the lowest volume to be less loud, so i can fall asleep peacefully with some music.

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143 replies

A whole two months? Considering the next release is in public beta right now and this feature is not on it, your expectations (not to mention knowledge of software development cycles) are a little unrealistic. Also, I'm very familiar with the lowest volume settings as I listen to sleep music every night, and in my opinion the volume goes quite low. I cannot help but think that if your ears are sensitive enough that the lowest setting is still too loud for background music, you are probably not going to find a competitor that goes low enough.
So what is wrong in not using a product that does not fit my requirements? As an engineer, I know, that you can always turn volume lower. The main question is if this is possible to implement in the software/firmware or it is a hardware limitation.
If releasing a software hotfix takes Sonos 2 months then they should think about optimizing their software development cycles. I would help if the software were open source, but it is not, so I may only request a fix.
So what is wrong in not using a product that does not fit my requirements? As an engineer, I know, that you can always turn volume lower. The main question is if this is possible to implement in the software/firmware or it is a hardware limitation.
If releasing a software hotfix takes Sonos 2 months then they should think about optimizing their software development cycles. I would help if the software were open source, but it is not, so I may only request a fix.


Nobody said there was anything wrong with not using the product or getting rid of it if it does not fit your needs. I would recommend it, in fact. However, to expect this to be fixed in 2 months time, or to expect them to listen to a couple posters in this thread and interpret this as a widespread complaint affecting a large number of users, is a little overboard. As I said, I find the lowest volume setting, when set by tapping on the right of the slider when set to zero volume, to be more than low enough for sleep sounds, never mind background music in an office. You may be more sensitive than that, but I doubt you are going to find a competitor with a volume control matched to your personal sensitivities, which seem to be beyond the norm.

As to 2 months being too long for a software fix? Sonos likes to release software which works, is complete, and is tested in full; unlike the last multi-room streamer that used Open Source.
I understand, that you find the lowest setting okay 🙂 How loud you hear it depends on multiple factors, maybe I have it too close to my bed (1.5m)? Nevermind. I do not expect Sonos to fulfil my wishes in 2 months or at all. Two months is not a deadline for Sonos, this is a deadline for me. And regarding the competitor, if there isn't any then I will live without a speaker.
Would be great indeed if the minimum volume could be lower and selected in smaller steps. It's just too loud for a comfortable bedtime tune.
Userlevel 1
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+1 they are simply too loud (listening Spotify or radio stations, no TV input)
Userlevel 5
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Any news from Sonos on this? Any news at all? Volume management for an hifi system is core.
I find I can manage the volume fine. Can you remind me what the problem is please?
Userlevel 1
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John, the lowest volume is still too loud and cannot be used in a bedroom.
Then my hearing must be very poor. Lowest volume (slide to zero, tap once on bar) is almost inaudible to me unless I'm quite close. I'm not disputing that this is an issue for you, but I can understand it not being top of Sonos' priority list too.
John B, indeed, your hearing is poor or your bedroom noisy 🙂. It's truly not nice to have music on Sonos 1 in the bedroom. What unit do you use?
Userlevel 7
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I've got a Play 1 in my bedroom on the table right next to my bed. I set the radio to play in the evening and mornings by an Alarm and is set at level 27. In the mornings and evenings it is set to speech radio and I certainly don't find the volume too loud.

Get yourself a Sound Pressure Level meter and take some measurements with some reference tracks.
I'm with Stuart and John on this issue. I have two Play-1’s in my average-sized-bedroom, set as a stereo pair and the first touch of the slider volume control is not too loud at all and that is with two speakers. My wife and I get up at 6am most mornings and we can still hear the birds singing in the garden as we listen to the radio etc.

I have perfect hearing, as far as I know. I have no issue with any other audio devices in the bedroom or other rooms of my premises, such as TV radio etc. If anything other relatives and guests to my home often may ask for me to raise the volume on my TV (and other devices) when they visit. So I am quite happy that my hearing is fine, by all accounts.

I think you must have over-sensitive hearing sti/mjamin... or maybe a faulty speaker... or perhaps even lots of hard surfaces in a small bedroom that is reflecting the sound towards you. I certainly do not find the Play-1 speaker too loud at its minimum setting.
Userlevel 5
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Turn the "Loudness" setting to off.

I have noticed at night when I am sleeping my PLAY:5 (Gen2)'s and PLAY:1's are slightly too loud for my liking but that's with the speakers basically right beside the bed. In this instance I turn off the "Loudness" setting and the volume is more normal, nothing is boosted or overplayed. If the bass end up being too cut turn it up in the EQ menu.
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Hey kmjy,

thank you. We've already turned off Loudness and turned the EQ levels to minimum and it's still too loud.

Again, everyone has a different feeling on this, but looking in the average no one uses the Sonos above 60%. Why not making it simply more "sensitive" to satisfy all users.

Regards
Sti
Userlevel 7
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I'd be interested in a Sonos response to this and what the volume gradient is between devices. I was listening to my Play 1 in bed late at night at the weekend and had it low. The wife said to turn it down and I pushed the hard button once and it was silent. Up again and I'd say it was too loud to consider it to be quietest it should be capable of. I'd never describe it as 'loud' but can imagine other use cases where it may be desirable to go quieter. If I remember I'll try it tonight to see how the lowest setting compares on that - as I'm sure its higher volumes come much higher on the volume bar in comparison. It may even go up to 11..
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I mean I will try it on my Gen 2 Play 5.
Userlevel 7
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Just tried it on my Play Gen 2. Turned the volume right down on the unit and then pressed 'Up' once. I thought I hadn't done it properly but when I got my head in close it was playing - but much quieter than the same thing on the Play 1.
As I said earlier, it's not at all 'loud' on the Play 1 - it's really quiet. But in a quiet room or late at night it's certainly far more noticeable than the 'same' position on the Play 5.
There seems to be a lot of negativity around this issue but I'm going to add my 2c just to confirm that there are others out there struggling with this.

We've had our Play 1 for about two years now, it was set to replace our older Logitech Smart Radio for quiet 'off to sleep' listening. We were attracted by the Google Play Music support. Unfortunately the Sonos unit has sat unused for the vast majority of this period and we are still to this day using the Logitech instead.

The minimum volume level is quite simply too loud for this listening scenario in our case, and as others have mentioned already, the scale is dramatically tilted towards the loud end, where granularity is far less important. On decreasing the volume, it really feels like there should be another step or 5 before complete silence hits.

If this is not a problem for your particular scenario, then great. But it undeniably makes the product unusable for those of us who bought it with this specific purpose in mind. I otherwise love the unit, so my disappointment is doubly so as it's truly a great product otherwise.

I've been hoping for an update that might help with this for ages now. I know it's a somewhat niche request so my hopes were never that high. Sadly I suspect we will have to look for an alternative solution.
Userlevel 7
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I've had my Play 1 in my bedroom for 2 or 3 years and the Radio (BBC 5 Live) plays me to sleep every single night. Radio comes on with an alarm at level 27 and I am more than happy with the volume level.

I did buy this Play 1 as a direct replacement for an alarm clock radio so my experience makes your statement factually incorrect (proud pact unusable for those of us who bought it for this purpose).
Look, I specifically mentioned it was too loud for the listening scenario in our case, what more do you want from me? Honestly, I can't see why you would even care, if the situation is not a problem for you. The product obviously works well in the majority of cases for the majority of users. No one is denying this. Perhaps my following comments seemed broad brush but my intention was always that the issue was situation specific.

Unfortunately, no product is perfect for everyone, and one thing I can objectively say is that our previously mentioned Logitech unit has substantially more granularity at the low end than the Play 1. This is particularly noticeable between the Play's 0 and 1 volume setting. For us, and apparently others given the basis for this thread, this makes the product unsuitable for this purpose for us. Who knows, maybe our units are just different, although I feel like the QA on these would be tight particularly given the ability to do stereo setups, so I find this unlikely.

This is not an attack on the product, or Sonos, or you. It is simply our experience. If it's viable for this functionality to be tweaked in the product, then I'd love for this to be on Sonos's radar. If we don't make these comments, how will they ever know that this is an issue for some of their users? If they are unable to do anything about it, or choose not to, that's fine. The only reason I'm even here, or found this post in the first place, is because I did my 6 monthly search hoping someone had found a workaround for this exact issue.
Userlevel 1
I am a new user of 4 Sonos play 1 speakers. I am having the same issue. The volume is slightly too loud for me at night at its lowest setting. Keep in mind that loudness of volume is a bit subjective -- so this is probably fine for others but for those of us who have posted, it is a true problem. I wake up with a headache listening to my play 1 at its lowest volume.

I am seeing such important feature request on this forum go for many years without solutions or acknowledgment. Some companies have a policy that if a feature can garner a certain amount of votes by the users, it goes in the Queue for implementation. Salesforce is one such company. The problem here, is that Sonos remains completely quiet while these feature request go from year to year, and it thus leaves dissatisfied users with no alternative but to conclude that Sonos does not listen to its customers. That is, unfortunately my impression.

The other day I tweated with Sonos about another important feature request that has been out there for more than five years (the ability to save group settings) and their position is that they don't comment on possible features for the product. The reaction I had was to immediately go ahead and ordered a Samsung and Google Chromcast to compare for possible replacement. I am a new user and I should not have been given reason to want to search for an alternative at this early stage. I was planning to purchase another 6 play ones to complete my setup, and now my wife doesn't want to incur that expense after noticing that the feature requests are being ignored. She hates the fact that she cannot save group settings, for example, and for me, I need the lowest volume to be lower.

Until I see that Sonos becomes more interactive with its customers when it comes to issues and feature requests, I will nnot invest anymore of my money in this platform, and for that matter, if I enjoy the other two products I ordered, I am definitely on my way out.

Until I see that Sonos becomes more interactive with its customers when it comes to issues and feature requests, I will nnot invest anymore of my money in this platform, and for that matter, if I enjoy the other two products I ordered, I am definitely on my way out.

I agree that Sonos could be more responsive/interactive than what they are - but good luck in finding any other make that is as responsive, let alone more so.
Some customers are impossible to please and are better left to leave and go bother another products support staff.
Userlevel 1
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I agree the lower minimum is extremely difficult to control and is way to loud some usage. I don't think this requires huge engineering! Quite easy to implement