No individual volumes for hubbed speakers

  • 1 February 2019
  • 19 replies
  • 537 views

Hi There,

I just got a Sonos One, which allows me to hub with my old Play:3 so I can run everything of Airplay. Theoretically.

I have successfully hubbed the 2 speakers, however, I don’t see where you can adjust the 2 individual volumes of the speakers in iTunes or in the Sonos app. But there must be a way since the two speakers put out vastly different volumes in vastly different rooms and that can’t be the intention. All I can do it check and uncheck speaker in the hub.

Running the app on an iPad Pro.

Thank you.

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19 replies

Would you please explain what you mean by “hub” and “hubbed”?

Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure what you mean by that.

If you “group” the two rooms, using Sonos parlance, then you should be able to AirPlay 2 to the Sonos One, and have the same content play on the PLAY:3 in sync, and have the ability to adjust each room’s volume in the Sonos controller, in the same way as any other set of “grouped” rooms.
Sorry, meant group. The volume controls are not appearing.
When using the controller app, the bottom of the window will have a single slider. When you select that slider, it should then pop up separate sliders, one for each grouped room.
Badge +1
I don't want to adjust the volume in the room, I want to adjust the volume of an individual speaker.

My 5.1 surround sound is ineffective as the rear speaker volume is too low.
You can adjust the volume of the rear speakers, in ...More>Settings>Room Settings>[Room name of your surround system]>Advanced Audio>Surround Settings.

Also in the same area is a "balance" feature.
Badge +1
First, are you kidding me? 7 levels of menus to get to a setting to change the volume?

Changing the volume is such a basic feature, it should be high on the menu hierarchy.

Secondly, your instructions do do work, at least not on Android.

Following your instructions, I get



With no way to adjust the volume of individual or even the rear speakers.

It's pretty obvious that:

1) Sonos doesn't really support Android well
2) You design your apps without direct customer involvement

Thanks for the fast reply.

Peter
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
Ok, calm down and relax. This is a Users forum and it’s folk like Airgetlam trying to help new users.

In that menu menu you’ve opened, change Surrounds Music Playback to “Full” and you’ll get much more volume from those rear speakers.

Try ray that first, then if you have milord questions, ask them.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
Sorry for autocorrect- last sentence should read

Try that first, then if you have more questions, ask them.

😜
1) what version of the controller are you using?

2) While you may be angry with Sonos, I am not an employee of Sonos, and consequently had no hand in designing or implementing the design of the app, so your accusations are misplaced.
Badge +1
Sorry all,

I should have guessed that SONOS doesn't answer questions directly.

My fault.

Controller: Sonos ID 122722710 Version 10.2.1 (build 50165140).

I will give the "music" setting a shot, but it still doesn't address the inability to adjust individual speaker volume or explain why volume adjustment is seven levels into the menu hierarchy.

One easy work-around for Sonos would be to allow an option to NOT adjust the volume on all speakers when the +/- is used on one speaker. Right now, if I hit + on the low-volume speaker, ALL the volumes go up. I understand how some people might like that in order to keep the system "calibrated" (Don't even get me started on that), but a simple Do/Don't setting that would disable that "feature" would make it at least possible to adjust individual speaker volume manually without relying on the ill-designed android app.

I'll let you know if the MUSIC setting helps.

And yes, I *am* angry that I spent $2000 on a system that doesn't offer basic functionality like volume settings or even a simple "off" switch.

Peter.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
As had already been said, this Community area is a Users forum. Other users offer help and advice based on their knowledge or experiences, and some Sonos staff may also see and respond to posts.

It is not the Sonos Support forum.

If you want support direct from Sonos it is available, but not here.
pmantos,

You will get noticeable sound from your Sonos HT Surround speakers when playing a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound audio stream, you won’t get much from the rears when simply playing a PCM stereo audio TV programme. Setting the speakers to 'Full' instead of 'Ambient' will only apply to music audio, rather than the TV audio output. So check the 'surround sound' output by playing a DD 5.1 movie (perhaps try Netflix etc.)
Badge +1
Thanks, but even if using the "music" setting (7 levels into the menu) "solves" my problem for a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound audio stream such a Netflix DVD, it emphasizes the fact that I cannot change the volume on individual speakers when playing "other" things, like music from my Sonos Connect, MP3's off my phone, the nightly news, or Youtube off my Roku, etc., People have a lot more uses for their SONOS surround sound systems than listening to actual surround sound streams.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
I’m still a little unsure why you want to change the volume from a single speaker in a HT setup?

In all 3 home theatre systems i’ve owned, I’ve positioned the speakers, run a setup or calibration process, and then used the system. The rear speakers in the first 2 systems were good speakers but only received surround signals. When listening to music it played through the main FL and FR speakers in stereo. I could opt to process the source to play through all speakers but it was then not a pure signal.

With my Sonos Playbar and One’s as rear surrounds, I can listen to music and have the Ones play the full source or contribute an ambient sound. To change the volume from any one speaker, were it possible, would upset the balance of sound meaning Trueplay would need to be run again.

If you want your rears to be the main speakers when listening to music, you could set them up as a stereo pair rather than as surrounds, but then you don’t have a 5.1 HT system.
Badge +1
I cannot run trueplay on an android
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
But you can select Full rather than Ambient sound. Have you tried that yet?
Badge +1
Thanks. Yes, I tried the Full versus Ambient and the difference was negligible.

One person asks why would I want to change the volume on an individual speaker The answer is because I am not satisfied with the current settings and volume settings and would like to customize it to my tastes.

Sonos advertises as being android compatible, yet I cannot calibrate using the Android app. I cannot calibrate the speaker volume and I cannot adjust them. That's a problem. Even if I could calibrate, I would be calibrating via their algorithms versus my personal preferences.

To mitigate this problem, Sonos should add the following:
1) An "off" button on the app as it is not obvious how to turn it off in android.
2) An optional setting whereby manually adjusting the speaker volume (using +/- on the physical speaker) does not affect the volume of other speakers.
3) A balance function when using one or more speakers. (A previous message on this thread said that a "...More>Settings>Room Settings>[Room name of your surround system]>Advanced Audio>Surround Settings. ... is a "balance" feature", but I did not see one.)
4) A fade function when using one or more than two speakers.

I am surprised more people aren't outraged that these simple and obvious user functions are missing. These functions are available in a $100 car stereo, but not in a $2000 Sonos. It's sad that SONOS keeps adding all kinds of features to a very confusing and deep set of menus, but won't ask customers what they want. As an example of a company that does otherwise, I gave Sirius feedback through its app to add a sleep timer and was happy to see it added by them within a couple of months.

Does anyone know how get these features onto SONOS' radar? If SONOS uses AGILE software development, I would love to submit a few "User Stories" for them to include in a future release.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
I’m surprised the difference was negligible, but it is what it is.

it seems that Sonos doesn’t have the right product for your needs.
Badge +1
I took another look at "Full" versus "Ambient" last night while my visiting brother-in-law was watching what must have been a 5.1. stream. Yes, the music coming from the two rear speakers was louder in FULL mode.

No Sonos does NOT have the right product for my needs. They speakers work well, but their android software and documentation stinks from a user perspective. Set-up is NOT wireless as advertised. It is a miserable process involving hard resets to temporarily re-purpose a speaker; for example, stealing a play one from a surround sound to bring to the back yard for the afternoon and then reintegrating back into the surround sound. The app is missing basic controls mentioned above including lack of an off switch, balance, and fade. The system cannot be calibrated using Android, not can individual speaker volume be set using the app or even manually. The menu system is very deep finding a function is hard.

Because of these issues, I think SONOS is a crummy product and that I have been deceived out of $2000 for a system that is lacking and which could be easily fixed by systematically incorporating user input into software design process.