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SONOS speakers largely under-exploited.


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SONOS speakers largely under-exploited. Being an audiophile for a long time, I notice that the qualities of the Sonos speakers are of great precision and of great quality. On the other hand it is spoiled at the level of the system which manages them, in effect the application does not offer in ANY WAY to adjust the sound to the top level with an equalizer (10 bands and +). Since every style of music is NOT EQUALS AT ALL, a professional sound system such as SONOS should give us the choice by offering us a QUALITY EQUALIZER option. This has not been the case for many years god knows why. It seems to me that it is not necessary to be an expert in sound to understand that if you want to listen to classical music, hip hop or even pop or country, each style of music requires its own configuration to have sound quality AND UNFORTUNATELY Sonos is ignoring this problem. 
Will there be someone one day who will eventually make SONOS understand how does a quality sound system work?
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Best answer by Xander P 13 May 2021, 16:50

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they should add us at least the slide to adjust the MID-RANGE. For me, this frequency breaks my ears, I hate it, I usually put it to a minimum and the sound is much more pleasant, it's my taste.

Are you suggesting that you cannot adjust the mid range on Sonos today via the two existing EQ sliders? What is it that you put to a minimum? And if, as you seem to say, that is to your taste, what is then the problem?

Not sure if it’s me, but I scrolled that user-review list/posts yesterday until I got fed up and then I searched all the posts on page for ‘Equalizer’ thinking that there might be some folk asking for that feature, but I couldn’t find a single post in the link provided🤔? I captured my search result of the scrolled pages (see attached). 

Most complaints there, seem to be more network related, but in fairness to the views expressed, there are many 4 & 5 star reviews from folk too who appear to love the App and their Sonos products.

It’s perhaps the old story of “…you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. 

Not one mention of ‘Equalizer’ however, perhaps that strongly ‘infers’ it’s not exactly a priority request from a majority of Sonos customers.

The very few calls I have seen around this topic, by users online, has been for EQ presets for different genres like Pop, Rock, Classical, Acoustic etc. In my own experience though when those presets are available most people seem to leave things switched off and just adjust their Bass and Treble.
So I guess that Sonos engineers may have much better things to do than create such features for such a tiny minority.

I’m sure Sonos may have the EQ development feature on a ‘to-do’ list somewhere, but as we all know they never (or very rarely) announce their intended development path anyway.

I took a programming course, it's not complicated 

I once played MS Flight Simulator.  Think I’ll go fly a real 747 - it’s not complicated. :rolling_eyes:

Because obviously here it seems that we are talking into the void, just with this post now of 25 comments I have seen absolutely no official representative of SONOS interested in our discussion, it confirms what I said since the beginning of this post.

Sonos has surely seen this thread already, and I’m a little surprised no one has posted the standard message that they appreciate the suggestion and will pass it on.  Perhaps they want to see where this thread ends up, if others share your point of view on it before chiming in.

 

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@melvimbe

Well the post unfortunately does not seem to lead to much unfortunately with low-end comments like @chicks .

 

@Ken_Griffiths

Ken just because you can't find complaints doesn't mean that users wouldn't be happy to have this feature, most people who have Sonos sound systems aren't even aware of this forum and aren't. not even registered. Just because there aren't enough complaints to your liking doesn't mean it shouldn't be considered. I did a search on google and in 5 seconds I found complaints, it is not just a question of scrolling a page randomly, it is obvious that the majority of people do not have time to think about equalizing it because most of them do not even manage to have a good connection with the system.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/gzcdbv/no_improved_eq_in_s2/

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Hi @Thewizard2000, thanks for raising this with the community!

While it’s not a particularly frequent request, further control via equalizer has been put forward as a feature request previously, and I can certainly understand that some users may want more granular control of the Sonos system.

(As an aside, part of the reason for jumping in late was indeed interest in where the conversation would go - rest assured we’ve noted your interest and have forwarded it to the development team :slight_smile: )

 

@Ken_Griffiths

Ken just because you can't find complaints doesn't mean that users wouldn't be happy to have this feature, most people who have Sonos sound systems aren't even aware of this forum and aren't. not even registered. Just because there aren't enough complaints to your liking doesn't mean it shouldn't be considered. I did a search on google and in 5 seconds I found complaints, it is not just a question of scrolling a page randomly, it is obvious that the majority of people do not have time to think about equalizing it because most of them do not even manage to have a good connection with the system.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/gzcdbv/no_improved_eq_in_s2/

 

Ken searched for the word ‘equalizer’ on the link you provided and found nothing.  He wasn’t looking on the Sonos forum.  Not sure how you managed to find complaints in 5 seconds, following your link, but either you just assumed they were there and didn’t confirm, searched for much longer than 5 seconds, or didn’t think anyone else would actually look.  

And for the record, if you search on the forums for ‘equalizer’, it’s not that hard to find people with the same request as you.  Whether that equates to a ‘pile of complaints’ compares to other feature requests…

And as far as the claim that people are too busy complaining about connections to be able to complain about the EQ...if that were the case, then Sonos would be a miserable failure of a company, long since out of business, rather than beating market revenue expectations.

There is nothing wrong with personally wanting a better EQ.  It’s just the attempt to make it bigger than you’re own want, as a severely lack in the product that millions of other users are clamoring for….there just isn’t evidence of that.

 

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There is nothing wrong with personally wanting a better EQ.

 

@melvimbe

The goal is not to have a better equalizer, but rather to have the BASIS which includes 3 slides: BASS, MID, HIGH. I think I've explained myself enough, I'm sick of repeating myself, I trust the Sonos team and I'm happy with the answer they gave me, I trust them for the next updates. Thank you

There is nothing wrong with personally wanting a better EQ.

 

@melvimbe

The goal is not to have a better equalizer, but rather to have the BASIS which includes 3 slides: BASS, MID, HIGH. I think I've explained myself enough, I'm sick of repeating myself, I trust the Sonos team and I'm happy with the answer they gave me, I trust them for the next updates. Thank you

Hadn’t realized you downgraded your requested from 10 bands + to 3 bands.

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Hi All

Although I don’t remember the exact figure (I was told once and it’s not written down anywhere that I have access to), TruePlay is (among other things) a frequency band equaliser containing a lot more than 10 frequency band distinctions. It might be over 100. You wouldn’t want all those in an app, and we wouldn’t want to present them!

Personally, I’m not interested in any more than Treble, Bass and Loudness being there, and I have never liked the EQ presets on any system (Pop, Rock, Classic, Concert etc). Variable Loudness - which I once had on a Yamaha Hi-Fi - is nice though.

Yep, DSP allows convolution filters, WAY more granularity than those old outdated analog slider things. I’ve never used those silly EQ presets either - they do absolutely nothing about room nodes, which Trueplay and other room correction systems are all about. 

For now, OP will better served by a discussion on how best to use the features that ARE present to tweak what he wishes to - the mid-range. Over to him...since he seems to think for some reasonthat this is not possible.

Being an audiophile for a long time, I notice that the qualities of the Sonos speakers are of great precision and of great quality.

And since you claim this, here is some constructive advice for you to take or discard. 

Sonos speakers are not tuned by Sonos to be any different than how the typical modern day home HiFi speaker is tuned in the design stage. All are meant to deliver a natural sounding mid range in the typical home albeit with a slightly boosted bass for the warmth that most listeners prefer, when the EQ controls are set to flat. This is different from how studio monitors are tuned for studio applications - these usually sound sterile/bass light in the home.

But all rooms are not alike, hence Sonos also provides the two EQ controls for tweaking, that are enough for most Sonos users, even for those that are familiar with very high end - read that as expensive - home audio equipment. Beyond that, there is Trueplay tuning, that can be turned off if you don’t agree with the Sonos opinion of how the speaker should sound in your room.

If none of this delivers what you want, there is something very unique about your room acoustics, or what you prefer as a sonic signature, and Sonos speakers are not for you. Nor will many modern day HiFi speakers be. And this situation will not change merely by the addition of a mid range control in the Sonos menu.

Unless, as I think you say elsewhere, you want the midrange slider just because the system in your car has it. In that case, you have to wait for Sonos to deliver it, or get another system that has it.

 

 If Sonos does not want to hear anything then just AT LEAST put us a slide to control the mid-range, at least I will have the feeling to have the equivalent of settings as in my old car.

My memory isn't all wrong; the quoted conveys a sense to me that you want this on Sonos because your old car has it.

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@Kumar

Kumar, I don't understand why you are trying to ridicule the fact that I want a mid-range slide just because my car has one. Obviously you did not understand anything of my words which was simply to make you understand that having a 3 choice of adjustment is NORMALLY the basis of things as in all the other daily devices that I use and that all people use . There are people who like it flat, there are people who like the treble sound to smash the eardrums, there are people who like it with a lot of bass, there are people who don't like bass at all and there are people like me who like to slow down the midrange. I understand that Sonos does not want to elaborate on a precision equalizer to facilitate the user experience and I respect their choices, but Sonos should provide us a minimum of 3 sound adjustment slides as mentioned above and I believe Sonos got it and I trust them with the following.

I am happy for you. Over and out.

Variable Loudness - which I once had on a Yamaha Hi-Fi - is nice though.

@Corry P What’s that or...how does that work?

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@Kumar

Kumar, I don't understand why you are trying to ridicule the fact that I want a mid-range slide just because my car has one. Obviously you did not understand anything of my words which was simply to make you understand that having a 3 choice of adjustment is NORMALLY the basis of things as in all the other daily devices that I use and that all people use... I understand that Sonos does not want to elaborate on a precision equalizer to facilitate the user experience and I respect their choices, but Sonos should provide us a minimum of 3 sound adjustment slides as mentioned above...

@Thewizard2000   I’ve followed this thread, and your comments still leave me wondering: if Sonos has a feature missing, which is such an essential one to you, why buy Sonos products? There are so many hifi and audiophile products available and all the others of them that you’ve bought have at least 3 tone adjustments, except Sonos. Why get Sonos speakers?

@nik9669a : (this post is not meant for the OP.)..why get Sonos speakers? Could it be, from the opening post, this quoted? 

I notice that the qualities of the Sonos speakers are of great precision and of great quality.

Which is why the rest of his beef with Sonos is so puzzling and pointless. I mean, how much can a mid range slider do, to improve this state of affairs that the existing controls can’t?

But, I give up.

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Hi @Kumar

Variable Loudness - which I once had on a Yamaha Hi-Fi - is nice though.

@Corry P What’s that or...how does that work?

The Yamaha had an adjustable Loudness control, and as far as I remember, the instructions went along these lines:

  • Turn up the volume to the highest level you’re ever likely to have it
  • Adjust the Loudness so the bass and treble sound balanced
  • Turn down the volume and never touch the Loudness control again

 

For those who don’t know, the Loudness control on audio equipment is to address the fact that bass and treble balance differently at low volumes, and bass needs to be boosted when the volume is low.

I believe many people just opted to keep Loudness on, and this gave rise to the common Bass Boost features/controls in the ‘80s.

@Corry P Got it thanks, I thought it to auto adjust the volume levels based on the sound levels in the room. Now there is a suggestion for Sonos that has merit:-).

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@nik9669a

It's just because I want a wireless system and I want a system that works with the smartphone. Also I want the speakers to be small and I wanted them black (blackout). So Sonos was the one that interested me but I didn't check all the controls and settings possible before buying. I told myself that all the basic functionality should be there for the price. I believe that Bose does not have a mid-range as well, I find it unfortunate that year after year the user is made to fit into the cake mold and we always lose things for no reason. Normally the more possibilities there are the more interesting the product are, now nowadays it seems that it has become the norm to lighten things as much possible for average Joe.

You may benefit from creating your own system, then, rather than relying on some large corporation who has to make a profit and doesn’t have your specific needs at heart. 

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Sonos don’t feature it, Bose don’t feature it; nor do Naim or Bluesound, as I understand it. Perhaps there’s a reason no one is offering it? 

@nik9669a

It's just because I want a wireless system and I want a system that works with the smartphone. Also I want the speakers to be small and I wanted them black (blackout). So Sonos was the one that interested me but I didn't check all the controls and settings possible before buying. I told myself that all the basic functionality should be there for the price. I believe that Bose does not have a mid-range as well, I find it unfortunate that year after year the user is made to fit into the cake mold and we always lose things for no reason. Normally the more possibilities there are the more interesting the product are, now nowadays it seems that it has become the norm to lighten things as much possible for average Joe.

Sonos is not a charity for the benefit of persons who self-identify as audiophiles. Sonos presumably includes features that enough Average Joes will value and use.

What you regard as 'basic functionality' is something I regard as useless at best. Let's just agree to differ.