Full Equalizer?

Have you run TruePlay to tune your speakers to your room?

Hi Stanley.  Yes, I ran TruePlay for the Arc home theater system (Arc, 2x Subs, 2x Era 300), the Kitchen (Era 100), Family Room (Era 100), and the exercise room (Era 300).  The Era 300 is the one that sounds more ‘tinny’ than the others (and not with all songs, but enough to be noticeable).

Knocking down the highest highs just a bit would likely solve the problem (and I also have loudness turned off so as not to accentuate the highs).  FWIW, I have the Bass enhanced +5 and the Treble set to 0 (otherwise I lose too much of the midrange).  I’d simply set the highs down to -2 to -5 if they could be independently adjusted.

Hi @Alan-64 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

I would like to add to this. I would also like to see a 5-7 band equalizer. I noticed my hearing in my left ear has become problematic. Went to an audiologist and found my left ear has a significant drop at 4k Hz. To compensate for this, it was suggested boosting the 4k frequency up. So, besides allowing people to adjust the sound to their own taste, it would allow people like me to compensate for some hearing impairment issues. I also found myself needing closed captioning when watching TV, even with the Sonos Arc (my problem also makes it harder on picking up various words and sounds).

So TruPlay my help balance out the sound in the room, but an equalizer (beyond the bass and treble) would be a lot more helpful.

A detail that the audiologist may not have mentioned is that their testing does not usually include the higher frequencies. Typically they stop at 4K, maybe they’ll go to 8K. 

And I don’t know what your high frequency capability might be. For my father the top couple keys on a piano were simple mechanical thuds.

I’ll agree that typical treble controls might not be optimal for you because they will muck with things in the 2-4KHz region in addition to the extreme highs.

On my testing, it made a “V” between 2kHz and 8kHz, with the bottom point right at 4k. Where it bottomed out was right at the top of the “Moderately Severe” level (4 out of 6 on the scale). Right ear was normal throughout the range.

I would think this would be something easily coded into the software. They could even make a switch from Simple (Bass/Treble) to Advanced (7-band equalizer) so you can choose one or the other.

Isn't this discussion about to take a bit of a weird turn.

Sonos is not in the hearing aid business, these Sonos users who have been diagnosed with a hearing loss, they would have a much better quality of life, if they bought a hearing aid.

The hearing loss must also handicap them in their daily life and not only when they are listening to music on Sonos.

And I am not in favor of all possible expansions of the equalizer with a lot of adjustment options of frequency bands and equalizer presets, I have seen / heard it on other products and it has never done anything good for the sound.

Thank you for defining the product line of Sonos. Wasn’t asking them to make hearing aids and don’t presume to know about my or anybody else’s quality of life. I don’t need a hearing aid and I wasn’t speaking for all people with hearing issues as it seems you are. I was merely stating MY case for having an equalizer in the software so I (or others) can boost or decrease frequencies as needed. My suggestion was also making it switchable between the Bass and Treble and full equalizer. And if you want to use it, you can. If you don’t want to use it, then you don’t have to (same as the current bass and treble sliders).

If you think it took a weird turn, well I was merely explaining my result to another poster regarding the drop in the 4K range. That was all. Was just making MY point for the equalizer.

I wasn’t aware that hearing aids allow for boosting the volume of certain frequency ranges.  Is this a thing?  Regardless, it seems like a reasonable request (whether Sonos decides to implement or not) to ask for this so maybe you can listen to audio through the speakers without having to also where your hearing aid?

I’m not a hearing aid user and I don’t follow the market. Recently, regulations have been relaxed somewhat for the sale of hearing aids. As a result the market will broaden. Audiologist supplied hearing aids are individually adjusted for the patient’s deficiencies (frequency response and dynamics). User adjustments seem to be limited. I expect that there will be a new DIY class of product with available adjustments. With onboard processing and Bluetooth communication, user adjustment is practical. This was not the case in previous eras. This said, I don’t know if lack of audiologist involvement is in the best interest for all users/patients.