Sound imbalance between dialogue, music and other sounds

  • 5 February 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 648 views

Like many others, I'm struggling with my Sonos speakers while watching movies or TV. I have to turn it way up to hear dialogue and then turn it down when there is an action sequence or music. Looks as if this has been a problem for years now and I'm wondering if Sonos has addressed this with any updates. And before you ask if I've tried night mode or adjusting my EQ, the answer is yes, but it's not fixing the problem. The big question is why would you need to do that in the first place? If this is a big issue for so many, why not just make this work out of the box? Either that, or just STOP telling people this works as a surround sound...because you know what, it just doesn't. Any NEW ideas or expected fixes for this? If not, I'm ready to move away from Sonos.

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1 reply

Unfortunately, unless there's an issue with your setup (for instance, the Sonos speaker is receiving a stereos signal rather than a true Dolby Digital signal) there's not much that Sonos can do. They are playing the signal that is encoded, and have minimal settings in order to change them, due to the fact that it's supposed to be done properly at the source, not at the player level. They've added things like night mode, and speech enhancement, but the amount of change that these make is relatively small.

You may want to check to make sure that your system is receiving a true Dolby Digital signal, by going in to settings, and choosing "about my Sonos system", and looking at the Audio In line for your particular soundbar. It should say Dolby Digital 5.1, rather than anything else.

The other option you have is to submit a system diagnostic, and either post the number here, or contact Sonos to discuss it. There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.