Getting better volume from One SL

  • 24 January 2023
  • 9 replies
  • 664 views

I have had the Sonos Arc for the better part of a year. 
I recently purchased 2 One SL speakers to get a better surround sound feel. 
I connected all 3 of the devices, but the One SL speakers put out very minimal sound. I went through the forum to increase the volume, but it did not work.
 

Does anyone in the community know how to get the volume on these 2 speakers to increase?

Thanks!


9 replies

Userlevel 7

Under the Arc’s settings in the Sonos app, go to Surround Audio and adjust the TV and Music Level settings. It is also usually recommended to set Music Playback to FULL.

Also, if you want to get the most out of your surround speakers, try to play 5.1 audio sources rather than stereo sources. When playing TV audio, the Now Playing screen in the Sonos app will display which audio format is currently playing.

Thanks for the quick response. When I go through the settings that you mentioned, this is what I am getting. It is not allowing me to change the volume.

 

Also. I am not finding the 5.1 audio option anywhere.

 

thanks for your help!

 

Userlevel 7

The TV Level and Music Level sliders allows you to change the surround audio levels for TV and music playback. If you want the audio levels for the surround speakers to be louder, increase the levels by moving the sliders to the right.

Find a movie or TV show with 5.1 audio. Any of the popular streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, or HBO Max will have 5.1 audio. Look at the Now Playing screen in the Sonos app to see what audio format is playing:

 

That's the settings screen.  The format will be displayed on the Room screen, aka the Now Playing screen.

When watching a 5.1 movie, the surround speakers are under the director’s control. Many movies use the rear speakers in subtle ways, rather than smacking you in the back of the head. A movie such as “Top Gun” with very active surround is a good first choice when freshly installing surround sound.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I think I figured it out!

The whole surround sound stuff is new to me.

 

The SLs seems to put out a lot of the background audio, while the ARC is where you get more of the “vocals”.

Is that right? Or do the SLs put out voice audio as well?

When watching a 5.1 movie, the film’s director controls the rears. When playing music both front and rear will be regular stereo.

Userlevel 7
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As said it depends on the director, they could put everything on the surrounds if they wanted to, or skip using them entirely.

Many sources have the voices mainly on the center channel with some left/right output.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I think I figured it out!

The whole surround sound stuff is new to me.

 

The SLs seems to put out a lot of the background audio, while the ARC is where you get more of the “vocals”.

Is that right? Or do the SLs put out voice audio as well?

 

Yeah, you arent going to get dialog from the surrounds, unless the speaker isn"t on the screen, which is rare.  Surrounds are more about ambiance, like rain or wind, or directional cues, like a plane rushing by, or bullets whizzing past.

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