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Voice assistant extremely loud during music

  • April 26, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 34 views

After months of researching a smart speaker system that sounds good, pulled the trigger on Sonos Era 100, only to find myself facing the issues that have been plaguing this community for several years now - Voice assistant is WAY TOO LOUD responding during music.

This is what happens when I use the voice assistant -

Me: Hey Sonos, what is the weather?

Sonos: **Responds in the right volume I expect**

Me: Play a song

Sonos: **Acknowledges with the right volume. Starts playing a song at the right volume**

Me: Play a different song song

Sonos: **Acknowledges with VERY LOUD assistant volume**

Tried various different options including reducing the volume when assistant is speaking (which obviously doesn’t work btw) before reaching out to customer care.

Issue with customer care or the product team is that they know that this issue exists and do nothing to fix it (like forums from 3 years ago and no fixes, seriously?). Customer care even fought back with me saying that this is not even considered an issue. Like someone here said, if only the PMs have tested what they help build. Disappointed in my first Sonos product, returning it only after a couple days, and probably will never purchase another.

Feels more of a rant post than anything useful but feel free to leave suggestions on other brands and product alternatives LOL.

 

5 replies

Jamie A
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  • Sonos Staff
  • April 27, 2026

Hi ​@disappointedinyou, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m sorry to hear that Sonos Voice Control got too loud when using it.

Looking into this, I can’t see any issues regarding voice assistants increasing in volume by themselves. The volume of voice assistants on Sonos speakers is tied to the volume of the speaker itself: many users have requested a separate slider for voice assistant volume previously, but currently there is no way to independently change the voice assistant volume level.

I can see you have a case open with our support team who have requested a video of this behaviour. However, since you’ve returned your product, there isn’t anything support or the community can offer further. 

If you are looking to get a Sonos speaker again in the future and have any questions or concerns, then please don’t hesitate to post on the community.


Hi ​@disappointedinyou, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m sorry to hear that Sonos Voice Control got too loud when using it.

Looking into this, I can’t see any issues regarding voice assistants increasing in volume by themselves. The volume of voice assistants on Sonos speakers is tied to the volume of the speaker itself: many users have requested a separate slider for voice assistant volume previously, but currently there is no way to independently change the voice assistant volume level.

I can see you have a case open with our support team who have requested a video of this behaviour. However, since you’ve returned your product, there isn’t anything support or the community can offer further. 

If you are looking to get a Sonos speaker again in the future and have any questions or concerns, then please don’t hesitate to post on the community.

I have not returned my product yet and now sent a video of the behavior (along with a decibel meter for proof). I understand you “can’t see any issues regarding voice assistants increasing in volume by themselves.” but it seems to be the case unfortunately.


MoPac
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  • Headliner III
  • April 27, 2026

Does Sonos Voice Control lower the volume of the music playing while it is talking?  I’ve used SVC, but never while music is playing.  What was your SPL reading when SVC was talking?


I cannot hear the music while it talks so I am guessing it either pauses it or lowers it. SPL was tested using a website so might not be accurate but taking its usual volume as a reference, ~40 dB is the range for both the voice and music. Voice while playing music spikes to 75-85 dB range. 


MoPac
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  • Headliner III
  • April 28, 2026

I’ll have to try using SVC while music is playing.  Maybe tomorrow.  All are unplugged now due to storms rolling in.