Low volume not low enough - too loud

  • 25 April 2023
  • 9 replies
  • 469 views

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I use several pairs of Play 1’s and this has always bothered me.   The low volume is too loud.  I have a pair sitting on my desk and I need background music, but the first notch is so loud I can’t speak on the phone with it in the background.

 

Is there a way to adjust this?   

 

Thanks

 


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9 replies

Userlevel 7

Try setting the Volume Limit on the Play:1s to 50% in the Sonos app:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/setting-a-volume-limit-on-sonos-products

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Try setting the Volume Limit on the Play:1s to 50% in the Sonos app:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/setting-a-volume-limit-on-sonos-products

 

Doesn’t work.  I even set it to a maximum of 20% vs. 50%.   The only thing it does is instead of turning on on 1 or 2, it doesn’t turn on until you hit 5.  But the 5 is the same as the 1 or 2.   There is no intelligent gradient on volume going on here with this adjustment.  It simply spaces out the notches further.

A pair of these are right on my desk and -- sometimes, they are simply too loud to hold a telephone conversation even at the lowest of the low.  

Not sure why this is the case with all the Sonos I’ve had.  Half the time, I can’t use them and end up listening to something on my laptop instead - which is, of course, far inferior sound wise.

Thank you for your suggestion though!

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

What is your music source?

Does it have a volume control there that may be impacting your Sonos?

 

Trying Amazon, Fleetwood Mac Station, Everywhere playing, and at 1 I have to have my (bad but with hearing aid in) ear within a few inches to hear anything but the loudest bits, At 11 with the single One SL about three feet away it would be no problem to talk on my cell. The next click up jumps to 13 and that and 15 still aren’t a problem but 17 is iffy and I’d sure turn it down if the phone rang at 21.

The same song on my Music Library (FLAC rip) is a tiny bit louder at 1, maybe about a foot to hear it. At 15 it is about as loud as the Amazon track at 17.

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Interesting.   It does seem to depend on the source. Apple Music seems to be the biggest problem.  Amazon Music seems to be pretty good in this regard.   My own music library streaming Lossless Apple bits seems to lie somewhere in the middle.

Thanks for your response.    Would be nice if there was an adjustment based on service or source somehow…

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Lots of “too loud” complaints so maybe Sonos can look at options.

I know nothing about Apple but there might be a volume setting in there service somewhere.

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Is loudness on?

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Is loudness on?

Good call on that.  I just saw that this was on, so I thought perhaps this would help but still the same after turning that off.

Apple Music seems to be the worst offender.  

Thanks for your reply!

Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Hi,

I’d suggest logging a bug with Sonos as they still haven’t fixed an issue they introduced in the 15.2 update. See below thread:

Volume levels too high after 15.2 update | Sonos Community

Same issue here - setting volume limit doesn’t always do much on apple but ok on amazon.  Seems inconsistent though.