Minimum Volume is too loud to enjoy background music

Mines a Playbar 2 play 1's and Sub. Listening to music late night it could do with a 1/2 setting but not the end of the world.

I am perfectly capable of operating the volume as I assume many others are?.

Stuart_W wrote:

I suspect many of the people who stilll have this issue are NOT tapping the correct place on the controller.

Stuart, I find that anywhere to the side of - as long as it is not on - the button on the controller has the same effect of a 1 step change out of 100 steps. Whether I tap at the end of the line or close to the button does not seem to matter.

I'd like to add my experience here. I suspect part of the reason people have different experiences is that there is a considerable range of different volumes on different music sources. This is also a bit of a challenge for somebody designing a volume control. I find that the Sonos controller volume controls (less so the hardware switches) are fine for well mastered recordings with wide dynamic range. The problem comes with recordings designed for "pop" radio. These are all too often compressed to hell during the mastering, allowing the mastering volume to be pushed to the loudest possible for every part of the track, sadly at the expense of musical dynamics. This is because unfortunately louder music tends to sound better than quieter, and on a radio station playing track after track the ones that have the highest volume tend to stand out. The Sonos volume controls just aren't designed to handle this type of track. You end up using a tiny fraction of the left hand end of the volume, which is at best a fiddle and at worst you simply don't get the volume you actually want. The answer is to make the volume control more logarithmic (increasingly sensitive at low volumes), but this depends on the hardware level of control. It may be that the hardware volume has fixed steps and so there's little that can be done in software.

I use the sonos app on my phone, but find the lowest volume setting at night is to loud, I like to listen to rain sounds or meditation music at night in bed, but find it to loud for this, sonos need to bring in a fine volume control to take it to the lowest it can go

stemac wrote:

I use the sonos app on my phone, but find the lowest volume setting at night is to loud, I like to listen to rain sounds or meditation music at night in bed, but find it to loud for this, sonos need to bring in a fine volume control to take it to the lowest it can go

Have you tried disabling Loudness within the EQ settings?

stemac wrote:

I use the sonos app on my phone, but find the lowest volume setting at night is to loud, I like to listen to rain sounds or meditation music at night in bed, but find it to loud for this, sonos need to bring in a fine volume control to take it to the lowest it can go

Move the slider on the app all the way to zero on the left. Tap to the right of the button once. It will take you more than one tap to hear anything at all. Each tap is a 1% change.

UKMedia wrote:

stemac wrote:

I use the sonos app on my phone, but find the lowest volume setting at night is to loud, I like to listen to rain sounds or meditation music at night in bed, but find it to loud for this, sonos need to bring in a fine volume control to take it to the lowest it can go

Have you tried disabling Loudness within the EQ settings?

yes I've done many times does help and but the bass to zero 🙂

Kumar wrote:

stemac wrote:

I use the sonos app on my phone, but find the lowest volume setting at night is to loud, I like to listen to rain sounds or meditation music at night in bed, but find it to loud for this, sonos need to bring in a fine volume control to take it to the lowest it can go

Move the slider on the app all the way to zero on the left. Tap to the right of the button once. It will take you more than one tap to hear anything at all. Each tap is a 1% change.

That's how I control the volume kumar, the first tap it more then 1% more like 10%

Tap on the Sonos box or tap at the side of the button in the app on the phone?

Reconfirming from both my phone and Mac controllers. With the volume slider on the very left, the mute light comes on on the unit. And then it takes 1 tap for that light to go, but 4 taps to the right of the button to hear the first faint sounds from the speakers. And I am listening to a play 1 pair flanking my computer on my desktop, while I am at the desk.

Kumar wrote:

Reconfirming from both my phone and Mac controllers. With the volume slider on the very left, the mute light comes on on the unit. And then it takes 1 tap for that light to go, but 4 taps to the right of the button to hear the first faint sounds from the speakers. And I am listening to a play 1 pair flanking my computer on my desktop, while I am at the desk.

on the app on my phone yes, its on mute the first tap and the music come on but defo not 1% its quite loud far to loud to play at night, to sleep to I have 2 play 1s in stereo in the bedroom

Yes that's pretty much the reported issue.
And when you're next to a speaker you shouldn't need to resort to the faff of getting your controller anyway.

A defect then, most likely. I tried again with my stereo pair that is three feet away. The only time I could hear very faint music at one tap to the right of mute is because Bryan Adams was singing summer of 69. It took 3 taps to understand the words properly. With music to go to sleep, it should take more taps than what Bryan needs!

Do the one tap to the right of mute thing and send a diagnostic to Sonos with an email quoting the number to see if there is a defect that is causing a 10% volume level.

sjw wrote:

Yes that's pretty much the reported issue.
And when you're next to a speaker you shouldn't need to resort to the faff of getting your controller anyway.

That is a fair point. But unless my English is having a day off, the coarseness of the button controls on the Sonos speaker unit isn't the latest complaint, from what I understood of it.

Everyone reporting it here and in previous threads all have a defect?
I'd suggest more granular control is needed at low volume - inc. from the hardware volume buttons too.

No one is reporting a granularity issue with the phone app, except the one today. Or with the app on the computer. In fact early in this thread others using the phone app are puzzled at why what is said is an issue.

Yes they are saying it's too loud with apps (inc. iPhone, tablets etc.).
This thread and others before it. You don't see them?
I'm on a phone so apologies for no quotes etc. but read earlier in the thread.

Stuart_W wrote:

I've just tested with my playbar and the iPad controller.

When moving the slider all the way to the left and then 1 tap at the end of the line I could barely hear the TV (It was dialogue).

The to screenshots show the slider in the 2 positions.

I suspect many of the people who stilll have this issue are NOT tapping the correct place on the controller.

No. I see the above.

Kumar wrote:

A defect then, most likely. I tried again with my stereo pair that is three feet away. The only time I could hear very faint music at one tap to the right of mute is because Bryan Adams was singing summer of 69. It took 3 taps to understand the words properly. With music to go to sleep, it should take more taps than what Bryan needs!

Do the one tap to the right of mute thing and send a diagnostic to Sonos with an email quoting the number to see if there is a defect that is causing a 10% volume level.

hmm you might be you are right I've just played the same song on my living room play 5 and sub and its alot quieter, my play 1s are in each corner up high on sonos wall mounts, could this be why I am hearing them louder ?

And all the users specifically mentioning the issue using the devices I mention above? And usually Play 1, not a Playbar.

sjw wrote:

And all the users specifically mentioning the issue using the devices I mention above? And usually Play 1, not a Playbar.

I am chilling out on my bed now playing a game with some smooth music on the back ground with only 1 tap I can hear comfortably, surely that's to loud for the first tap on the volume?

If that is from one tap away from mute, tapped to the right of the button on the app, it is WAY too loud. It would take me 5+ taps.

Kumar wrote:

If that is from one tap away from mute, tapped to the right of the button on the app, it is WAY too loud. It would take me 5+ taps.

right ok I will contact sonos and send a report in see what they say 🙂

It will help other posters if you publish here the final outcome and how it was achieved. Your getting the same sound levels from wall mounted speakers after just one tap away from mute on the phone app, as I get at my desktop from the same model speaker pair from 5 taps just doesn't compute.

And I believe that my system behaviour is the norm.It ought to take 100 taps to get the slider over completely to the right with volume increases keeping step with the taps.

I asked the same.

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/volume-knob-6792203

There is somewhere also a thread to bite for new fearures, but i cannot find it anymore, search for it.

Camillo