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Minimum Volume is too loud to enjoy background music

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F
Userlevel 3
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The max volume feature does nothing with regards to low volume. Personally, I don't understand why Sonos keeps adding these corner case features when there is a huge customer base asking for more fine grained control on lower volumes since 2014.

Unless the hardware isn't capable of delivering sound quality at lower than current minimal levels I could understand, but I assume this is just a volume scale between 0-100 that treats every step as equal. Treat the first 0-10 with more fine grained control and the other 90 with less accuracy. Quite simple solution and shouldn't take days to implement.
D
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Hi everyone, starting today with Sonos 9.2 there's the ability to use the mobile controller for Android or iOS to set a maximum volume for each of your Sonos players. The reason I bring it up in here, is that if you have the maximum volume set at 50%, the whole volume bar will still go from 0-100, but 100% will now reflect what your volume limit is set to. This has the added benefit of being able to get more granular control of players at low volume, as the volume steps will scale up or down with the max volume.

So, if you never set your players above a certain volume, this is a great chance to improve the control at lower volumes. Play around with it and see if this helps.

I’m afraid this doesn’t help. In my living room I have a Sonos playbar, sub and two play 5’s. I set the maximum volume to 20% and it still goes from zero to too loud. There is still no inbetween.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
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I'm sharing news about a new feature, that's related to this thread. Often times, people who think the players are too loud will also want to be able to make them play quieter at the top end too. We'll make sure to update this and other threads if there's any news about changing the minimum volume. What can I say, I'm excited about the feature, and I like to think someone in this thread may find it useful too.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
S
Userlevel 7
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So, to clarify Ryan, you've added news about the new update to this thread that is explicitly discussing the minimum volume being too high - yet it makes zero difference in that regard?
EDIT:typo
G
Userlevel 3
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Unfortunately this doesn’t solve the issue. We have now a better accuracy to control low volumes but the minimum volume remains the same...

This is correct. The minimum volume itself doesn't change, but there's a bit flexibility control the scale at the lower levels. As a very simplistic example, if you set the max volume to 1% and you slide the volume bar up and down, it'll fluctuate from playing at 0% to playing at 1%, but you won't get 0.5% to play. However, if it's set to 10% as max (again, as a bit of a simple example), it'd be easier to get between the lower audio levels.

Yes. If we set the maximum volume at 10%, there is no sound from 0 to 10 increments. The sound start at 10 increments and it is equivalent to the sound at 1 increment with a maximum volume set at 100%.
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Unfortunately this doesn’t solve the issue. We have now a better accuracy to control low volumes but the minimum volume remains the same...

This is correct. The minimum volume itself doesn't change, but there's a bit flexibility control the scale at the lower levels. As a very simplistic example, if you set the max volume to 1% and you slide the volume bar up and down, it'll fluctuate from playing at 0% to playing at 1%, but you won't get 0.5% to play. However, if it's set to 10% as max (again, as a bit of a simple example), it'd be easier to get between the lower audio levels.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
J
I may have to retract that last post. Experimenting further.
Edit: hmmm. It does indeed seem to jump from silent to the previous minimum volume. Thereafter you do get finer control, but I think @GabrielLogan is correct and it was I who was mistaken.
J
Unfortunately this doesn’t solve the issue. We have now a better accuracy to control low volumes but the minimum volume remains the same... Still too loud in a fully quiet room. Next update I hope.
I will continue to use AirPlay when I need very low volume.I think you are mistaken. Set the maximum volume to 25% in the relevant room. Slide the volume to zero then tap once on the volume bar. On my speakers this is just not audible in a quiet room. Without maximum volume limited, it is clearly audible, though faint. It makes a significant difference to minimum volume.
G
Userlevel 3
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Unfortunately this doesn’t solve the issue. We have now a better accuracy to control low volumes but the minimum volume remains the same... Still too loud in a fully quiet room. Next update I hope.
I will continue to use AirPlay when I need very low volume.
Ken_Griffiths
Think i found btw. VOLUMGRENSE in Norwegian ??
Ja ... I Sonos App goto 'Innstillinger / Rominnstillinger / (Romnavn) / Volumgrense.
rUnIcOrN
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Think i found btw. VOLUMGRENSE in Norwegian ??
Love life ❤ Would suck not to be in it
rUnIcOrN
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Where do i go to do this please?
Cant find ..
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rUnIcOrN
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Sounds promising. Testing tonite ?
Love life ❤ Would suck not to be in it
T
Let me be the first, at least on this thread, to say what a great move this is.

Really useful.
Richard
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi everyone, starting today with Sonos 9.2 there's the ability to use the mobile controller for Android or iOS to set a maximum volume for each of your Sonos players. The reason I bring it up in here, is that if you have the maximum volume set at 50%, the whole volume bar will still go from 0-100, but 100% will now reflect what your volume limit is set to. This has the added benefit of being able to get more granular control of players at low volume, as the volume steps will scale up or down with the max volume.

So, if you never set your players above a certain volume, this is a great chance to improve the control at lower volumes. Play around with it and see if this helps.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
T
Adding a comment here about this problem:
I use the Sonos App. I understand how the control works. I have my speakers across my bedroom (approx 15ft). I have a sound bar/bass/Sonos 5 in my living room, Sonos One's in two other rooms, and a Sonos 5 in my home office.
I have adjusted the "loudness" option (which changes the treble/bass equalization and adversely impacts sounds quality) and also reduced the the Treble/Bass equalization to their minimum levels. Degraded sound that is too loud is a worse experience and this is, at best,a "hack" for reducing sound levels only in certain audible frequency ranges determined by the EQ engineers.
I also have Amazon Music, Google Play Music and my own music library - and the issue is on all of them, but some songs/stations seem louder.
The lowest possible increase in sound volume is easily heard at night and is sometimes too loud for my enjoyment in all of my rooms.
Based on the comments on this channel it would be nice if Sonos would recognize that finer control options for night or "more sensitive" owners would be an excellent feature for their product.
To address the commenters posting here that ask about volume control understanding or cannot hear their speakers on the lowest setting - I would like to comment that Sonos still should hear this complaint and try to address it. High quality speakers should have options for finely controlled sound output at any level, whether that means providing better volume controls, instructions on how to test/adjust the minimum volume, an explanation that the technology doesn't support lower sound levels, or another option would be appreciated.
rUnIcOrN
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Could be that u as i have impared hearing after many years of high volume. To me everything is perfect, but my "boss" next to me even wakes up due to volume on level 1. Just a suggestion ?
That beeing said, i miss the days when spotify was "the volume controller"
Full seamingless volume control anywhere in the sound spectrum.
As many of us have pointed out. Miss control between zero and 1 ?

Awesome system otherwise, abso fu..... lutely gorgious sound throughout ????
Love life ❤ Would suck not to be in it
rUnIcOrN
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I feel like I'm missing something here.

I do tend to listen to music loudly, so I went up to my bedroom to test quiet music on a play:1.

Using the slider I can go from total silence to so quiet it can't be heard in a quiet room unless near the speaker and on up incrementally.

What am I not understanding?
Love life ❤ Would suck not to be in it
Guv Biring
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One solution is to turn off loudness. Tested it and now the lowest increment of volume on all devices is a non-disruptive soothing background music. 🙂
C
Problem still exists, 2 play one in bedroom, music too loud at minimum level. Same with playable/play3/sub in living room, not enough level of control. And is it me or has the volume of the minimum level go up recently? I start lounge music in the living through my home automation, always on the same 4% level, different online stations or from my NAS. I had to bring it back to 1% this week, otherwise I'll wakeup the whole house in the early morning.

Same here. I have the impression to that the minimum volume has raised. The minimum volume now is far too loud.
Please SONOS, fix it.

Regards,
Cor
E
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
Problem still exists, 2 play one in bedroom, music too loud at minimum level. Same with playable/play3/sub in living room, not enough level of control. And is it me or has the volume of the minimum level go up recently? I start lounge music in the living through my home automation, always on the same 4% level, different online stations or from my NAS. I had to bring it back to 1% this week, otherwise I'll wakeup the whole house in the early morning.
J
Userlevel 1
Hello Sonos! Any update here? Looks like we're more than a year into this thread without a response...
S
Userlevel 1
yet another customer that is asking for this, cannot be hard to implement, can it?

please sonos, fix this for us!
J
Userlevel 1
Agree with all here. Min volume is just too loud. Sonos please fix this.
R
I have the same issue when I use Sonos one/Alexa. In may cases I need to reach for the app to get the volume I want. It seems Alexa can only the same volume steps as the buttons use.

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