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Contributor I
January 27, 2017
Answered

Minimum Volume is too loud to enjoy background music

The minimum volume on a Play 1 for instance (volume level 1) is too loud to let the music play as background.
It's "no music" or "too loud music" on volume level 1 Nothing in between. Ideally I could lower the music volume like an old amplifier. It's as simple as that. We use the Sonos system on the lowest volume side and the minimum volume is just way too high. I'm surprised that nobody else raises this.
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Ryan S
Ryan SAnswer
Retired Sonos Staff
October 9, 2018
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.

186 replies

Lyricist I
February 6, 2018
Agree with all here. Min volume is just too loud. Sonos please fix this.
Contributor I
February 26, 2018
yet another customer that is asking for this, cannot be hard to implement, can it?

please sonos, fix this for us!
Lyricist I
February 26, 2018
Hello Sonos! Any update here? Looks like we're more than a year into this thread without a response...
Lyricist III
March 17, 2018
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.
Lyricist I
March 30, 2018
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
Guv Biring
Lyricist I
April 9, 2018
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. 🙂
rUnIcOrN
Lyricist III
June 20, 2018
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 ?
rUnIcOrN
Lyricist III
June 20, 2018
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 ?
Lyricist I
August 23, 2018
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.
Ryan S
Ryan SAnswer
Retired Sonos Staff
October 9, 2018
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.