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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Minimum Volume is too loud to enjoy background music
Best answer by Ryan S
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.
View originalSo, 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.
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Pathetic.
I have ended up rather comically using the EQ on sonos to lower at least some frequencies for volume on my Ikea Symfonisk, EQ is for EQ not for volume surely (anyway the difference is only marginal\0
Nearly 4 years of requests to sort this and nothing done.
Please Sonos just admit it, you CANNOT fix this via a software or firmware update can you?
Please rather than just keep stringing all these customers along. very poor for a supposed high quality audio product.
Oh, and BTW….. to all the posters who keep rattling on that they have no problem with this, please just keep it to yourself and go to another thread.
You are talking about your subjective experience not objectively about the amplitude of the signal between 0 (off) and 1 (too loud for many of us). TBH You are totally missing the point ie. that some of us DO want to listen to music really quietly eg in a silent bedroom 12 inches away from my head to go to sleep by. This thread is for surely user who would like precisely this?All the posts saying this is not a problem for you changes nothing and you are just clouding the issue and whether you personally and subjectively find it too quiet at Volume No. 1 is irrelevant to be honest.
As one poster said, best to close this forum down if after so long Sonos do nothing; that is apart from community manager Ryan throwing in a red herring trumpetting the modifications to higher end volumes ….. as if it changes anything to the actual minimum volume… all quite farcical really.
Coming back one year later and still the same issue. Please Sonos do something. This is feasible for sure. I paired 2 Sonos Ones as surround of the Beam. I can’t set the surround volume to -15 in the setting parameters for the surrounds. Then the minimum volume of both Ones is what I would love to have on my other Ones themselves. The speaker can technically do this so please allow the software to do it.
I was waiting Sonos S2 hopping this could be solved. But almost nothing new and no issue solved with this update.
I solved the problem, and fair to say, it was an issue of “incompatible user” in combination with unclear UX/UI in the Sonos App.
So what you need to check is the following, if you - just like me - are using a Playbar with 2x Play 1. In my case I apparently increased the volume of the surround speakers.
So how to solve: Go to your system settings, and select the group with the playbar. Then go to the “Surround Audio” settings and make sure you set both sliders; Tv Level, and Music Level to 0.
I had them initially at arround +9 and what happens is that the base volume of the Sonos system is then increased with the number configured on the sliders resulting in a much louder volume. Overall, I think the sliders are not clear enough. But they simply set your surround speakers to a higher or lower volume level compared to the Playbar.
Right now the first step in the volume slider is just noticeable, almost whispering. Hope this helps other people.
famschopman wrote:
I solved the problem, and fair to say, it was an issue of “incompatible user” in combination with unclear UX/UI in the Sonos App.
So what you need to check is the following, if you - just like me - are using a Playbar with 2x Play 1. In my case I apparently increased the volume of the surround speakers.
So how to solve: Go to your system settings, and select the group with the playbar. Then go to the “Surround Audio” settings and make sure you set both sliders; Tv Level, and Music Level to 0.
I had them initially at arround +9 and what happens is that the base volume of the Sonos system is then increased with the number configured on the sliders resulting in a much louder volume. Overall, I think the sliders are not clear enough. But they simply set your surround speakers to a higher or lower volume level compared to the Playbar.
Right now the first step in the volume slider is just noticeable, almost whispering. Hope this helps other people.
Thank you for your answer. I know this procedure, I just gave this as an example to demonstrate that Sonos Ones can provide very low volume when used as surround. Therefore, it should be feasible to lower the minimum volume of a Sonos One when not part of surround system.
This is also true for a pair of Sonos One. If you set the volume to the minimum it is still to high for a lot of users. If then you set the balance to the right speaker then the left speaker can provide very low volume. Why could not we reach this very low volume on a One itself?
Just to say this is not hardware limitation but software only! And then very easy to fix for Sonos! What the problem to reduce minimum volume?
jeffbh wrote:
Hello Sonos! Any update here? Looks like we're more than a year into this thread without a response...
Now 3 years without a solution?
The currently lowest achievable volume is simply much too loud. (Even with just one “click”)
The use case is: iPhone, SONOS OS “S2”, Amazon Music streaming.
Until such time as Sonos responds, try moving the speaker further away from its current placement. I use a PLAY:1 in my bedside table, but apparently am hard of hearing, as I don’t notice it being too loud to fall asleep to.
The PLAY:1 that is 8 feet further away is completely inaudible to me at the same volume setting.
Airgetlam wrote:
Until such time as Sonos responds, try moving the speaker further away from its current placement. I use a PLAY:1 in my bedside table, but apparently am hard of hearing, as I don’t notice it being too loud to fall asleep to.
The PLAY:1 that is 8 feet further away is completely inaudible to me at the same volume setting.
Clearly your hearing.. And I have my bedside table next to my bed.. Not 5 meters away which admit it makes no sense
So, now that we’ve established that I’m hard of hearing, what happens if you move your speaker further away from where your head is, be it bedside table or other location? Is the volume still too high?
Honestly that's not the point nor a solution. You expect from a 200eur speaker that you can let it next to your bed and read in peace with some background music. Even if I set it further it will disturb my wife or kids. It is simply too loud at minimum volume. And it still amazes me that sonos is absolutely ignoring one of the longes and oldest issue reported on their forums. Now if you want we can also put a pillow on the speaker or put it in the drawer of my nighttable... But again that should not be the workaround...
This is a “problem” that has baffled me from the time it was first reported. In my play 1 units, once the slider is moved all the way to the left to mute, it takes more than one tap to the right of the button in the app to hear anything from the speaker.
For those facing it perhaps a solution is to set max volume to maybe 80% and then the additional granularity may help.
In my case, I see no issues even without using this feature.
PS: new visitors may find that the first two pages of this thread give them some useful insights. Perhaps. Nothing lost in reading them once, though.
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I also have this issue with my Sonos Move. The lowest possible volume (one tap from mute) is too loud. I tried setting the max volume to 50%, but all that did was mean I have to tap 2 times from mute before the music comes on too loud again. It did not make the lowest setting lower. If I set the max volume to 30% then I have to tap 3 times from mute before the music comes on too loud.
It’s crazy this issue has not been addressed by Sonos. I only have a Move, I don’t have other Sonos speakers in a surround sound configuration. I guess Sonos expects us to cover the speaker with pillows or stuff it in a drawer and let it run off battery?
The slider in the controller app. You know how Sonos support recommends sliding the slider all the way to the left, then tapping once on the right side of the slider to increase the volume one increment. When I do that the “one increment” is too loud. If the max volume is set to 50%, then I have to tap the right side of the slider “two increments” before the music comes on too loud (at the same volume as when the max volume was set to 100%)
Also, I turned off “loudness” under EQ, that brought the overall volume down a tiny bit. And I turned off Trueplay and tried sliding the treble and bass all the way down. Neither of those items made a difference.
I also tried setting my volume settings to “quite” in Spotify, but that didn’t help either.
As I have said many times, it takes a few taps before I hear anything from my play 1 units, with no reductions in max volume set for it.
Sonos Support are therefore best qualified to see what is going on with people that experience something very different.
What solved the issue for me was setting the eq (Bass & Treble) to the minimum (-10) & disabling Loudness.
It depends how loud is the recording.
I have two Sonos Ones 4 meters away from me. I set volume limit to 25%, loudness off, bass -10, treble -10 and lowest volume level.
Diana’s Krall “Live In Paris” is ok so it is possible to play more quiet even when you loose some quality, but for example Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “ACME” is way too loud.
Background noise is about 35dB and when I turn on the ACME it goes to 44dB and it couldn’t be more lowered. Moving volume bar in Sonos app even one pixel to the left is turning music to mute.
Yes. There is lot of room for improvement here.
This feature doesn’t help on my Amp where ‘1’ on the volume slider is still too loud late at night for the TV. The volume limiter affects upper volumes but not the lowest. That’s really unhelpful!
Just wanted to add a +1 to this. I have an Amp (Powering a pair of 88dB/W/m, 15 - 90Watt, 4 - 8 Ohm bookshelf speakers), a third-party sub, and 2 x One SL rear speakers. ~4 meters distance between the fronts and rears.
The system goes from silence straight to 60db average in the middle of the room, it’s impossible to have it quieter than this without hacking around with the EQ settings to bring it down, or cutting out the One SLs (which still isn’t enough).
The volume slider literally operates like an on/off switch at the quiet end, where it goes from silence to loud, there’s nothing in between. The accepted answer here also doesn’t help, the additional granularity just moves the point at which the system switches to silence away from the furthest end of the slider.
Strongly supportive. I have a pair of one SL on my desk and the volume at minimum is still way too loud for background music while working.
I would love the EQ. to offer a “level” option to turn down the minimum volume by 50%. Adjusting bass, treble or loudness strongly affect the tone (as it should).
What music source are you using?
Can you send a diagnostic and post the number here with it set to the minimum non-silentvolume?
It's troubling that there isn't a software fix for this.
I had issues that my Play 1 was too loud, stupidly I went and got a couple of Ones, and it turns out they are even worse.
I wish there was a finer step in the volume control, or just an -20dB switch that could be activated.
I guess my only option is to open up the speakers and physically add an attenuator that I can switch in and out. An ugly hack, but it would work.
GabrielLogan wrote:
famschopman wrote:
This is also true for a pair of Sonos One. If you set the volume to the minimum it is still to high for a lot of users. If then you set the balance to the right speaker then the left speaker can provide very low volume. Why could not we reach this very low volume on a One itself?
Just to say this is not hardware limitation but software only! And then very easy to fix for Sonos! What the problem to reduce minimum volume?
That's an excellent point. If we change the balance the volume drops. So if you can afford to buy an extra speaker, disconnect the speaker element and use it as a phantom channel in a virtual left/right setup, you are all sorted. As long as you like mono. But it seems extreme to have spend that money and resources to accomplish something that basic.
Hi! I spended a lot of money to “improve” the sound system in our bedroom and just realized
that it is totally useless. I’m so ##!++!# Wish I would have found this thread before I bought this crap.
It’s like SONOS is making fun of us. There is an option to switch of the LEDs. I read this before
I decided to buy SONOS speakers and thought: Wow, finally a company wich is aware of annoying LEDs in dark rooms, how great is that. And now I realized that I can’t fall asleep because the first volume step is way too loud, regardless wich setting, tweak or workaround I tried. But my bedroom is pitch black dark thanks to the switched off LEDs…
Thank you SONOS, good prank!
tesox wrote:
Hi! I spended a lot of money to “improve” the sound system in our bedroom and just realized
that it is totally useless. I’m so ##!++!# Wish I would have found this thread before I bought this crap.
It’s like SONOS is making fun of us. There is an option to switch of the LEDs. I read this before
I decided to buy SONOS speakers and thought: Wow, finally a company wich is aware of annoying LEDs in dark rooms, how great is that. And now I realized that I can’t fall asleep because the first volume step is way too loud, regardless wich setting, tweak or workaround I tried. But my bedroom is pitch black dark thanks to the switched off LEDs…
Thank you SONOS, good prank!
- Perhaps try moving your speaker further away.
- LED’s can be resolved with LightDims as sold online at Amazon and similar retailers or just use a small piece of electrical tape.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LightDims-Original-Strength-Electronics-Appliances/dp/B00CLVEQCO
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