Skip to main content
I just purchased a single Play:5. I have to turn it about 3/4 of the way up to hear it much at all, and at max volume, it is not nearly what one would expect from a speaker of this quality. I have the volume setting all the way up, plus the bass and treble at max. Nothing seems to help. Is there another setting I'm missing? Thank you.
I solved the problem! My turntable used to be connected to a receiver but now that I connected it to my Pay 5 the sound was too low. I remember now that when I had to fix the elastic band on my turntable last week, I noticed a small switch under the plate where the vinyl sits on. I didn’t pay much attention to it then. Well, I was curious today and removed the plate again and I turned the switch to the opposite site it was originally set to. I connected my turntable again to my Play 5 and Voila! It worked and the sound is just beautiful!

I set my line-in source: portable player and it automatically got set to level (8). Perfect!

Please share this fix with everyone!
I have had this problem, don't know why but the volume used to be to loud at 50 to 60% now it's only just loud enough at 100%. I have set the app to 10 for the audio line in and haven't changed any other settings. Really disappointed.
@sioux,

1) The OP and the rest of the thread said nothing about volume from the line-in. The thread is about volume from all sources.



2) You can adjust the level of the line-in.
In the past there have numerous complaints that Sonos speakers don't get quiet enough at the lowest levels (for people that like to listen to music while sleeping for example), given the play:5 is the newest Sonos device I wouldn't be surprised if Sonos recalibrated the volume control to give more adjustability at the lower levels. Fact is though if the maximum volume is too loud for you then it goes loud enough, just keep turning it up until you find the level you're happy with.
I've the same issue with play5 2nd. The main problem is, that I need to put very high volume to hear anything and then when change the source to streaming it hurts of course.

I couldn't find any info about the supported range of voltage on the linein, anybody knows about this specification?



The argument for the strange behavoir (I've read on the upper comments) is to make people happy with fine granular adjustments on lower volumnes.

But this should be possible to adjust by the person itself by setting the level of the linein itself.
Why does that matter though? It gives more flexibility at the lowest end, which is something many people have been asking for. The relative volume %age isn't relevant, as long as it goes up to the volume you want it makes no difference if it's 30%, 50% or 90%.
It sounds pretty loud, but not what I would consider maximum loudness. It really is that it is very low until 50% or a little past that
I definitely have this sound issue -- I really have to turn it up to 50% to hear much of anything on wireless play of my music library. I have a single brand new play 5.



So what does it sound like if you turn it up to 100%?
I definitely have this sound issue -- I really have to turn it up to 50% to hear much of anything on wireless play of my music library. I have a single brand new play 5.


I believe you're incorrect. Factory resetting a speaker does not delete playlist or service account info, that only happens when you reset the controller. Controller meaning Sonos App on your phone or computer.



Correct me if im wrong. I just joined the SONOS family a week ago.



Sorry, but you are wrong. In fact, you have it backwards. Resetting a controller does nothing because the controller app stores no settings, they are stored in the players. Now if you reset a player and add it back to an existing system, you will inherit the existing settings, favorites, playlists, etc. from the other players., You still lose the diagnostics from that player, which is not good, but not a disaster. However, there are many users who only have a single Sonos device, or they are having problems with all their devices, and if they follow the suggestion to factory reset, they will be pretty upset to find all their user accounts, favorites, and playlists are now gone.



Thanks. Good to know. I thought the account held all those info.


I believe you're incorrect. Factory resetting a speaker does not delete playlist or service account info, that only happens when you reset the controller. Controller meaning Sonos App on your phone or computer.



Correct me if im wrong. I just joined the SONOS family a week ago.



Sorry, but you are wrong. In fact, you have it backwards. Resetting a controller does nothing because the controller app stores no settings, they are stored in the players. Now if you reset a player and add it back to an existing system, you will inherit the existing settings, favorites, playlists, etc. from the other players., You still lose the diagnostics from that player, which is not good, but not a disaster. However, there are many users who only have a single Sonos device, or they are having problems with all their devices, and if they follow the suggestion to factory reset, they will be pretty upset to find all their user accounts, favorites, and playlists are now gone.
I was having the same problem. Resetting the speaker to factory settings helped a lot.



One should never reset to factory settings unless instructed to by a Sonos tech or a forum veteran. Not only does it erase all your information including playlists and service account info, it gets rid of valuable diagnostic information.



I believe you're incorrect. Factory resetting a speaker does not delete playlist or service account info, that only happens when you reset the controller. Controller meaning Sonos App on your phone or computer.



Correct me if im wrong. I just joined the SONOS family a week ago.
I was having the same problem. Reseting the speaker to factory settings helped a lot.



One should never reset to factory settings unless instructed to by a Sonos tech or a forum veteran. Not only does it erase all your information including playlists and service account info, it gets rid of valuable diagnostic information.
I was having the same problem. Reseting the speaker to factory settings helped a lot.
Exactly. The thing to remember is there's no danger in turning them all the way up. Well, no danger to the play:5 itself at least, there might be to your hearing...
This sounds familiar, pun intended. I've got two new Sonos Play 5 Gen II speakers and at 25% volume you can just barely start to hear them and at 50% they are just loud enough to listen to in a quiet room. If there is general noise in the room ie kids, pets, dishwasher then I've got to go to at least 75% for comfortable listening. All other speakers in the house including Play 1's, Play 3's, Soundbar and SUB are loud enough to hear fine at 25% and probably nearing ear damaging at 50% volume. When the whole house is grouped together the 5's are set almost double to attain the same sound output. A little strange that the new Play 5's are so different in the volume range but they still sound great and I have just learned to turn them up more than I do with the other speakers.
Hello, I buy my first Sonos product, a Play 5. I'm really happy with sound quality but not really impressed by volume. Even at 2/3, not really loud. In Sonos app on my iPhone 6S, I have 30 steps for volume, and it starts have good sound at 20 (careful, when you are at half of the trigger in Sonos app, you have already reached 2/3 of max volume). Is there an issue with my speaker? Do I need to send diagnostic? Many thanks for your help.





I suggest you read the replies above.





But in a nutshell it's very unlikely there is a problem with the speaker.



Forget where the slider is or the number. Just turn up the volume to suit your tastes.
It sounds pretty loud, but not what I would consider maximum loudness. It really is that it is very low until 50% or a little past that



I'm about to completely change my system from a Hegel H160 and ATC SCM40 II to a much more simple, less expensive wireless system, as I don't use it enough to justify the silly prices of hi fi gear, but I have a large-ish room, and I like to listen on the louder side. I've read through this thread, but I'm still not convinced that the absolute max SPL is adequate; I can live with a logarithmic approach to the volume control, but only if 0 attenuation is loud enough. How does the max SPL of the 5 compare to a 1, that's the key question that's unanswered in this thread, can anyone make that comparison?



To reference my expectation, of course I don't expect a £400 small box to get close to the silly levels that the ATCs could reach, but that's not what I am expecting, nor require, but it needs to be loud enough to drown out conversation!
This thread is two years old and refers to the old Play:5. The new one is a ground up redesign. Honestly, if you can sit in front of a new play:5 on full volume you're a) already completely deaf or b) a liar! It's loud, stop worrying about it.
Thanks LH, glad to see you're as robust in your answer as ever 🙂
I should have added; I presume that you have spent time listening to both versions?
I have this issue of no low volume with the sonos 5, to say I am disappointed is an under statement!

I have the playbar, sub, connect (B&O speakers) and 3 play 1's but this is really poor in comparision
As John said, what you're describing is quite unusual as the PLAY:5 can get very loud. Local iTunes music could be encoded quieter, and at times Pandora tracks might be low as well. Sonos players don't edit the volume encoded in the tracks themselves, so you could have a few that are digitally set lower than others. This shouldn't be the case will all of your Pandora or local songs however.



If you're using the Line-In on your PLAY:5 will want to adjust the Line-In level as shown on this page. This adjusts the gain level on the Line-In connection to be louder when you have the cable plugged in from your iPad (for example) to the PLAY:5. The higher the value, the higher the volume. 



You can also turn on the Loudness setting inside the Equalization settings. Tracks usually are louder with the Loudness turned on.



If the PLAY:5 still seems low on multiple Sonos sources, can you please submit a diagnostic from your system and reply back here with your confirmation number?



Thanks



Hello Ryan,



I am playing music on spotify and purchased the Sonos play 5 yesterday. I have the Sonos play 5 and the Bose Soundtouch 30 next to eachother for further testing and I can agree the Sonos is not loud at all. The Bose so far is much louder, we pay a premium price for a loudness you can get out of a JBL Xtreme (minus the sound being much better on the Sonos) is there any way I can tweak the volume on this before returning it and making my decision?
I also have this issue. It started perhaps a month ago or so. I thought a software update caused it, and then I thought a software update fixed it, but now every source and every controller makes it incredibly quiet. The volume control does change the volume, but the available range is silent to nearly-silent. When I plug in headphones they volume seems reasonable, but that's hardly a reassurance.
I am having the same issue. Both my play 5 used to work perfectly but now I can barely hear anything even at the highest volume.



Diagnostic: 8159506



Please help to look into this.



Thanks!
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings