I’ve been using a single Play 3 and two One SL as two separate groups in the same room to create a 2.1 surround sound. Adjusting the volume balance manually is a pain.
Is there a way to put all three speakers in a group together?
...and if not, why not?
Sonos offers speakers in different size/shape to address different markets - Era 300 with up-firing speakers for Atmos, Five (paired) for stereo music purity, plus there are all the legacy products. They match amplification circuitry with the speakers and the enclosure to achieve (in their view) optimum sound quality. They spend what I suspect is a lot of time and money tuning these amp-and-speaker-and-enclosure combinations.
Different units have different audio qualities, amplification power, etc. To expect a user-defined group of any speaker combination to handle proportional volume changes is, imho, asking too much from the development team, for the limited user experience benefit it would provide.
Good grief - who knew something so simple would enrage the OCD police!
If we’re going to take the view that even changing the volume on a set of grouped speakers would make it all go out of whack and undo all the hard work Sonos put into making speakers sound/look good, why do Sonos a) allow you to group any speakers and b) allow you to change the volume of all of them already using a master slider. Both are apparently awful things.
All the OP is after is a quicker way to pre-configure existing function, they’re not the first and won’t be the last.
If you don’t want to use it, like many options, just don’t use it. Don’t start ranting at people who have a different opinion.
Good grief - who knew something so simple would enrage the OCD police!
If we’re going to take the view that even changing the volume on a set of grouped speakers would make it all go out of whack and undo all the hard work Sonos put into making speakers sound/look good, why do Sonos a) allow you to group any speakers and b) allow you to change the volume of all of them already using a master slider. Both are apparently awful things.
All the OP is after is a quicker way to pre-configure existing function, they’re not the first and won’t be the last.
If you don’t want to use it, like many options, just don’t use it. Don’t start ranting at people who have a different opinion.
Calm down! The op wanted a proportionally changing volume control for grouped speakers. I had meant, in my post, to point out the impracticalities of having a map of audio and amplifier differences between speakers. You can group any speaker combination from soundbars, portable speakers, discontinued speakers such as Play:3 and :5, One, etc. Groups can be 2 speakers to 32 speakers in almost any combination. They’re usually in different rooms, hence Sonos’ reputation for multi-room, multi-speaker synchronised music systems.
Do you really think it’s practical to have a map for all of those combinations,
I just like to agree that the original intention of grouping was the synced playback of different rooms/ zones that were spread across several physical separated rooms /areas.
That was the original meaning of multiroom audio.
Any usage of more than one Sonos room nearby to each other (e. g. multiple single speakers in a gym) should be done with all devices of the same model.
So what OP likes to achieve is understandable, but imo not a typical multiroom feature. Of course it is a feature that can be used, but not in such a perfect way without any compromise.
Calm down! The op wanted a proportionally changing volume control for grouped speakers. I had meant, in my post, to point out the impracticalities of having a map of audio and amplifier differences between speakers. You can group any speaker combination from soundbars, portable speakers, discontinued speakers such as Play:3 and :5, One, etc. Groups can be 2 speakers to 32 speakers in almost any combination. They’re usually in different rooms, hence Sonos’ reputation for multi-room, multi-speaker synchronised music systems.
Do you really think it’s practical to have a map for all of those combinations,
That’s my problem though with the responses here. He didn’t ask for a proportionally changing volume control. He simply wants the ability to have a preset volume that he has worked out and he is happy with.
Everyone else here instead has just put their own spin on his simple question, turned it into something ridiculously complicated and then told the OP that you shouldn’t listen to it like that…
Sonos used to be about enjoying your music your way, but now seems to have become about Sonos, and not the music, or just using your system in a way that suits you.
I think the OP is fully aware it’s not the perfect setup, but frankly NO Sonos system, even if it does meet some arbitrary rules on what constitutes ‘surround’ can actually deliver a reference setup. Nearly all actual surround music is 5.1 and mixed for a pretty standard 5.1 speaker setup in fairly well defined positions from Dolby. It is physically impossible to build such a system with Sonos.
Moreover, if you use something like an Amp, connected to a TV via ARC, then some random set of passive speakers, and then add another completely random set of Sonos speakers in a pair as surrounds (and Sonos are pretty liberal about what you can use for surrounds here), presumably because that meets Sonos rules, no-one would have an issue? Yet such a system has had ZERO tuning by Sonos as you can connect just about any pair of speakers you like to the Amp… It could be massively unbalanced from a sound perspective, but is a ‘supported configuration’.
However… the OP has found a combination of speakers that work for him and just wants a simple way to start it off with a particular volume he has tried without having to manually adjust it every time, and instead gets lambasted for his system not being balanced.
As John B described it, the ability to configure a group of Sonos speakers with a simple preset volume in as he called it a scene, would be a simple enhancement that would be quite nice for other scenarios too. No tuning or magic volume adjustment is required. If the system goes ‘out of kilter’ when using the master group volume, you could create more scene’s for different volume levels if that’s what the user wants. Sonos don’t have to do that, or test all possible combinations of speakers.
If someone likes the sound of their combination of speakers, who are we to tell them they shouldn’t enjoy that, and should only use the ‘same’ speakers? In my opinion that’s extremely arrogant and rude. Music is about enjoying the music and if some simple changes can help people do that, I can’t see why that’s a bad thing.
Sorry to contradict you,
At the moment I have to do it manually and can increase all speakers using the volume button on my phone.
Small in/decreases are proportionate but larger changes unbalance the output.”
What is that, if not a request for proportional volume change in grouped speakers?
And that’s why I explained that I didn’t see it as a viable development option.
I missed that line, so apologise.
However, the idea that you could create pre-defined groups with the option of a preset volume would still help here as you could simple create different presets for different major listening levels. It’s very little development effort for Sonos, but would allow a lot more flexibility in cases like this. It’s not a perfect solution but it’s one that could have uses and could integrate nicely with things like Alexa.
Just my 2 cents, but I think keeping the balance between useful features and clean ui within an app sometimes is not easy. So as a developer you really might have a close eye on what users ask for and how many users ask for that. I can't imagine that so many users are asking for preset volume for preset groups.
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