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Play5 sound "flattens" out - nudging volume fixes it

  • 16 July 2022
  • 2 replies
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L

I’ve been recently noticing, that while playing streaming music (livexlive or pandora) on my Play5 (legacy) the sound will sometimes feel “flat” - like it is playing on a small, low quality speaker. 

If I nudge the volume up a bit - the bass and fullness kick back in - at first I thought maybe I was playing too low of volume - but I can move the volume back down a bit and it stays.  For a while.  After a few minutes, I lose the bass again - in the middle of a song - (literally JUST happened while I was typing this sentence!).

 

Pausing and restarting, doesn’t ‘seem to help - but tweaking the volume up and then down again, brings back my fullness of sound.

I am NOT playing music loudly - my volume “dot” is less than a quarter of the way across the bar. 

 

Anyone run into something like this - is there a fix?

 

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Best answer by Corry P 19 July 2022, 11:55

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2 replies

buzz

Are you using the “Loudness” setting?

Is there a complete loss of bass? Are all of the drivers (speakers) working? You could listen through a paper towel tube to focus on individual speakers if necessary. There could be a bad connection to one of the drivers. Is the PLAY:5 sensitive to physical shock? For example lift an end of the speaker slightly, then releases it. A healthy speaker will not respond to this mild physical shock. I’m not suggesting that you drop the speaker from several inches or more, we just want to shake it up a bit.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @LeeAnn 

Thanks for your post!

Given that you can resolve the problem temporarily with a software action, I don’t think there’s anything physically wrong with your Play:5, though @buzz’s suggestions are certainly worth checking.

If unplugging it from power for 20 seconds or so doesn’t fix the issue, then I’d recommend a factory reset of your speaker. If completed successfully, you will get a flashing green light - you can then add the product back to your system in the Sonos smartphone app. Repeating this will not help - if the first (successful) factory reset doesn’t fix it, further attempts won’t either.

If that doesn’t help, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, though at this point the unit may just need replaced. It - along with every other Sonos device you own! - is eligible for an upgrade discount. For the Play:5, this means you can get a 30% discount on any product Sonos makes, or any bundle - if you purchase direct from our website. You are not restricted in any way to which unit you purchase, nor is there a time limit - this offer is open-ended, so if the timing isn’t great, leave it a while. Simply go to our login page, log in and go to Upgrade to start the process of getting a discount voucher (it will be added to your account, and automatically applied to the most expensive item in your shopping basket the next time you purchase). Please note that the multiple discounts available to you cannot be combined for one item, but you could use multiple vouchers in one shopping transaction, for multiple devices - check which bundles are available first though, as they’ll only use up one voucher. As your existing system is on S1, you may want to restrict your purchases to units that will work with your existing system - these would likely be Sonos Ones (not SLs). Any units like the Five that only support S2 would need to be on a separate Sonos system in your home.

This sounds like a hard sell, but really isn’t - it just looks like you were unaware of the offers already available to you. I want the factory reset to work for you.

I hope this helps.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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