Enthusiast II

Answered

Volume levels too high after 15.2 update

170 replies
12392 views

Good evening,

My system updated to 15.2 today and following this update, all of my speakers’ volumes are easily double what they were before.

I run one of my Play 1’s at volume 4 at night and have done for years, but volume 4 is now way too loud and even setting it to 1 is very loud.

I have 2x Play 1’s, 1x Play 3 and the latest Five and it’s the same on all of them.

I’ve had to set a volume limit of 50% on each speaker but now all of my volume references for me and my family are all over the place which is incredibly annoying.

Any ideas?

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Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @Tom_69 et al

Thank you @Tom_69 for bringing it to our attention that we did not yet update this thread - this was an error on our part, and apologies for the lateness.

With the advent of spatial audio from Apple Music becoming available to play on Sonos devices, Apple expressed an interest in actioning a change due to the volumes of stereo tracks being inconsistent with each other and with tracks from other music providers. In line with this, and with long-standing requests from our customers to apply volume normalisation to tracks, we have added to our speakers a response to the normalisation figures provided.

The current behaviour of the sound volume is intentional and by design. Due to the way we now utilise volume normalisation metadata from Apple Music in update 15.2, average loudness is now better aligned between different tracks. Some stereo tracks may appear louder than before and some stereo tracks may appear quieter as a result, but as I said this is expected behaviour.

Knowledge of these changes were not widely distributed internally, hence the reason why we raised this as a possible "bug" on the basis of everyone's experience on this thread. We aim to improve this in the future to minimise the chance of this sort of misunderstanding happening again.

I understand this is not ideal for everyone, and as such I have internally raised as a feature request the option to disable this normalisation process at will from within the Sonos app.

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

Airgetlam

Have you tried a reboot of your speakers (power cycle?).

I’ve also updated a bunch of PLAY:1s and PLAY:3s to 15.2, and have not experienced any change whatsoever in volume, thankfully.

However, you may want to submit a system diagnostic, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

Bruce

T

Tom_69Author

Enthusiast II

Have you tried a reboot of your speakers (power cycle?).

I’ve also updated a bunch of PLAY:1s and PLAY:3s to 15.2, and have not experienced any change whatsoever in volume, thankfully.

However, you may want to submit a system diagnostic, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

Cheers, I haven’t actually tried the power cycle yet (doh!) so will do that on each speaker and test.

Good to know you’ve upgraded ok.

Airgetlam

Well, it’s a stretch, since I’m not sure I can understand why it’s changed volume….doesn’t make much sense to me, but hey, I’m not there on the ground. But that’s why I included the whole “call Sonos” thing. It’s certainly foreign to my update experience. As I type this, I’m listening to a pair of PLAY:1s that flank my computer screen (but are not connected to the computer, I just use the controller on the computer to play music).

Oh...it might be helpful to know the source of music, too. Pretty much most of what I play is from my NAS, but if you’re streaming from a particular service provider, that might be a key part of the whole possibility too. But again, guessing at this point :)

Bruce

T

Tom_69Author

Enthusiast II

Well, it’s a stretch, since I’m not sure I can understand why it’s changed volume….doesn’t make much sense to me, but hey, I’m not there on the ground. But that’s why I included the whole “call Sonos” thing. It’s certainly foreign to my update experience. As I type this, I’m listening to a pair of PLAY:1s that flank my computer screen (but are not connected to the computer, I just use the controller on the computer to play music).

Oh...it might be helpful to know the source of music, too. Pretty much most of what I play is from my NAS, but if you’re streaming from a particular service provider, that might be a key part of the whole possibility too. But again, guessing at this point :)

The music service is a good point, I started to consider whether that is the cause.

Power cycle doesn’t help but it does seem like Apple Music has the higher volume compared to BBC Sounds or Sonos Radio. Will do some more testing tomorrow and then contact Sonos I think.

Never had anything like this in over 10 years of Sonos ownership, it’s very odd!

G

GrandpaTrike

Lyricist I

Same issue here! I thought I was crazy so I decided to check with the Googs. Seems like it’s only at the lower volume levels at night. Under 5 is literally twice as loud. I use Apple Music as well. My background bedtime levels in my various rooms now keep me up at night. :( Sucks not being able to go below the new levels. Even the volume set at 1 is too loud for the areas near our bedroom now.

Hopefully we can get some answers.

S

SamC15

Lyricist III

I’m having the exact same issue. Keen to hear of any solution.

My system is now too loud to use as background music at night for my kids.

T

Tom_69Author

Enthusiast II

Glad it’s not just me then. I’m testing it right now on another speaker and Apple Music is definitely the issue.

If you can, please log a fault with Sonos as this is the sort of thing only they can fix, and it’s driving me mad!

T

Tom_69Author

Enthusiast II

AirPlay seems fine, it’s only when directly streaming Apple Music from within Sonos that the volume is so loud. Unfortunately for me, the speakers I use at night don’t support AirPlay.