Answered

Volume levels too high after 15.2 update

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

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?

icon

Best answer by Corry P 23 August 2023, 10:31

View original

170 replies

User199227
Userlevel 2
Badge

Normalization is not the issue for me. It’s a great goal for Sonos and I hope that it can be improved upon in the future. I understand the difficulties in doing so, particularly across different services, and to a great extent that’s not a Sonos issue or something that Sonos can really fix.
 

What *is* a Sonos issue (and something Sonos *can* fix) is the overall playback volume at a given volume setting. Going from a volume of zero (silence) to a volume setting of “1” should be subtle. A “1” should be barely perceptible. A “2” should be a tiny bit louder, etc.

I shouldn’t have to go from silence to “way too freaking loud”. I see no reason that Sonos can’t adjust what a volume setting of “1” means for their hardware’s output.
 

It’s ok if a “1” is too quiet and I just have to turn the volume up to reach my desired level. What is NOT ok is not being able to turn the volume down low enough. If the Normalization process turns up the “gain” too high, then just lower the hardware’s output at a given volume setting!

O
Userlevel 2

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.

This is just completely BS…

It is understandable that there is no magic fix to normalize the volume between all kind of services, but the current volume for Apple Music is just way too loud. All that is needed is to trim down the volume of Apple Music, in order to be it more equal to other sources. Currently, it is impossible to use a playlist that contains both Apple Music and your own library. It is also impossible to play Apple Music at night, even with a volume of 1, it is too loud.

How can you say this behavior is intentional? @Corry P ? It just does not make any sense.

N
Userlevel 2

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.

I think you missed the point.. we all love (or to be honest at least I love) normalized volume across our library. 

The problem is that now there isn’t enough “notches” od the lower end of volume settings so after this change we could get a SILENCE and then the next lowest possible notch is WAY TOO LOUD to listen at night..

I’ve again compared my Sonos to Alexa and Homepod and the lowest possible Sonos volume notch (1%) is roughly compared to Alexa 15% and Homepod 10%

Again - the problem isn’t the normalization but the volume settings on the lower end of the scale..

just my 2 cents

Bohdan

M
Userlevel 2

It’s Apple Music. Not some random radio station or service. Between them and Spotify….that’s it. Make them both work really really well. The “it’s not us” and “we’d have to do it for hundreds of services” rationale is beneath a company of Sonos’s size. Clearly we all love the product and it’s not working properly if you can’t turn the music down. That’s a core feature….not a niche “ask” from a few users. 

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

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.

Hi Corry,

Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, this is completely unacceptable from a customer perspective and I am absolutely shocked that Sonos did not understand the implications of such a change to it’s user base. Can you raise an official complaint on behalf of all Apple Music users and everyone who has shared the frustration on your forums please?

The update renders many user’s systems as unusable in certain scenarios since update 15.2, mine included. I have not been able to use my Sonos system at night (which I’ve been doing happily for circa 7 years) since update 15.2 as the volume does not go low enough. This is not acceptable.

As @thkl highlights above, there is such a wild difference between music services that the Sonos experience is now horrendous day-to-day and involves constantly changing volumes when you want to enjoy different services. I shouldn’t have to explain to my household that they must change the volume levels to at least 50% of what they’ve been using for years when playing Apple Music. This is not acceptable. As you just removed iOS hardware volume controls too, you must go into the app to make these volume changes.

Sonos clearly does not care about or understand their customers if a change like this was made without any testing or consideration. The irony is, I’ve never had any issues with the volume levels of Apple Music tracks on my Sonos system at all.

Please escalate your ‘feature request’ as a matter of urgency so that your customers can turn this bug off and continue to actually use their Sonos systems fully again.

Regards,

An incredibly frustrated Sonos customer called Tom.

G
Userlevel 2

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.

C
Userlevel 2

My Sonos system was perfect before 15.2 At the very least, let us revert back to a prior firmware. I do not have any Era speakers, nor do I play Atmos through the app, thus being able to go back to 15.2 would work for me.

AirPlay has allowed for volume normalization for me for Apple Music (through Apple’s settings), but AirPlay is buggy and consistently knocks speakers off. Playing Apple Music through the app, like others have stated, the 1% volume of AM is STILL too loud (especially at night), and there needs to be a normalization option for when streaming Spotify and/or Apple Music within the app so we don’t have to rely on shoddy AirPlay. 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

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
T
Userlevel 2

Hi @Corry P,

 

thanks for the explanation. This sounds clear to me but it makes no sense for me. The current state of my setup is: online radio is much quieter so I have to crank up the volume. Next I switch to Apple Music and it will blast my ears away.  
 

the goal for the customer should be an equal volume between all music services the customer uses. And he should not be forced to make volume adjustments every time. If there is a need to setup a „normalization level“ for every service manually by the customer once then ok, but the current state is not acceptable…

 

best

Thomas 

D
Userlevel 1

Sorry, this cannot be functioning as designed as previously the volume levels were fine, the fact Sonos has tweaked the design and it is now unusable is an appealing position for a company with this many users.  The request is simple, fix the scaling of the volume so 1 is barely audible with a smooth transition all the way through.  
there should be laws against updating firm or software that renders a device useless for the purpose if was intended.  I use my Sonos 1 in the bedroom when going to sleep but it is now useless for this.

please fix this quickly

M
Userlevel 1

Just to add, my thanks to @Tom_69 for keeping this thread on this issue alive until a fix is provided. 

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Just another update to say this is still not fixed and there’s absolutely no word at all from Sonos as to what their progress is. 

T
Userlevel 2

Hi @Corry P ,

 

yes I’m aware of this. It would be nice if there is a magic way to make the audio levels consistent over all services and tracks. But there is no such a way. I don’t have a better idea as a little slider for advanced like settings, for every service the customer has installed, where the audio level can be adjusted as „a setup like thing“ so it will be all the same level for using the volume slider for a speaker or group. So that I can adjust the online radio a little bit louder and Apple a little bit softer and the volume is the same on eg level 10 in the app. 
 

 

this may be not the best and easiest solution for all customers but if anyone has this problem he can solve this. 
 

best 

Thomas 

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

This issue is still not fixed in update 15.8 and there is no option to remove the volume bug that Sonos applied. 
 

Still millions of your customers unable to use their Sonos products properly as a result of Sonos changing how the system works @Corry P 

 

K
Userlevel 2

Same for me, normalizations within one source and across multiple providers is a great goal and would be a much appreciated improvement. 

However, in the case of Apple Music a volume level of 1 is simply MUCH to loud already. We were using the alam clock function of Sonos for years which used a Apple Music Playlist to wake us at Volume 1. Since the 15.2 Update the volume is disturbingly loud and we switched away from playing an Apple Music playlist to playing a radio station instead. 

S

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
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Decided to do some more tests utilising live listen dB meter on my iPhone with AirPod Pros.

Stood about 1 meter away from a Play 1 speaker in a silent house, the in-person difference with Apple Music is still very stark and obvious which is backed up by the results. I didn’t pick any particular tracks, I just played the Top Hits playlist from Apple Music, Charts Top 50 playlist in Soundcloud and whatever music was playing on Radio 1 BBC Sounds.

For reference, we have used volume setting 15 for many years on all of our Sonos alarms to give a nice background music volume in our house and also used (until Sonos broke it) volume setting 1 in the bedrooms at night.

Sonos volume set to 15

  • Apple Music 52 dB
  • BBC Sounds 37 dB
  • SoundCloud 36 dB

Sonos volume set to 1

  • Apple Music 29 dB
  • BBC Sounds 16 dB

Cannot wait until they fix this as the experience since it’s been broken has been terrible, especially losing the ability to play music at night in bedrooms.

K
Userlevel 2

@Corry P : it would be great hearing back from you on this matter. Anything that you can share? Even if the implementation needs time it would be great to hear that the issue was at least acknowledged and is being worked on.

G
Userlevel 2

After a half hour of chat support, we have a fix! Remove your Apple Music account from your system. Reset the Sonos Controller App, then re-add your Apple Music to the services and the volumes seem fixed…….for now.

Hope this helps everyone else that lands on this thread!

C
Userlevel 2

Still no resolution for this.

I ended up chatting in with Sonos support who ran diagnostics and their advice was for me to go through my Apple Music library of thousands upon thousands of songs and delete the files that I've added manually over the years (I began curating a library in 2003) that are .mp3 files and were uploaded (some were not matched) to AM upon subscribing and delete them and redownload/add the Apple Music (AAC) files – not to mention risking losing those songs if I ever chose to unsubscribe to AM. 

I LITERALLY played the same song (my .mp3 variant that was uploaded and not matched AND the Apple Music version) and there is an extreme difference in the volume levels. Yes, I will obviously replace my .mp3 variant of this song with the AM variant, but this should not be the fix that users must audit their libraries for songs with volume inconsistencies. There was NO issue with 15.2 and prior. 

If they can’t pinpoint this, they need to introduce a “sound check” feature or similar for the system. 

I am SO tired of having to use AirPlay (which sucks) to listen to my AM library. 

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

I spent some time troubleshooting with support and we couldn’t fix it, removing/re-adding services and the app doesn’t work for me. 
 

I’ve noticed on other forums people are having different issues with Apple Music after updating to 15.2 so I think this was generally a terrible update for Apple Music users. 

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Had a response from Sonos support today. Now confirmed that their developers are aware of the issue with Apple Music volume and are working on a fix, but no ETA. 

M
Userlevel 1

@Corry P why can't these imposed changes that 15.2 implemented be reverted? Surely this would fix the issue.

Amazon music also suffers here. Noticeably between songs due to the different audio formats, but there is no may to limit/set it to only play Dobly, Ultra HD or HD tracks. 

Like most here I've had forgo listening to music on my sonos system due to the volume inconsistencies, and previous sonos advice (e.g. stream to different speaker/system or use different audio source) is poor support. 

T
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Update 15.11 has still not fixed the Apple Music playback volume issue. I also haven’t received any further response from the CEO correspondence. 

It’s now 9 months since Sonos introduced this issue and still no sign that they want to fix it. 

Maybe see this earlier post in the thread from Sonos Staff…

It’s gone forward as a ‘feature request’, but there’s no saying anything might change here. Sonos never announce their development updates either, looking at other feature requests that have been put forward in the past.

I’ve read it, it’s not acceptable (hence why I contacted the CEO and got a response). The issue still exists and I’ll keep updating everyone until the issue is actually fixed. 

C
Userlevel 2

My issue is that apple music songs are no longer playing at a consistent volume when streaming through the Sonos controller app. Tried disconnecting service, resetting app, and readding back with no success. 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings