[fidotron]

Have you calibrated the speakers with their TruePlay thing on recently? If that has gone wrong it may be the cause.

It seems very strange that the relative volumes would be so different on AirPods and via Sonos otherwise.

Your side note is totally true. Since the “new” app it has gone to hell. Has now joined the queue of things in need of replacements in this house.

[gtvwill]

Try installing it in commercial spaces with say a dozen+ devices. It's a nightmare. It's so God damn crap at syncing audio and introduced lag and glitches to audio despite all network conditions being rock solid. Pita to work with. Pretty bonkers given the price of the devices.

[garrettgarcia]

I worked on the TruePlay product. It won't help in this case. Even though most streaming services do loudness normalization to keep tracks at around the same volume as each other, some are still louder than others.

[fidotron]

Sorry I meant if a bad calibration had sent the EQ off so a track sounds unusually loud relative to others via Airpods. I have certainly had to recalibrate mine when it woke up with no bass at all and everything was super quiet.

It only makes sense as a problem if there is something about the unique combination of Sonos and music or it would have the same relative difference when played on Airpods.