Sony headphones
too quiet on a Mac

Check the Mac's volume and output

1. Open Control Center → Sound and check that your headphones are the selected output. If another device is selected, the volume keys change that device instead.
2. Drag the volume slider up, or press the volume-up key a few times.
3. In System Settings → Sound → Output, select the headphones and check the Balance slider is in the middle. If one ear sounds quieter, an off-center balance is the likely reason.

Depending on the headphones and the connection, the headphones' own volume control either moves the Mac's slider or adds to it separately. Either way, if both are low the result is quiet, so turn up both.

Check the app's own volume

The Mac's volume is only the last step. Music apps, web video players, Zoom and Teams each have their own volume, and some lower loud tracks on purpose:

• Turn up the volume inside the app or the web player.
• In streaming apps, a volume-normalization setting can make music quieter overall. In Apple's Music app it's called Sound Check.
• If only calls are quiet, check the call app's speaker volume. Call audio also uses a different Bluetooth mode with less detail; see bad call audio.

Check the headphones

• Their own volume: use the headphones' volume control (a swipe or a button, depending on the model and its settings) to turn them up.
• Fit: loose ear cups let bass and level escape. Adjust the headband so the cups seal around your ears.
• Noise canceling: in a noisy place, outside sound makes music seem quiet. Turn on noise canceling, which lets you listen at a lower volume. With Open Sound Connect it's on My Device (⌘1) or ⌥⌘N; see noise canceling on a Mac.
• Speak-to-Chat: on the WH-1000XM6 and WH-1000XX, Speak-to-Chat lowers the volume when it hears you talk, and on the WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM5 it pauses or mutes. If the music drops when you speak or hum, turn it off on the Voice page (⌘3).

Check the equalizer

The equalizer runs inside the headphones, and it changes loudness as well as tone. A preset or a curve that pulls most bands down sounds quieter, even if the Mac's volume is the same.

• Choose the Off preset if your headphones list it, or open the Sound page (⌘2) and choose Flatten to set every band to 0.
• On models with Clear Bass (WH-1000XM2 to WH-1000XM5), a little of it adds weight without raising every band.
• Large boosts can make loud passages distort, so raise bands in small steps.

The equalizer page explains each control, and the preset library has curves to start from. The MDR-1000X has no equalizer, so this doesn't apply to it.

What Open Sound Connect can and can't do

Open Sound Connect has no volume control for your music: volume stays with macOS, your apps and the headphones. The only level it changes is the Voice Guidance volume on newer models, which is for the headphones' spoken announcements, not for what you're listening to. It can help indirectly, through noise canceling, Speak-to-Chat and the equalizer above.

Listen safely

It's tempting to turn everything up to the maximum. Prolonged loud listening can damage your hearing, so raise the volume only until you can hear comfortably, use noise canceling instead of volume to drown out a noisy room, and take breaks. If the headphones still sound unusually quiet after all of the above, try them with your phone; if they're quiet there too, contact Sony support.

If there's no sound at all rather than too little, see connected but no sound.