In game audio is worse

Have you tried going to audio settings and lowering every selection (announcer, crowd, arena music, etc) except said sound effects? Then raise master volume and relatively speaking you should be good. 

Skating is noisy this year, imo. I noticed it right away in my first game. It's annoying when the crowd is silent or when you play in outdoor rink.

I've tried lowering everything to an 8 (and turning commentary off) but I feel like if you need to lower EVERYTHING ELSE beyond that, then the audio mix is completely screwed up. 

I just don't get why they changed it when it sounded great in 24. 

Also, the master volume is at 10 by default. 

Haven't really noticed that but I only play with NHL teams so maybe that's why? I DID notice that the skating sound effect itself doesn't sound as good as it did last year... just like the rest of the sound FX.

EA_Aljoany word on this? The in-game audio mix is noticeably worse than it has been in any of the previous iterations of the game. I've tried lowering everything that wouldn't be involved in an arena experience and the game sound effects are still muddied and unclear. The skating sounds are worse. The shooting sounds are almost non-existent besides perfect one-Ts (whereas snap-shots sounded POWERFUL last year, for example). Even ringing the post is worse than last year.

What happened? Were these intentional changes? Can you ask the team for us? Maybe they're not aware that anything is different, somehow? 

i am playing on PS5 and i have to say i love the sounds in NHL 25 compared to 24. I really love the new sounds for sticks, skating etc. It sound more realistic and way better. Maybe it depends on which console you play, if you use headset or TV sound output or something else, but for me playing with headphones the sound feels great. I have lot of other issues, but the sound seems nice to me.