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Was at one of our supplier's showroom today and they had a Sonos 1. It filled the whole showroom with music. Was really surprised when I found the source of music.
We have tried a Bose sound link mini in our shop and it was totally lost.
Obviously I can't do a side by side comparison but does anyone on here have experience of both of them?
Go to richer sounds if they stock both and they'll let you listen.
I have a few Sonos 1s and they are excellent bits of kit. Are you sure they didn't have two in a stereo pair though as that would push out a big chunk of sound?
I have a Play 3 and one of their sound bars too and to be honest I would have had two Play 1s instead of the 3 if I did it again.
There was one Sonos in the cafe bit and one in the showroom. Filled everywhere with sound.
We have the Sonos Play 1 (the predecessor to Sonos 1) and it packs a very impressive punch for it's size. Not as good as our pucker Hifi, but very impressive and the excellent Spotify integration means we use it all the time.
Just got another pair of play 1s from the Sonos refurb site.... That's 6 now 😲
Got a play 3 as well but it's not as good as it's smaller brothers and I see Sonos have dropped it now.
If I want to listen to internet radio from my phone via the Sonos do I still get phone alerts coming through?
If we listen to podcasts in the car every time I get a notification the podcast is interrupted.
If I want to listen to internet radio from my phone via the Sonos do I still get phone alerts coming through?
Nope, Sonos connects to the speaker rather than the phone output being directed to the car speaker.
Sonos is WiFi rather than Bluetooth so you don’t get that problem.
Yep just bough another Sonos one and have created a stereo pair.
Great bits of kit and Sounds good enough to me listening to some doom metal!
Sonos speakers (especially the Play One/ 1) are seriously impressive bits of kit. Ideally you'll want 2 for better sound though.
The thing is, the buggering around with the app can be a royal pain in the backside, and it doesn't allow any plug and play functionality. It's app or nowt.
Is it worth paying the extra for the voice activated one then?
Not in my own personal opinion. We've got an echo dot which gets used a little and a Beam (with Alexa) which we never use Alexa on.
We have a sonos 1 and it's ok. We're not going to buy a second though.
The issues I find is that it will not connect with my WD Mycloud network drive so cant play any of the music I own, only spotify and the radio.
However Spotify is in my wife's name which means that if I'm at home, and I work from home, I cannot use spotify when Mrs Scruff is listening to spotify out and about, despite having spotify family.
Therefore it only gets used to listen to the internet radio.
It's a "meh" from me - I expected it to be great as well 🙁
Do you have to beam internet radio from your phone?
Excuse my ignorance. I would really just like to turn something on and have radio come out.
Currently we have an old iPhone on ye olde fashioned dock which has become tempremental .
We have two of the newer ‘ones’ with Alexa built in (recent update has added Google Assistant).
Find me and the missus use the voice a lot whereas daughter doesn’t.
We have Apple Music family but only my account attached at the minute. Need to figure out how to add individual accounts if possible.
As for radio it has TuneIn built in. Ask for a station and it does it. No phone needed. Same as with Apple Music and no doubt others. Once set up a simple ‘play x’ has yet to fail in doing as we’ve asked.
I’m impressed. We listened to a few including the smaller Naim one but didn’t rate that as much for the price.
Haven’t tried them in stereo yet as they are in separate rooms. Great for bedrooms as we have set up. No doubt as good in a kitchen. In living room I’d probably have two.
Got one in the kitchen. It's ace, use it all the time. Alexa doesn't seem to play with Spotify though?
If you can’t play your own music on a Network Drive on your Sonos then you must be doing something wrong (I think!) - that’s certainly exactly how I play my own music on my Sonos system and it works perfectly.
Alexa will play Spotify on Sonos but it’s (like Alexa in general) flipping annoying as he/she/it nearly always gets things wrong and it’s akways quicker just to choose through the app.
If Sonos has updated the app (or the firmware on the speakers) you need to go into the Alexa app and disable Sonos then re-enable.
Do you have to beam internet radio from your phone?
You connect to radio via the Sonos App, which I think sets up the Sonos to stream directly (it does with Spotify) so you can turn off your phone and the Sonos keeps playing....
I'll just run a test..., yep my Sonos is playing Absolute 80s with my phone on Airplane mode and the Sonos app killed....
Out of interest if I got one of the new ones would it still pair with my old one but then be voice controlled, just debating a second one ta
The Sonos connects directly to the WiFi and streams everything direct. You're phone/tablet is used as the "remote" via the Sonos app but all music, radio etc is via WiFi not the phone
Wish I never saw this thread, have been wanting to start putting Sono's 1's around the house since we purchased it, was really keen on the Alexa for when in the shower play, pause, volume up or down.
@RDL-82 does the voice stuff work with your apple music? we would have the same set up as you? Then do you find you use the sonos app still or do you select individual speakers via your iPhone musis choose output menu?
The issues I find is that it will not connect with my WD Mycloud network drive so cant play any of the music I own, only spotify and the radio.
If you can’t play your own music on a Network Drive on your Sonos then you must be doing something wrong (I think!)
Sonos' kernel used the old SMB v1 for local file access which is now largely deprecated. I think they have now updated to use a different method so it may be worth trying again if you have not tried for a while (and your Sonos system is up to date). Failing that you may be able to change the MyCloud settings to use SMB v1.
They supported HTTP from rel 8.6 (last year)...
If you're not interested in the Alexa features, then sonos have the original Play 1 certified refurbished for £119.
Or the Play One (gen 1) for £159
On Sonos website.
What's the difference between the 2 FP?
I don't think I want Alexa as I like to know what song is playing on the radio so would always have my phone to hand.
Unless of course I can ask alexa "what song is this?"
Play 1 is just a wireless speaker, no Alexa. This model is a few years old now.
Play One is the first gen with Alexa and newer internals.
I believe the refurbished units are returns using sonos 100 day return policy.
Best to check before buying though.
Yeah voice working fine with Apple Music.
Say ‘Alexa’ then ‘play my music’ and that’s exactly what it does. ‘My music’ could be replaced with an artist/genre/specific song. Had no issues so far.
Skips forward/backward. Pauses. Plays. Adjust volume all as you’d expect.
I have yet to add any other family meme era accounts to it but assume it will just be a case of saying ‘play oikeiths music’ or ‘play mrsoikeiths music’
We use the voice a fair bit in bedroom to turn up/down or set a sleep timer as well as the typical commands and it has so far had no issues correctly responding to different voices.
As for the app. I use a mixture tbh. Just depends what I’m doing.
If I’m on iPlayer or soundcloud for example I’ll use the iPhone airplay controls.
Use the Sonos app sporadically tbh as can do most things I/we need without opening it. The app seems to be more about setting up and adding services then a dedicated player.
Overall I’m certainly happy with them and am considering a set up of some description downstairs as since having Apple Music and personal listening trending more towards streaming services we no longer use the separates downstairs.
@RDL-82 thanks for the response, now to check the bank balance and plan some purchases!
Out of interest if I got one of the new ones would it still pair with my old one but then be voice controlled, just debating a second one ta
Everything Sonos works with each other.
If two or more are grouped together then you can use the capabilities of the newer ones with that group - so add a Sonos One and you can Airplay or use Alexa commands and they affect the group.
Tbh I don't use the voice stuff much but it's very handy for the one in my home office when the phone rings and I can say "alexa, pause" rather than faff about finding the button in the app or desktop software.
Although, I don't think you can set up a mix of Play:one and Play 1 as a stereo pair... has to be 2 identical models unless that requirement has been removed recently.
Bought a Play One for the new kitchen diner (it is a pretty big room), wanted to like it, thought it was bobbins for sound returned it and bought a stereo pair of active speakers fed by a Chromecast Audio originally and latterly joined by an Apple Airport thingy. Much betterer for sound but not as neat a solution. Decided that volume and SQ were more important than form factor.
Yep a pair of speakers will always outperform a mono speaker setup.
Many thanks for the replies
Sonos stuff is really designed for multiple rooms/groups - buying a single speaker is somewhat missing the point .... unless it's a play 5!
Meant to ask when I originally replied.
Seeing as Google Assistant is now available has anyone used it? How does it compare to Alexa? Better/worse/much-a-muchness?
I’ve personally had no issue with Alexa just curious more than anything.
It's not available in the UK until July I believe.
But generally I hear that Google assistant is better at answering questions basically because it pulls on the full Google 'knowledgebank'.
It’s available now or at least I’m seeing the option to set it up via the app.
Had a device update last week followed by an app update and it appeared then. Website updated to show it too.
Tbh, beyond controlling music and a few other simple commands we don’t use the voice so the ability to accurately answer random q’s is for us irrelevant. Still, curiosity and all that!
It’s available now or at least I’m seeing the option to set it up via the app.
Yup. I was using it last week. I am in the beta program, but not the Google one, so assume open to everyone. Switching between the two is a bit involved, so you will probably be sticking with just the one, although if you have 2 paired I guess you could have 1 set to Alexa and the other set to Google.
Personally I prefer Alexa as 1) better wake word, and 2) you can set her to not acknowledge after as request.
For example:
Me: Alexa, turn on the light.
Alexa: Quiet tone.
Me: Hey Google! (shudder), turn on the light.
Google: Turning on the light!