Move Stereo Pair Bluetooth problem

  • 8 December 2019
  • 49 replies
  • 7317 views

Userlevel 2

Hi,

I have two Move-s in stereo pair which are working great.

I would sometimes like to use one of the speakers in bluetooth mode (connected to Iphone). When I use left speaker (from stereo pair) in bluetooth mode everything works great. However, when I try to use right speaker in bluetooth mode, it connects to Iphone, but no there is no sound.

 

I have tried to factory reset that speaker, and the problem persisted. I have also tried to separate stereo pair, then both speakers were working in bluetooth mode (separately of course) without a problem. I have also tried to switch left/right speakers when creating stereo pair, and then the other speaker was not working in bluetooth mode.

 

Does anybody have similar experience? Is it a software bug?

 

Many thanks for all the help!

 

Kind regards,


49 replies

Userlevel 7

@WolfRaven Sonos allows you to group a stereo pair of Moves together with a Beam and Sub.

Some Android devices can play audio to two Bluetooth speakers using the dual audio feature.

@GuitarSuperstar - no  - that’s exactly what the don’t support. 

With the nonsensical argument that the Moves are meant to be carried around.

 

Regarding playing from TWO Moves: I don’t care what Android supports; here the topic is what SONOS supports.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

Userlevel 7

@WolfRaven If the stereo pair of Moves are set up on the same system as the Beam and Sub, you can absolutely group them all together. You just can’t group them together if they aren’t part of the same system or the Moves are in Bluetooth mode.

You must be referring to connecting the Moves as surrounds to the Beam which is completely different than grouping the speakers.

@GuitarSuperstar ah ok, yes, I can _group_ them, but no stereo, and as you say, no surround.  To my surprise, it does work with the “One”s.  W-T-actual-F?  The expensive ones can’t do it, but the cheaper / smaller ones do?  You’d expect the bigger ones an “upgrade”, not an expensive feature downgrade that just has a few more watts.  wtf.  Really disappointing.

Userlevel 7

@WolfRaven If the Moves are paired as a stereo pair, you can group them with the Beam and Sub as long as they are all part of the same system on the same WiFi network… just like you can group a stereo pair of Ones with the Beam and Sub. But the Ones can be used as surround speakers with the Beam and the Moves cannot.

@GuitarSuperstar ah ok, yes, I can _group_ them, but no stereo, and as you say, no surround.  To my surprise, it does work with the “One”s.  W-T-actual-F?  The expensive ones can’t do it, but the cheaper / smaller ones do?  You’d expect the bigger ones an “upgrade”, not an expensive feature downgrade that just has a few more watts.  wtf.  Really disappointing.

 

Being able to play as a stereo pair and being able to play surround sound channels are two completely different things.   The reason why Sonos Ones can be used as surrounds, and Moves cannot, has nothing to do with price, but with how were they designed for the specific set of features.  Moves were designed to cover a wide space, which is not what you want from a surround speaker.  As well, the Move connects directly over WiFi to your router, not part of Sonos network, because the Move is portable.  It won’t be able to connect directly to your Beam the way Sonos does.  Likewise, Sonos One doesn’t have the same audio capabilities as the Move, lacks battery, bluetooth, and auto trueplay.  Each speaker is the right speaker for the particular need, regardless of price.  The Move isn’t an upgrade over the Sonos One.

@GuitarSuperstar @melvimbe remains the subject of the inability of the Moves to play on more than one speaker when connected via Bluetooth.  That is also by design?  If any cheapo bluetooth box can do it (in stereo, independent of Android or IOs), I’d expect Sonos can develop that and send it as a firmware update.   But apparently it is cheaper to send you guys here to argue away all of the features...

@GuitarSuperstar @melvimbe remains the subject of the inability of the Moves to play on more than one speaker when connected via Bluetooth.  That is also by design?  If any cheapo bluetooth box can do it (in stereo, independent of Android or IOs), I’d expect Sonos can develop that and send it as a firmware update.   But apparently it is cheaper to send you guys here to argue away all of the features...

 

You brought grouping the Move with other speakers (rooms) or using them as surround.  I don’t know why you’re annoyed that people addressed those questions and statements you made about it.

Regarding the specific original thread topic regarding stereo pairing of Moves, I have no idea why it’s not a current feature.  I could speculate, based on other features the Move has but other bluetooth speakers do not, but there’s not much point to that.  I have no idea if the feature can be added via firmware.   The Move doesn’t have bluetooth stereo pairing, and it understandable that customers want that feature.  If it’s more important than being able to play as part of the Sonos speaker system, then people should definitely buy a different speaker.

No one was arguing away a feature.  I and others have just been explaining what Sonos can and cannot do since there have been questions, unclear, or inaccurate statements throughout this thread.

 

@melvimbe can’t find any features that other BT speakers haven’t, really; the most important obviously being able to pair & play from multiple speakers at once (Boom, JBL, etc.), mono or steoero, don’t care really. 

In any case, that really sucks: Even in the shop they advertise stereo, and then WiFi+Bluetooth further down, and nowhere it says “*** BUUUT IF YOU USE BLUETOOTH YOU’LL ONLY EVER GONNA BE ABLE TO PLAY FROM ONE SPEAKER”.

Well, whatever, looks like we’re not gonna solve it here.  Hope some of the Sonos folks read this.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

@melvimbe can’t find any features that other BT speakers haven’t, really; the most important obviously being able to pair & play from multiple speakers at once (Boom, JBL, etc.), mono or steoero, don’t care really. 

 

Huh? A portable bluetooth speaker that connects to a wireless home audio system is most certainly not common for the typical wireless bluetooth speaker.  Not to mention voice assistant capabilities, auto trueplay, airplay compatiblity, etc.  I get that these may not be as important to you and others as bluetooth stereo pairing, but it certainly could have an impact on why/how the feature is not on the Move or Beam, but is on other bluetooth only portable speakers.

 

In any case, that really sucks: Even in the shop they advertise stereo, and then WiFi+Bluetooth further down, and nowhere it says “*** BUUUT IF YOU USE BLUETOOTH YOU’LL ONLY EVER GONNA BE ABLE TO PLAY FROM ONE SPEAKER”.

Well, whatever, looks like we’re not gonna solve it here.  Hope some of the Sonos folks read this.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

I generally think that’s it’s rather important to research products and avoid assumptions whenever possible. Know that features you expect and make sure you get explicit confirmation that the feature is there.  It’s too easy to do research and too many different products out there with different features. 

That said, people are not always even aware of the assumptions they are making, and Sonos could do a bit better to make some statements about the more common assumptions, like stereo pairing, without saying anything negative about their own product.  Seems like meeting in the middle  would be the best way to avoid customer frustration about missing features after they’ve bought the product.

Looking forward to new firmware to resolve this issue. 

Userlevel 2

Looking forward to new firmware to resolve this issue. 

Have you received or verified any conclusive confirmation that this will be resolved in the next firmware release?

Looking forward to new firmware to resolve this issue. 

Have you received or verified any conclusive confirmation that this will be resolved in the next firmware release?

I have not but I want it badly. I should return my Moves cause they are currently useless and a waste of $800. 

Userlevel 1
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Bluetooth stereo pairing is such a strange omission for the Move and Roam, would love to see it implemented. Hopefully it will be done at some point, Sonos has actually been pretty good at listening to customer requests and adding missing features to their products this far.

I wish I have read this before I bought the 2nd Move. Sigh! The Move delivers excellent sound from my Sony Walkman via BT mode. I thought it would be an excellent idea to listen to all my CD songs (2000 CDs collections in total) stored in my Walkman. So, without given much thought, I just ordered the 2nd Move (4 months after I got my first Move - in February 2021). To my horror, I realised that it can't be paired in BT stedeo mode. I called the distributor to return but to no avail. My 2nd Move costed me S$729.00 and it is sitting on my shelf collecting dust. I think the company can easily develop this capability as this technology is not new in the market, and also if Sonos has the ability to develop such a good speaker, to me is the best BT sound I have heard so far, it is a piece of cake for Sonos to update the software to enable 2 Move speakers to deliver stedeo sound via BT mode. I really hope it will happen soon. Keeping my fingers crossed. I am keeping my faith with Sonos that they will not disappoint me. Really hope I can use my 2nd Move speaker soon. 

@melvimbe can’t find any features that other BT speakers haven’t, really; the most important obviously being able to pair & play from multiple speakers at once (Boom, JBL, etc.), mono or steoero, don’t care really. 

 

Huh? A portable bluetooth speaker that connects to a wireless home audio system is most certainly not common for the typical wireless bluetooth speaker.  Not to mention voice assistant capabilities, auto trueplay, airplay compatiblity, etc.  I get that these may not be as important to you and others as bluetooth stereo pairing, but it certainly could have an impact on why/how the feature is not on the Move or Beam, but is on other bluetooth only portable speakers.

 

In any case, that really sucks: Even in the shop they advertise stereo, and then WiFi+Bluetooth further down, and nowhere it says “*** BUUUT IF YOU USE BLUETOOTH YOU’LL ONLY EVER GONNA BE ABLE TO PLAY FROM ONE SPEAKER”.

Well, whatever, looks like we’re not gonna solve it here.  Hope some of the Sonos folks read this.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

I generally think that’s it’s rather important to research products and avoid assumptions whenever possible. Know that features you expect and make sure you get explicit confirmation that the feature is there.  It’s too easy to do research and too many different products out there with different features. 

That said, people are not always even aware of the assumptions they are making, and Sonos could do a bit better to make some statements about the more common assumptions, like stereo pairing, without saying anything negative about their own product.  Seems like meeting in the middle  would be the best way to avoid customer frustration about missing features after they’ve bought the product.

SONOS should allow us to return the 2nd Move speaker. Cheers! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Depending om customer protection legislation you can return devices within a certain time frame. When bought from them directly Sonos has a return policy themselves that might be better:

Sonos return policy: 45 days or 100 days ? | Sonos Community

This problem is going on for a year or over a year. Does sonos care or listen to what the customers are requesting that they want 2 sonos moves paired using bluetooth so they can experience stereo sound. I am new to sonos and I just got one sonos move and will buy one more but by reading the blog seems like still a problem. I probably would return this and buy something else. Please fix the issue as other bluetooth speaker can do this. Its embarrassing.

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Sonos could be of the opinion there is no problem to fix, since they made a conscious choice, maybe even based on technical reasons….. We do not know.

Userlevel 1

I would not have bought my first MOVE speaker or the second MOVE speaker later if I knew it could not form a true stereo pair while in Bluetooth. I now have spent 800.00 on something I did not need and was misled on. And it was not easy to find out that Bluetooth pairing did not work after hours of trying. I am not very happy with the deliberate hiding of this by SONUS. I love the sound that they produce while hooked to WI-FI but they knowingly hid the fact that it will not do a stereo pair while on Bluetooth. JUST WRONG! Shareholder/Stock price over customers does not work in the long run. SAD AND DISAPOINTED.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

I now have spent 800.00 on something I did not need and was misled on.


​​​​​​I love the sound that they produce while hooked to WI-FI but they knowingly hid the fact that it will not do a stereo pair while on Bluetooth.


Who misled you?

 

How did they hide the limitation? The FAQ’s say:

Can I stereo pair Move?

Yes. You can pair two Moves on WiFi for stereo sound.

Can Move stereo pair or group while in Bluetooth?

No. Move will only stereo pair or group with your Sonos system when connected to WiFi.


How is that misleading or hidden?

I wonder if this may be a limitation of iOS over Sonos? Android stereo pairing is pretty seamless but it appears this is more native to Android.

 

Apple is less friendly with non-Apple devices providing minimal support with third party devices (like my bluetooth Samsung Earbuds).

 

Maybe Sonos could do more or maybe their hands are tied?

I was sold on the idea of stereo but need to be on bluetooth (portable speakers). I have to return them now. Very disappointed.

Before you purchase a replacement, I would encourage you to check to see if it functions the way you want. Since Sonos is a networked speaker first, and a Bluetooth speaker second, it doesn’t have all the things you may be looking for, and you’re paying for functionality / hardware that you just don’t need. 

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