Alexa Multiroom music simultaneously on Sonos and Echo devices

If you are correct this will be a major miss for Sonos. With more products incorporating Alexa the competition for multi-room music is growing. Once other speakers support Amazon MRM the Sonos products will look antiquated by only supporting their own speakers with a limited list of Alexa commands.


I don't think you're points are invalid, but I think there are other factors at play here. Absolutely, their are customers out there that will opt not to get Sonos because you can't play echos and Sonos speakers in sync (at this time). There are also customers that may opt to buy a Sonos One instead of an echo for the same reason. I can't say which group is bigger for sure, but I would guess you're group is bigger.

But it's worth point out though that Sonos multiroom is definitely superior in terms of features to that of Alexa multiroom. Beside the fact that the speakers are better quality, you also more options for bonding speakers together, the ability to work with more music sources and line in options, and the ability to change grouped speakers on the fly. I personally would be very disappointed to trade in Sonos multiroom for Alexa multiroom in it's entirety.


Sonos needs to recognize that wireless multi-room music isn't going to be their competitive advantage moving forward. Instead they can focus on their other strengths while supporting Amazon MRM.


I can't agree with that statement. I think there's room to support MRM, but Sonos multiroom tech is definiitely an advantage, even as other companies are catching up.


Sonos could limit Amazon MRM to only when using an Alexa enabled Sonos speaker (One and Beam). Sonos can also limit the use of TruePlay to only when there is no Echo speaker running in the same room (similar to how TruePlay doesnt work with Connect using third party speakers). Sonos stereo pairs and surround can still only be with other Sonos speakers (Amazon & Sonos currently only allow identical model speakers to be a stereo pair).


I can't see Sonos speaker pairing rules changing because of Amazon MRM, but I don't think it's necessary to modfiy Trueplay in any way. If you're going to use Sonos and Echo speakers in the same room, you've pretty much already decided that sound quality isn't that important to you (not you personally).


I hope someone from Sonos can chime in with an official stance on Amazon MRM support. No Amazon MRM is the deal breaker for me (someone who bought an entire surround set up for the holidays). I have until end of January to return so Sonos has a month to announce support for MRM.

I would just recommend that you work out an alternative plan before returning to the store. To me, the sound quality and additional features of Sonos are worth the price. And the ability to link/pair an echo to a Sonos room(s) give you the best of both world in a lot of ways.

Echo Dots and Sonos seems to meet your needs pretty well. Life is never perfect.

All this smart stuff is ok and I have made a big investment. But when your internet connection is down it all goes wrong and you can’t play anything. Luckily with Sonos you still have your own music library to listen to.Echos have Aux.
And? If The Internet is down, as happens quite frequently with Virgin Media, then what does an Aux do? Alexa gives no response if she cannot connect to her Amazon Server.

I was merely pointing out that with Sonos you can have your own local music store and still be able to play tunes

BTW Pioneer, that also works with complex speaker configs and has its own multi room protocol. They said, much like Sonos, it currently supports Alexa voice control, but Amazon MRM will be supported in an upcoming firmware update. 

Get on it Sonos!

 

Just to note; Denon promised a Windows Mobile app and Chromecast support several years ago.  Bose promised Alexa support, then discontinued their entire lineup of multi-room speakers in order to achieve it.  So I would take such statements with a big grain of salt.  

Bought myself a one specificallh cause the Best Buy salesman told me it would support MRM with my echo :/


If I could I’d return it, but I bought it while on a trip to the US and I live in the UK

Somebody was saying earlier vendors fight each other.

Google Amazon and Apple just announced a standards push for home stuff. Praise jeebus.

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-amazon-google-partner-on-smart-home-tech-2019-12

 

Any update for MRM to play sonos and echo dot???

No, but I struggle to understand why anyone would want to hear music simultaneously on a good sounding speaker like Sonos and the tiny, low quality speaker in the Dot.

Still eagerly anticipating this feature. I use a Beam and two Ones for my surround sound system, but have various Echo devices scattered throughout my house. Would LOVE to be able to play music everywhere.

I don't think we are going to see Sonos speakers and echos playing in sync anytime, if ever. If it ever does happen, I imagine this will be an annouced feature, similar to how we saw Sonos annouce airplay 2 compatibility.If you are correct this will be a major miss for Sonos. With more products incorporating Alexa the competition for multi-room music is growing. Once other speakers support Amazon MRM the Sonos products will look antiquated by only supporting their own speakers with a limited list of Alexa commands.

Sonos needs to recognize that wireless multi-room music isn't going to be their competitive advantage moving forward. Instead they can focus on their other strengths while supporting Amazon MRM. Sonos could limit Amazon MRM to only when using an Alexa enabled Sonos speaker (One and Beam). Sonos can also limit the use of TruePlay to only when there is no Echo speaker running in the same room (similar to how TruePlay doesnt work with Connect using third party speakers). Sonos stereo pairs and surround can still only be with other Sonos speakers (Amazon & Sonos currently only allow identical model speakers to be a stereo pair).

I hope someone from Sonos can chime in with an official stance on Amazon MRM support. No Amazon MRM is the deal breaker for me (someone who bought an entire surround set up for the holidays). I have until end of January to return so Sonos has a month to announce support for MRM.

Someone from Sonos certainly needs to clarify their stance to this. I've got two echo dots (kitchen and bedroom) and a Sonos One (bedroom). The entire point was to be able to stream music throughout our "apartment" group.

If sounds are not going to offer this, people like me who are just adding support for these devices will simply go somewhere else.

With all due respect, the structures may be complex, but consumers like me simply don't care. We pay a premium for Sonos gear because it's good, so missing a major feature like this isn't acceptable as far as I'm concerned.

I bought the Alexa enabled Sonos Play 5, expecting to have the ability to connect with other Alexa enabled speakers for multi room. Please add support for Sonos speakers to be added to Alexa MRM groups.

 

Not to knock your desire for the feature, but as discussed in this thread, it’s not simply a matter of adding it to the development list and getting it done.

Any update for MRM to play sonos and echo dot???No, but I struggle to understand why anyone would want to hear music simultaneously on a good sounding speaker like Sonos and the tiny, low quality speaker in the Dot.

I have a pair of monster speakers concected on the 3.5 mm output of the dot.

Seems reasonable to assume that if something is supported it would be able to take advantage of the key features. It's like you get a car that says it supports Google maps, but then all you can do is browse maps, not use the routing and traffic functions.

 

 

But your car with google maps likely cannot do everything that Google maps on your phone can do. You’re likely not going to get links into websites, perhaps not get traffic updates, etc, unless you’re tethered to a phone or have some sort internet connection.

 

I’m not trying to say that expectations and assumptions are not bad in general , but they are not always true and cannot always be met, even though customers may expect and want whatever it is.

 

 

Any rate I've read the whole thread and others and don't agree that there's some prohibitive complexity to it. If other third party jokers can make it work, Sonos can support it.

 

 

I think it was in this thread, but perhaps another, regarding a Polk soundbar that had could participate in Alexa MRM.  The difference between that product and Sonos is that Polk doesn’t have it’s own multiroom system to connect with.  Sure Sonos could build a speaker that only connected to Alexa MRM, or has an Alexa MRM mode, like the Move has a Bluetooth mode.  I don’t think that’s what people are really asking for here.  Are they?

 

 

It's a reasonable thread to add a +1 feature request post so they know there is desire for it. Don't need FBs defending status quo. I didn't say anything lame like I deserve my money back or blah blah. Bose also doesn't support it. Just saying as a consumer, I both expect it and want it, regardless.

 

Again, I get the assumption, but I’m not sure how you can expect a feature that was never promised.  I agree that it’s a wanted feature.  I don’t know that I would use it myself personally, but it certainly would be useful to a lot of people.  But that’s not changing the fact that there exist business and technical reasons.why it can’t just be added to the list and knocked out with the next product upgrade.

 

Hopefully, I’m not coming off as telling people not to ask for features they want.  I’m just trying to add some info so people can understand why the feature doesn’t exist and doesn’t look likely to be exist anytime soon.