Answered
Can’t hear Alexa through play 5
Hooked up play 5 to my echo dot through line in but Alexa’s voice is really low. I tried everything. Need answers.
Best answer by Chris
Ok wait do you have Alexa skill enabled. If so you don’t want the play5 in the skill. I may have incorrectly told you you were wrong earlier.
Since you have the dot hooked to the input of the play:5 it is in fact music as far as Sonos is concerned. If you have the alexa skill enabled on that speaker (which you shouldn’t) then it will duck the “music”.
Go into the alexa app and under smart home delete the Play5 from the list. That will remove the ducking on the play:5 (which you don’t want enabled in skill anyhow because you have a dot hook e to it).
Problem is your using line in and skill. Skill is meant for when you don’t wire it to the speaker (or my dots aren’t hooked to speaker so amazon alexa voice comes from dots but they will send music requests to the speaker).
I personally would disable the Sonos skill in alexa completely if you want it wired to dot. As the only other speaker setup you have is the playbar all the Sonos skill in alexa is going to do is allow casting songs by voice to it (but probably Duck on you way to often). You can always have it play from your play:5 line in to get voice control when needed.
Since you have the dot hooked to the input of the play:5 it is in fact music as far as Sonos is concerned. If you have the alexa skill enabled on that speaker (which you shouldn’t) then it will duck the “music”.
Go into the alexa app and under smart home delete the Play5 from the list. That will remove the ducking on the play:5 (which you don’t want enabled in skill anyhow because you have a dot hook e to it).
Problem is your using line in and skill. Skill is meant for when you don’t wire it to the speaker (or my dots aren’t hooked to speaker so amazon alexa voice comes from dots but they will send music requests to the speaker).
I personally would disable the Sonos skill in alexa completely if you want it wired to dot. As the only other speaker setup you have is the playbar all the Sonos skill in alexa is going to do is allow casting songs by voice to it (but probably Duck on you way to often). You can always have it play from your play:5 line in to get voice control when needed.
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Hi there, KNGTBREEZ. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. You may want to take a closer look at your Line-In Source settings. If Alexa is too low, you may want to raise the volume of the Line In Source Level.
Let us know how you get on. Thanks!
Let us know how you get on. Thanks!
+22What volume do you have the Dot at? As Keith mentioned you can raise the Line In Source level - but to me the volume level of the Dot is a more important consideration.
Volume is up on both Dot and play 5. Alexa starts off really low the first 10 seconds and then goes to normal.
+22That’s probably because of the autoplay taking a second. There is an option in the dot settings to play a tone before it speaks and many use that to overcome the delay and says it works well.
I read that Sonos uses "Ducking" to quiet spoken voice. I was going to fill my house with Sonos speakers but not with this BS. The Play:5 plays music really well but when I ask Alexa what the weather is or for other information, I have to WALK TO ANOTHER ROOM to hear her. Amazon's Echo's are blazing a fast ease-of-use path for multiple room audio and Sonos is going to be left in the dust if they do stuff like this. Please tell me I am wrong and there is something that can be done about this.
+22Wheine - you seem confused. If a Dot is hooked to a Play:5 it doesn't DUCK. Your doing something wrong. And DUCKING lowers the volume of the music so you can hear Alexa - not lower the voice of Alexa.
Explain your setup and we can gladly try to help as you have some confusion here.
Explain your setup and we can gladly try to help as you have some confusion here.
Thank you for clarifying my misunderstanding, Chris.
I want you to know that I am, for the most part, a big Sonos fan. In addition to the play:5 that I just purchased, I own a playbar, subwoofer, and play:1 surround sound system that blows my family away, every time we watch a movie. My issue showed up when I took my Apple Homepod back and purchased the play:5 instead. The sound is so much better but for some reason, even though the music sounds great, Alexa is muted to the point where you can't hear her unless you're right next to the speaker. What's interesting and maybe a clue, is that when I first got the Play:5 home and plugged the echo dot into the back of it via a mini stereo cable, it all worked perfectly, even the level of Alexa's voice. It was when I added the play:5 to the Sonos app that Alexa's voice became muted.
Would love to find out that I have something set wrong.
Thank you, Chris, for getting back with me so quickly.
I want you to know that I am, for the most part, a big Sonos fan. In addition to the play:5 that I just purchased, I own a playbar, subwoofer, and play:1 surround sound system that blows my family away, every time we watch a movie. My issue showed up when I took my Apple Homepod back and purchased the play:5 instead. The sound is so much better but for some reason, even though the music sounds great, Alexa is muted to the point where you can't hear her unless you're right next to the speaker. What's interesting and maybe a clue, is that when I first got the Play:5 home and plugged the echo dot into the back of it via a mini stereo cable, it all worked perfectly, even the level of Alexa's voice. It was when I added the play:5 to the Sonos app that Alexa's voice became muted.
Would love to find out that I have something set wrong.
Thank you, Chris, for getting back with me so quickly.
+22Are you sure the echos volume isn’t turned down. The original dots have a ring that rotates. The more the circle illuminates the louder it plays. The newer dots have a plus volume button on top. Again make sure it is turned up. As before the ring on top should rotate more the more you turn it up.
I have turned up both the Echo dot by pressing the button and the Sonos up volume button. The weird part is that the music coming from Amazon Music (Comcast wifi--> to Echo Dot--> to Play:5 via cable), sounds perfect. It's volume goes up and down when the Echo or Play:5 volume buttons are pressed.But Alexa's volume to 20%, if that.
+22So music playing from the dot sounds fine. But all alexa speech you can barely hear. All her speech not just first second or 2
+22Ok wait do you have Alexa skill enabled. If so you don’t want the play5 in the skill. I may have incorrectly told you you were wrong earlier.
Since you have the dot hooked to the input of the play:5 it is in fact music as far as Sonos is concerned. If you have the alexa skill enabled on that speaker (which you shouldn’t) then it will duck the “music”.
Go into the alexa app and under smart home delete the Play5 from the list. That will remove the ducking on the play:5 (which you don’t want enabled in skill anyhow because you have a dot hook e to it).
Problem is your using line in and skill. Skill is meant for when you don’t wire it to the speaker (or my dots aren’t hooked to speaker so amazon alexa voice comes from dots but they will send music requests to the speaker).
I personally would disable the Sonos skill in alexa completely if you want it wired to dot. As the only other speaker setup you have is the playbar all the Sonos skill in alexa is going to do is allow casting songs by voice to it (but probably Duck on you way to often). You can always have it play from your play:5 line in to get voice control when needed.
Since you have the dot hooked to the input of the play:5 it is in fact music as far as Sonos is concerned. If you have the alexa skill enabled on that speaker (which you shouldn’t) then it will duck the “music”.
Go into the alexa app and under smart home delete the Play5 from the list. That will remove the ducking on the play:5 (which you don’t want enabled in skill anyhow because you have a dot hook e to it).
Problem is your using line in and skill. Skill is meant for when you don’t wire it to the speaker (or my dots aren’t hooked to speaker so amazon alexa voice comes from dots but they will send music requests to the speaker).
I personally would disable the Sonos skill in alexa completely if you want it wired to dot. As the only other speaker setup you have is the playbar all the Sonos skill in alexa is going to do is allow casting songs by voice to it (but probably Duck on you way to often). You can always have it play from your play:5 line in to get voice control when needed.
One more question, Chris. Downstairs, I have an Echo in our theater room where there is also a Playbar, a Sonos Subwooder, and a couple of Play:1s. Is there anyway to designate the Playbar to that Echo (no wire) so I don't have to say "Alexa, play Bruno Mars in the theater room? Rather, "Alexa, play Bruno Mars.
+22Sonos is supposed to be working with Alexa on implementing that functionality. Don't know how far it has progressed but it is the intention at some point to link the two so you don't have to say the room name.
+22Sonos is supposed to be working with Alexa on implementing that functionality. Don't know how far it has progressed but it is the intention at some point to link the two so you don't have to say the room name.
+22Glad you have it worked out.
Hey, Chris,
I decide to move an Echo (vs the Echo Dot) we talked about in this thread, to connect with the Sonos Play:5. For some reason, Alexa is doing the "ducking thing" to the point where you can't hear her. Can we revisit that so I can figure out why this Echo isn't working with Alexa's voice, the way the Dot did, after your suggestions?
I decide to move an Echo (vs the Echo Dot) we talked about in this thread, to connect with the Sonos Play:5. For some reason, Alexa is doing the "ducking thing" to the point where you can't hear her. Can we revisit that so I can figure out why this Echo isn't working with Alexa's voice, the way the Dot did, after your suggestions?
+22You disabled the skill on the play:5 sonthat you could instead wire a dot to it and use the dot output for Alexa support. If you have now decided to use the skill with a play:5 and regular echo (not wired). You then need to reenable the skill in play5.
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