Global Player HD Radio Option

  • 21 October 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 129 views
H

Hi

 

I recently purchased a Sonos Roam, enabled Alexa and am trying to use it alongside my existing Echo devices. One issue I ran into was that I wasn’t able to use the Global Player skill from within Alexa e.g. Alexa, play Smooth UK - it starts trying to play the station but get a message saying there is a problem listening to the music.

I managed to fix it by saying Alexa, ask Global Player to turn off HD Radio.

This works but the sound quality isn’t as good as when I play the station directly from within the Sonos app, plus I have to disable HD radio for all my other Echo devices too. The difference is slight but is noticeable especially around bass notes when playing classical music. I bought the Sonos device for it’s superior audio so am a little annoyed I have to dial it down to make it work.

Can someone help me understand if this is a bug that might be fixed or intentional, maybe to protect Sonos HD Radio which is a premium subscription?

Tim.

 

 

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2 replies

Jamie A
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Hi @holmessd, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m not sure why playing to Sonos would cause issues with your Alexa, as Global Player is a service that doesn’t need an account, so multiple streams should be possible. It also shouldn’t require you to disable HD Radio on your Alexa devices, as that’s a different eco-system.

After speaking with our team, we recommend you reach out to our support team for troubleshooting and internal testing, as they have the necessary tools to assist you with this.

I hope this helps!

H

When adding the Global Player skill to Alexa you can link a Global Player account, which is not the case when adding Global Player to the Sonos App.

Having an account also allows you to enable or disable HD radio.

If I want to listen to a Global Player station via Alexa on my Sonos Roam I have to turn off HD sound for all my Alexa enabled devices, even those for which HD Radio works, using the method outlined in the original post.

Furthermore: I spoke to Sonos support and they claim that it is Amazon who are preventing the HD sound working - another limitation of using Alexa on a non-Amazon device I guess.

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