Google Mini on a PLAY:1 or Playbar?

  • 25 November 2017
  • 10 replies
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I'm purchasing a PLAY:1 and a Playbar and I know the Playbar only has an optical input. Can I plug my Amazon Dot or Google Mini (with aux/auxiliary stereo jack) into the PLAY:1? If so, will it also play music through the Playbar? Thanks in advance for the help.

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The PLAY1 has NO external input, the play5 is the only speaker that does.
I didn't see anything on the specs about external ports, but then what is above the Ethernet port in this picture from the Sonos website?
If I can't connect an Amazon Echo/Alexa dot or Google Mini/Home to the PLAY:1 or Playbar, I guess my only option (besides Play:5) is the Sonons One with Alexa built in? If I got the Sonons One, I assume it would play music on the other Play:1 and Playbar? So Sonos One is just the Play:1 with Alexa built in so it could act as a back rear speaker my movies? Can anyone confirm?
The thing you're looking at in that picture is a screw post for mounting the PLAY:1 on a speaker stand.

What is it that you want to play on the Amazon Echo that can't be played on the Sonos device? I have several dots and they control all of my Sonos speakers. None of them are connected anymore with a line-in cable of any type.
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What is it that you want to play on the Amazon Echo that can't be played on the Sonos device? I have several dots and they control all of my Sonos speakers. None of them are connected anymore with a line-in cable

(I’m not the original poster)


Audible is an issue here. Amazon music works fine. Alexa will play Audible on the Echo Dots but not through Sonos. Because it has a 3.5mm output, the dot can be connected to many speakers, but not most Sonos. I set up a new One today and just discovered this.
Most of us are expecting Audible to return soon, as Sonos has actually released the Voice Control feature, and we presume that that movement with Amazon will be followed by further movement by Amazon (Audible). But who knows, and that's the only thing I can think of that might be a plausible explanation as to what you could play on a dot, rather than a Sonos. But I wanted to be sure of what the OP meant, since it's possible that they're not understanding how the Sonos One / Voice command integration works.
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Yeah, I am hopeful they will too, because I like the speaker. I’ve read about problems with other Alexa skills like “meditation sounds” as well. That said, I sure do wish it had an input. I’m not going to start buying components until the new year, and I’d like to do Sonos throughout. But, if Audible still isn’t up and running then, I will do a stand-alone system in the media room and put an echo dot lined-lin to a Bose soundlink in the other rooms. Obviously, instead of a Dot and a Bose, simply having a One in each room would be my more elegant and less expensive preference.... but I must have Audible.

It occurred to me when reviewing this product on Amazon that it probably is a mixed blessing to have an Alexa-enabled device right now because you are getting the entire tribe of Amazon early-adopters. The reviews are very mixed, and the negative ones (like mine) almost all regard Alexa integration.
My Alexa allows me to play music on my sonos 1 and bar just add which room i want it in add the end. You need to enable the skill on alexa
Audible is also an issue for me. What I do now is just use airplay from my iPhone connecting to the AppleTV that I have connected to the TV where my Playbar is. I can then "Group" the rooms together and listen to my Audible book in the home over my Sonos system.
I think we're all assuming Audible is returning shortly to Sonos. They're even mentioning it in the marketing email that they send you when you register a Sonos One. If it wasn't close to being released, I'd sincerely doubt they'd let their marketing department do that. 🙂