Best answer by Ryan S
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How to activate Alexa mics on Sonos One surrounds?
I have a Beam with two Sonos One surrounds, and it's my understanding that the mics on the Sonos Ones are by default OFF, and that the Beam is the only one with mic input for Alexa. Is there a way to turn on the mics on the Ones? I ask because I'm usually closer to the Ones than the Beam when using Alexa, and Alexa on the Beam usually has trouble hearing me (I usually have to yell). Thanks!
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I turned off the mic on my beam as it was more trouble than worth, not hearing commands and mishearing non-commands and dipping music momentarily whilst it was 'thinking'.
I've come to realise of the many reasons to buy Sonos, Alexa integration is most definitely not one of them.
I've come to realise of the many reasons to buy Sonos, Alexa integration is most definitely not one of them.
Not sure I was clear. Somebody here said that the surround mic is deactivated because a request to Alexa through the surround about CEC feature wouldn’t work. But I’m not sure this is true because I can ask Alexa on my iPad to switch on the TV and it works. No reason that it doesn’t work with the surround.
CEC functions would be turn on/off TV, switching inputs, and volume control. It should be noted though that CEC functions are not the only way to control these features, and not all TVs support these features, so it does makes sense that some/many users would give up CEC functions to get the mics turned on surround speakers.
I’m not sure about the cec functions since I can ask everything to Alexa through my iPad and it works !
Someone from Sonos should actually try this in their home. Since getting the 5.1 setup my wife and I are always shouting across the room to get Alexa to hear. In short, if you want to art getting frustrated with Alexa, buy the beam/one 5.1 combo.
I find that the Beam is just fine for listening, and understand why Sonos wouldn't want to complicate things by making CEC functions only work if the Beam happened to listen to you. However, I completely get why users would want the option of deciding which mics are on and off.
As a potential work around, you can add echos in the same room and setup Alexa groups so that the music plays on the 5.1 setup by default.
Userlevel 1
Just curious. As the only time the mics on the Sonos One's are disabled is when they are set-up as surround speakers with a Beam, why is this an issue? Is the mic on the Beam not sufficient?
Someone from Sonos should actually try this in their home. Since getting the 5.1 setup my wife and I are always shouting across the room to get Alexa to hear. In short, if you want to art getting frustrated with Alexa, buy the beam/one 5.1 combo.
Userlevel 1
This would work for everything but with the Beam and Sonos Ones.
When bonded with a Beam, Sonos Ones will have Alexa disabled on them. We found during testing that the best experience was when the Sonos Ones microphones were turned off. CEC based Alexa commands don't work through the Sonos One, so if those were hearing your commands instead of the Beam, it wouldn't pass them to the TV. I'll pass the word along to the team that you'd like to be able to turn the microphones back on, and more importantly, that the Beam is having trouble hearing you. That shouldn't be the case.
You might want to give us a call on our support line and see if they can help get the setup cleaned up a bit and improve the Beam's listening.
I would like to second this, please pass on feedback that consumers would like to reactivate Sonos Ones microphones when used as surround speakers. I purchased these over Play:1’s for Alexa functionally. As it sounds with many on this thread, dissapointed to be mislead.
An update in software it seems will remove many customers frustrations.
Userlevel 1
Just curious. As the only time the mics on the Sonos One's are disabled is when they are set-up as surround speakers with a Beam, why is this an issue? Is the mic on the Beam not sufficient?
Userlevel 1
Sonos seemed to offer such a great, versatile system: you could use the Beam and Ones as a brilliant sounding 5.x surround setup; you could switch over to music and they would work together to fill your room; you would have three top-of-the-line smart speakers with sensitive microphones to pick up Alexa commands around your room. Except for the last part. We have to yell across the room to have the Beam pick up our voice when the One's are sitting 6" behind our head.
Please Sonos, at least give us the option to turn Alexa on/off on the Ones in a surround setup. If the choice is to enable Alexa on the surrounds without the ability turn on/off my TV, or remove Alexa from the surrounds completely, I'll gladly choose the former. I use Alexa far, far more than I use Sonos to turn on/off my TV.
I hope you can fix this and bring out the full value in our Sonos systems.
Thanks!
Userlevel 1
Even if you let us choose only one of the One’s for the Alexa mic and disabled the beam mic that’d be better the clunky Alexa setup now.
Userlevel 1
Bought Sonos beam and 2x sonos One with subwoofer combo. Alexa situation super disappointing. It is nonsensical to disable the one’s mics. Surround speakers are always closer to people. So not turning on the ones mics basically means yelling at the beam from all the way across the room next to your TV - any time you want to use Alexa - especially when music is coming out of the beam. Ones mics would have been an excellent solution. Figure it out Sonos. It’s just software.
Userlevel 7
+20
Hi Chris. This has been confirmed by Ryan, unless it has changed.
Userlevel 7
+22
News to me - but appears Ryan said they did disable with the Beam. Shouldn't be a big deal though with the Beam as the Alexa.
Hello, i have beam and i planed to buy two ones, not only for better soun but mainly because alexa has very hard time to hear me once music is playing. Now i read here, that its not possible to talk to ones microphone. Can you please sonos respond, if you plan to add this feature soon? If not, iam not buying another 2 speakers. But cmon, its pretty stupid not allow just pass voice from smaller ones to beam.
I have exactly the same problem. Bought 2 Sonos Ones rather than the cheaper Play for my Beam thinking that I can have an easier time talking to Alexa but was disappointed.
+2
Thanks for your answer. Been thinking about this for a while as I want surrounds and Alexa in the living room
The Ones will work as Alexa mics when bonded with the playbar, playbase, or Sonos Amp.
+2
Im looking inte this too but with a Play bar. Is the Ones mics off using Ones as surrounds with a Play bar too? Or does Alexa work when paired with a Play bar since the Play bar doesn’t have Alexa?
Userlevel 7
+20
Just curious. As the only time the mics on the Sonos One's are disabled is when they are set-up as surround speakers with a Beam, why is this an issue? Is the mic on the Beam not sufficient?
Please fix this! Please enable alexa mics on Play Ones surrounds
The reason is because as with most things Sonos, they don't care what you think. They have your money and so you are dead to them unless you want to give them more money.
Userlevel 3
+1
Has there been any movement with this? I'd sure like to use the microphones on my Ones so I don't have to scream across the room at the Beam. Why can't the One's simply relay the CEC command over to the Beam?
That may be the case, but even if my Connect Amp was sat right next to 100 Alexa devices it still couldn't respond to an instruction so what benefit is there in dipping the sound? It's not coming from Alexa as other devices don't do this My Harmon Kardon, for example.
Userlevel 7
+22
Yes hopefully we get a fix for the ducking of other rooms soon - - well overdue fix.
Userlevel 7
+26
Hi Tim, currently, there's no way for an Echo device to know which Sonos players are in the same room, so your whole system will drop in volume when you trigger Alexa. The Sonos One and Beam are different in that we know what room they're in, and so when you trigger Alexa, only that room will drop in volume so that the command can be heard. We're working on making improvements on this experience for the future as the beta for Alexa with Sonos develops.
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