+1. Have been a avid supporter of SONOS up until now, but this needing to shout at Alexa to get her to wake up is very very poor. Looking to take this one back and rely on the dots which work almost perfectly. Come on SONOS, pull your finger out and rectify this stupid situation.

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Also finding the wake word sensitivity very hit and miss and this is with little background noise and no music playing. At times having to raise my voice actually wakes some of the Echo's in other rooms.



To me it seems to have got worse over the last couple of weeks.

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My 4 yo son simply cannot trigger the wake word on the Sonos One. He has near 100% success with a Dot. As others have said we need to talk loud enough that it triggers the Dot that is three rooms away before it triggers the One.

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Same mic sensitivity issue for me. I bought four. One is exactly where the original Echo was in the kitchen. I have to face directly it and practically shout at it, when before I was easily heard by the Echo. SONOS: the most important issue here (assuming that it's indeed a software fix) is to give us a time frame. I like the One, but I will regrettably have to send them back within the refund window because the mic sensitivity renders them unacceptable. You say "no worries, it'll improve over time." I say, "how much time, and how much improvement?" After all, it's my kitchen, my money, and my time. I'd love to keep them, but I need info!!! It's a BIG issue, and I urge you to email all Sonos One owners with a definitive update on this. Please.

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I have just bought my first Sonos product, a Sonos One, as a Christmas present. I agree we need some certainty on what and when?! Otherwise I will be a very short lived Sonos owner, as i don't want to give a defective product for Xmas...



I think Sonos need to take this seriously or lose customers, like me.

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I've literally had my face sitting on the speaker and said "Alexa" and it was like I'd personally offend her by existing! Then when I do get a response, she is quiet as hell. Like do I owe you money or something? Why are you acting like that?

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Wanted to post an update, I will say the situation has gotten better....sometimes. It definitely seems like it's being worked on, because at times I can actually speak relatively normally (still not as normally as I can with my regular Echos) and the One will pick it up. However other times I'll still be standing there "Alexa, Alexa, ALEXA" in a quiet room from a close distance. I'm not sure if the inconsistency is an improvement or not, but at least it's good to see signs of something happening.



However a new concern (for me at least, I'm sure others have noticed), the TV in the room where the One is isn't used often, but a few weeks ago my wife and I binged some TV one night, and I was hearing the One beeping with false positives several times an hour all night long. The One is probably 7-10 feet from the closest surround speaker in the room. Then last night I was on a facetime call with my iPad about 5 feet from the One, same thing, all conversation long the One was beeping and Alexa was going "hmm, I don't know about that". I finally just muted the mic until I was off the call.



For anyone here who wasn't an Echo owner from day 1, I will say that seeing the sensitivity change over time for devices like this doesn't seem to be uncommon. When I first got the Echo it picked up everything on day 1......everything. A few months later I started to notice that I was having to speak very s l o w l y and clearly to get the Echo to recognize the wake word. It was probably a year before it got to the point where the Echo is now, very few false positives and almost 100% reliability on picking up the wake word if you're anywhere near it. I will say I'm surprised that Sonos went as conservative as they did with the sensitivity, I would have rathered them skew towards over sensitive than under.

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mjgunn, you made some good points. However, how can the sensitivity change without a software update? Since the original mandatory update that was done when I installed the Ones a couple weeks ago, there has been no firmware update pushed out to me. Do you know whether firmware updates are done automatically without my involvement or knowledge?



Regardless of the truth in what you pointed out about tweaking over time, I still have to decide whether to trust things will improve, or return the Sonos Ones within the refund window and buy some additional Echo products. Aside from the cost difference, the Echo listens well and sounds okay; the Sonos sounds awesome but doesn't seem to listen very well. Not sure what I'll decide, but that's the dilemma I and perhaps others face.

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mjgunn, you made some good points. However, how can the sensitivity change without a software update?



Mic sensitivity and accuracy is in the cloud and the Alexa implementation, which do not require a Sonos firmware update.

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Wanted to post an update, I will say the situation has gotten better....sometimes. It definitely seems like it's being worked on, because at times I can actually speak relatively normally (still not as normally as I can with my regular Echos) and the One will pick it up. However other times I'll still be standing there "Alexa, Alexa, ALEXA" in a quiet room from a close distance. I'm not sure if the inconsistency is an improvement or not, but at least it's good to see signs of something happening.



However a new concern (for me at least, I'm sure others have noticed), the TV in the room where the One is isn't used often, but a few weeks ago my wife and I binged some TV one night, and I was hearing the One beeping with false positives several times an hour all night long. The One is probably 7-10 feet from the closest surround speaker in the room. Then last night I was on a facetime call with my iPad about 5 feet from the One, same thing, all conversation long the One was beeping and Alexa was going "hmm, I don't know about that". I finally just muted the mic until I was off the call.





Yes, the sensitivity does appear to have improved a bit, I may finally be able to disable the Dot. However, was listening to NPR on the One, and it triggered several times from its own speaker! Doesn’t appear to trigger on music, thankfully. Still have to yell “Alexa!” to trigger the One when it’s playing even at moderate levels. Sigh. I’m confident all this will be worked out over time, but wondering why Amazon didn’t share its Alexa tuning with Sonos.



Will we need to go through all this again for “OK Google!”?

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mjgunn, you made some good points. However, how can the sensitivity change without a software update?



Mic sensitivity and accuracy is in the cloud and the Alexa implementation, which do not require a Sonos firmware update.I don't think sensitivity to the wake word is in the cloud: it's claimed that nothing is sent to the cloud until the wake word has been recognised.

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I don't think sensitivity to the wake word is in the cloud: it's claimed that nothing is sent to the cloud until the wake word has been recognised.



Using that logic, one shouldn't be able to make any changes to the behavior of an Echo or Alexa-enabled device without a hardware or firmware update. Yet, on my Echo Dots for example, I can go to the app on my phone or alexa.amazon.com on my PC from anywhere in the world and change the wake word to "Echo" or "Computer." Those changes are made via the cloud and communicated to the Echo devices. Just because the Sonos One isn't communicating your verbal requests until after it hears the wake word, doesn't mean the device isn't communicating with the cloud otherwise.

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I just got my Sonos ONE in the mail the other day and my HUE color lights for my room. It is amazing what I can do and I am a first-time Alexa user. Even I know I shouldnt be shouting at this device to hear me. I know Sonos, that you have been busy working on Spotify and numerous other issues so far, but this is crucial. Im very displeased that i cant turn my lights off in bed without waking up my child upstairs. I contemplated getting a wall mount to point the microphone in the direction of my bed but i may end up unplugging it in the middle of a "waking session". I mean no disrespect. I love the product. Make it hear me PLEASE!

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Any news here, this is in my opinion a big issue, a smart speaker that cannot hear you 😃

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I don't think sensitivity to the wake word is in the cloud: it's claimed that nothing is sent to the cloud until the wake word has been recognised.



Using that logic, one shouldn't be able to make any changes to the behavior of an Echo or Alexa-enabled device without a hardware or firmware update. Yet, on my Echo Dots for example, I can go to the app on my phone or alexa.amazon.com on my PC from anywhere in the world and change the wake word to "Echo" or "Computer." Those changes are made via the cloud and communicated to the Echo devices. Just because the Sonos One isn't communicating your verbal requests until after it hears the wake word, doesn't mean the device isn't communicating with the cloud otherwise.



I don't quite follow your logic. The wake word has to be processed on the Alexa-enabled device, not the cloud, otherwise a constant stream would need to be sent to the cloud to determine when the wake word was uttered. Changing the wake word in the app to "computer" just sends an update to the configuration of the Alexa-enabled devices linked to the Amazon account so it listens for a different wave pattern.



Anyway, I'd also like to voice my disappointment with the Alexa microphone sensitivity in the One. One of the most impressive things about the Echo-Dot was it's ability to pick out a voice accurately in a noisy room. The One just doesn't compare here sadly. It quickly gets tiresome shouting "Alexa" three times just to change the volume or set a timer. The sound quality is amazing though but I do think I should have just got a Play:1 and kept the Dot.

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Setup my first Sonos purchase, 2 Ones yeterday in stereo mode great sound, but as others have said unfortunately I am finding I have to shout quite loud and several times to wake Alexa up, where with the original Echo I didn't need to speak/shout anywhere near as loud. I hope this is still being worked on and can be resolved in a near future firmware update.

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It occurred to me that Amazon should be concerned, too. Just picture all of us One owners angrily shouting "Alexa!" repeatedly in frustration. Not the image Amazon would want. I know Amazon can't be responsible for the third party devices that integrate with the Echo-sphere, but someone at Amazon should look at the negativity this flaw has brought to "Alexa! Alexa! ALEXA!!!!"

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That's exactly it, "Alexa! Alexa! ALEXA!!!!" with my wife looking at me like I just landed from Mars. Got to say though been playing music through these all morning and am so pleased the way they sound.

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I put in my request to return both my Ones today. I have simply had enough of these speakers not only not working properly, but actually getting worse.



I have been patiently waiting 6 weeks for "improvements" as I purchased the Ones on launch date. While the Alexa responsiveness seemed to improve a month ago (from 3-5 screams to 2 or so), it has definitely gotten worse since then. And the final straw, the One has recently gotten in the habit of resetting the speaker volume to the loudest setting.



This sad scene has been playing out on a nightly basis: progressively screaming louder and louder "Alexa" in order to shut off the lights, and if by some miracle the One responds before I get to a scream, the One booms back at god volume "OKAY". And at any point during this process, the baby inevitably wakes up and starts crying.



Now I understand people justifying the One by its virtues as a music speaker. It is indeed great for music. I have justified my prior patience by both this reason and Sonos' reputation as a quality company. I do after all have a Play 5, Playbar, and a Sub. My buffer has run out. Sonos, if you advertise these speakers as working with Alexa, they damn well better work with Alexa. Otherwise do not ship a half-assed product. Your pricepoints do not justify half-assedness.

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An official statement from SONOS to at least acknowledge the issue would be most welcome to all of us ONE owners. An email to registered owners would suffice. Sonos? Sonos? SONOS?!!!!!!! Are you listening???

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Official answer here:



Thanks for the feedback everyone. The microphone sensitivity is entirely software, in the early stages test players would pick up just about anything. It's something that'll get better over time too. So you can count on that improving.



No email needed. :8

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Thank you, jgatie. I assume Ryan is from Sonos. If indeed this is a software issue, I would encourage Sonos to update our software before they start seeing a lot of units returned, as forewarned by this discussion thread. My countdown clock is ticking. It's a race between the software fix and the very generous return timeframe. Whichever comes first rules the day.

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I have to chime in as well -- this is a very poor implementation of Alexa -- a 1st gen Echo and Dot work better to hear my Wake Word. If it's software then give us the option to make it more or less sensitive ? Kinda tired of Sonos releasing product that isn't ready yet and won't comment on when they will make it work correctly.

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I have to chime in as well -- this is a very poor implementation of Alexa -- a 1st gen Echo and Dot work better to hear my Wake Word. If it's software then give us the option to make it more or less sensitive ? Kinda tired of Sonos releasing product that isn't ready yet and won't comment on when they will make it work correctly.



Your first generation Echo and Dot have over two years of software refinement behind them.

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Yes, the Echo and Dot have some history now, but my first generation Echo had no trouble hearing me way back then. I never felt like a beta tester for Amazon's Echo or Dot, as I do now for Sonos ONE. As my refund window closes, day by day I am increasingly likely to return my four ONEs with regeret, perhaps to buy them again after they have had the two years of history you might think they deserve. I am rooting for them because the ONE is sort of a dream machine, especially with the promise of Google integration, too. But although I have the product, I am tired of shouting, and the dream does not seem to be a reality yet. I understand it's software, and I understand it can be tweaked and refined over time. I just don't want to shout any more. It's not practical, and it's no fun, either.

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