Pairing a Play:1 with the new Sonos One


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Can this be done? Will it sound the same in stereo? I don’t need two microphoned speakers surely.

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Userlevel 4
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No, at least not yet, this is a reply to the same question by Ryan. 'S
"The Sonos One will only pair with another Sonos One, for the purposes of creating a stereo pair or a surround sound setup. You can use a Sonos One in a household with any and all Sonos players. The Sonos One can issue commands to them all, and control what's playing. But if you're looking to made a stereo pair or surround sound setup, you'll need two Sonos Ones.

I'll make sure to pass on to the team that you're interested in seeing this at some point in the future, but there aren't any plans to share at this time that this might happen."
Userlevel 4
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Ah. Sad face. Might not rush out and buy this one until that feature is released then. A stereo One & a Play:1 would make perfect sense if they were basically the same speakers inside. I can’t see any advantage of having two microphones speakers unless they were triangulating my exact position in the room – and that would be just plain creepy. :–)
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Please add me to the list of people of who is genuinely disappointed with this. I love what Sonos has done overall, but not being able to pair the new Sonos One with existing Play 1s, to make a stereo sound is very disappointing. I own 5 Play 1s. Please address this Sonos!
I have a hard time believing this was done in order to push the customer towards buying a second Sonos One. The other reason could be that the Sonos One has improved sound quality, or the circuitry and such required to make it Alexa enabled makes it incompatible for pairing with a P:1.

I'm a little disappointed with this, but at the same time, I may be more inclined to pick up Sonos One if its an improvement on the P:1.
Userlevel 3
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Yeah, I'm dissapointed too with the lack of support in pairing with the old Play:1. I was up for preordering until I saw that it couldn't be used as a surround with the older player. My plan was to replace one of the surrounds in my setup with one and use that for the voice control, then I could use the Play:1 I had somewhere else. Pointless replacing them both as only need one of them in the room, and the spare player would end up in the bedroom, so pointless having the voice control upstairs for me to have to walk upstairs to ask it to change the music.
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I don't see why anyone would want to 'pair' a Play:1 with the Sonos One. They look totally different. This for me would be a no (perhaps many others as well). If wanting to add the new feature, just get an Amazon Dot. That would be a lot less expensive.
Userlevel 3
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Because my surrounds are on completely different sides of the room to each other and one is on a stand in the coroner and you can barely see it, so them looking slightly different isn’t an issue. Already have a dot thanks, but I could use this in the dinning room where my play 5 is, to add voice control to that room.
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They would still be different and I would know. Don't think I could cope with that 😃
Userlevel 4
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Really wish I had read this before I bought one of each to do this exact case
Userlevel 2
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Guys, I am getting quite confused right now.
I am new to Sonos, would like to begin with the new sonos one.
You are saying that the play:1 and the one will not be able to play music together.
Which is fine because if I plan to get another small speaker I'll just get a sonos one instead than a play:1, same price, no big deal.

What about the others though. Say I move to a bigger house with an open space, Will I be able to group my one with say a play:3, 5 base or any of the others?
I know for sure that I can control them through the one, but will they be able to play music together, synchronised?
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@falco
No, they will work together same as all other sonos products, just cant use as a pair (left channel + right channnel) lets say 'sonos one' as left and 'play1' as right.
Userlevel 7
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A Play:1 and Sonos One can be GROUPED together as two different zones playing the same content.

They cannot be PAIRED (or bonded) together as one zone in stereo (one speaker as the left, one as the right) or as part of a surround sound system with a Playbar or Playbase. Hopefully, with the number of requests for this over just the past couple of days (there are at least three or four topics about it around here so far), Sonos will figure out how to make it happen, but it's up to them to do it.

Added 5/5/2018 - UPDATE - there is a third-party iOS app called SonoSequencr that is capable of creating a stereo pair out of mismatched speakers, including the Sonos One and the Play:1. Mismatched speaker pairs are not recommended, as despite the visual similarities between these two speakers, there are significantly different audio "fingerprints" between them. That said, it can be done with this third-party app. The app is not free, however it's a very reasonable price if pairing these speakers is a priority for you.

I've heard that an Android app called Macronos can do the same, though I have no personal experience with this app so I can't vouch for what it can or can't do.
Userlevel 2
+1 dissapointed at this lack of functionality. Wont be buying a One unless this is changed. I'd expect this from Apple not Sonos. (I don't buy Apple products)

Lets face it, if this doesn't change it just a blatant attempt to squeeze money from existing customers who would have to replace existing speakers.
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Not only that, but I think the case for a Play 1 paired with the Sonos One makes a lot of sense if the sound quality is on par. Why do you need two Alexa enabled devices to just get triggered together. It makes much more sense to have one with a mic and one as the secondary to just enhance the sound. Had been hoping to set up this configuration in two different rooms.
Userlevel 7
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It is merely a trade off. Sonos could have made the ONE audio quality the same as the PLAY:1, which would have enabled stereo pairing. Instead they chose to improve (I hope) the audio quality on the ONE to keep it competitive. Because the speaker variants are now acoustically different, stereo pairing does not make sense.

It’s not a conspiracy, it’s just Sonos improving its products. You could have made the same complaint about the PLAY:5 generations, but we got a much better second generation product.
Userlevel 2
How is it the same as play:5 2nd gen exactly? Your entire point is based on them upgrading the speaker... Really dont think the speaker has been upgraded at all, otherwise that would have been marketed as well. As far as I can see its a play:1 with added Alexa support.
Userlevel 7
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Really dont think the speaker has been upgraded at all, otherwise that would have been marketed as well. As far as I can see its a play:1 with added Alexa support.

Perhaps you're right, but my argument is only one that makes logical sense, conspiracy theories aside. I guess we'll hear soon. My goal is not to be an apologist for Sonos, but to consider what might be the commercial and/or technical strategies behind some of the decisions that so many forum posters are quick to complain about.

In the meantime, https://www.whathifi.com/sonos/one/review does speculate: "The one-sentence description is “the Sonos One is a Play:1 with Amazon Alexa built-in”, but it’s a little bit more than that, offering deeper integration of Alexa than any current rivals and, judged on a brief, at-event listen, better sound, too."
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I would buy 5 Sonos Ones if I could pair it with my existing Play:1s in each bedroom. If not I'll save the change and get dots instead.
Userlevel 2
Why do you keep using the word conspiracy? Never did I say it was a secret plan by Sonos to do something unlawful or harmful.

Just ripping off customers. Not cool.

If it has a significant increase in SQ (like the play:5) then I'll stand corrected, otherwise I stand by my point.

Ps I realise the above sounds a bit abrupt, please dont take it that way, not intentional. 🙂
Userlevel 2
Add me to the list of people who would like to pair a Sonos One with a Play 1.
How is it the same as play:5 2nd gen exactly? Your entire point is based on them upgrading the speaker... Really dont think the speaker has been upgraded at all, otherwise that would have been marketed as well. As far as I can see its a play:1 with added Alexa support.

Sonos has stated the only part shared between the two units is the power plug assembly. So no, it is not a Play:1 at all.
Userlevel 4
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But I think the main question of whether granting the ability to pair them or not comes down to two things:
1. is the sound quality that much different
2. Does sonos want to make us buy new units
It would be much appreciated to have the stereo effect like pairing two play:1s together would. I am very thankful though that we can still connect the one to the older play:1 because I just bought the one and currently have the play:1 but it would make sense to be able to do the surround sound set up interchangeably (between devices).
I would buy 5 Sonos Ones if I could pair it with my existing Play:1s in each bedroom. If not I'll save the change and get dots instead. You can pair it just not the surround sound studio effect (2 sonos parts) with the play:1 and the Sonos One. You can only do it if both are the same (one-one and play:1-play:1) that’s my understanding at least
I don’t think it’s that big of a deal though it looks like that’s the way it’s been before the one-you have to link the same product to the same product like you can’t studio effect the play:1 and play:5 I don’t believe. So not like there screwing us over here. Haha