First let me say I have been a sonos user and supporter since my first system in 2006. I originally started with on amped box and then got another. I used these over 10 years without fail. I have allot of home automation in my house and waited patiently for sonos to get alexa support. I went out and immediately purchased the sonos one on release day and couldn't wait to use my existing alexa's. Then disappointment settled in quickly. Not only was the alexa integration not what I expected the ONE was beyond disappointing. We replaced the alexa in our bedroom with the one. After trying and multiple removed/re-add the entire ONE to get it working time and time again, the wife said it's got to go.
So with great disappointment I went to the store to return my one. I grabbed a play 1 for $50 less and figured we will just go back to using our phone. Then I heard about the google home integration with a google cast in the input of my amps. So yesterday I purchased two google mini's and to google cast for both my amps.....
WOW exactly what I expected voice controlled sonos to be like. We defaulted our outside amped zone to play on the inside play one from the input when detected and the other to play in our living room. We added this to google home in the desired virtual rooms for the mini's. Google letting you set a cast device as default audio is already leaps and bounds above alexa. I won't get started on the home integration except we are 100% happy with google home vs alexa.
I realize I could have gotten dots and gotten close to this behavior but buying a voice control box for amps in the ceiling didn't make sense and alexa grouping to rooms is way behind google especially for audio.
What I gained
Native "play" support no need to say play to this or play to that. Just automatically plays to the corresponding sonos assigned to that google room.
Can group through google home and play group easily add and remove with voice.
volume and playback control is natural. Google seems to remember better what I am doing and volume etc work spot on. (for this I turned my sonos volumes too 100% and let the chromecast control the audio up and down.)
Granted we still have to use our phone to play on patio (not a worry since it's winter) but another amp or a play 5 in place of the play 1 will fix this.
So my take away is alexa is pretty closed off and google is in some ways as well. Sonos needs to stick to what they do well and that's speakers.
PLEASE ADD AN AUDIO INPUT TO PLAY:1 / PLAY:ONE let amazon and google handle the home automation. The sonos ONE completely ruined my wife on alexa altogether for it's many shortcomings. (ask it to play music it does nothing...)
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Userlevel 7
+22
Wouldn’t coming here to talk about be considered looking back.
WOW exactly what I expected voice controlled sonos to be like.
Interesting. I have a 5 zone Sonos system that works fine minus the voice thing. I also have a Chromecast audio puck lying unused in a desk because I don't like to have to invoke the app every time I want music. In my 5 zones I have 3 with line in jacks vacant. I also have a Google Play subscription; that works very well with Sonos without any need for the CCA puck. Via both the Google app on the phone as well as the one in the Sonos controller.
My questions:
1. What other hardware do I need to get voice to work well?
2. Is this country dependent as Sonos is at this time, limited to US/UK/Germany?
3. Is there a way to access music from the local NAS - I am 99% sure that the answer is no, and this isn't a deal breaker.
1. A google home or a google home mini. I chose the mini. You can then use your audio input to cast to any sonos. I have two google cast as stated above. This works with google play music flawlessly. The other services you mention work with sonos but not with alexa or google. My comparison was with alexa support mostly.
2.IDK I am in US.see this link from sonos
https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4251/~/google-home-and-sonos
3. You could cast local music from a computer but no way with voice.
WOW exactly what I expected voice controlled sonos to be like.
Interesting. I have a 5 zone Sonos system that works fine minus the voice thing. I also have a Chromecast audio puck lying unused in a desk because I don't like to have to invoke the app every time I want music. In my 5 zones I have 3 with line in jacks vacant. I also have a Google Play subscription; that works very well with Sonos without any need for the CCA puck. Via both the Google app on the phone as well as the one in the Sonos controller.
My questions:
1. What other hardware do I need to get voice to work well?
2. Is this country dependent as Sonos is at this time, limited to US/UK/Germany?
3. Is there a way to access music from the local NAS - I am 99% sure that the answer is no, and this isn't a deal breaker.
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