Question

Sonos and alexa group control.

  • 3 November 2017
  • 6 replies
  • 899 views

As the new Sonos one has alexa built in will echo devices and Sonos devices be able to be grouped together?

As i have both sets of devices in the home but can't play whole house music as i have echos in some rooms and Sonos in some.

I was told i am best picking either Sonos or amazon as they will never be able to be synched together which seems strange as the new "one" has alexa built in, will it be recognised as an alexa speaker in their group or a Sonos speaker in their group or both?

Need answers before i invest in either much further.

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6 replies

Nobody knows. What is 100% true is it is not possible today. At current, 3rd party speakers of any kind are not supported by Alexa grouping. There is an AVS Multi-Room Music SDK coming early next year that will address 3rd party multi-room speakers and Alexa grouping. It remains to be seen how much Sonos can or will utilize this SDK.

See this announcement for details on the current and future APIs and SDKs pertaining to Alexa and 3rd party audio devices:

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/7c9343ce-425b-4baa-ae63-49c36afb5341/giving-device-makers-more-ways-to-bring-voice-forward-music-experiences-to-their-products

On a personal note, I find the "quality" of Echos to be lousy at best to downright unlistenable at worst. I would never group my Sonos devices with the crappy sound of an Echo, even if I could. It would irk me, no matter how much money I saved by cheaping out on the Echo or Dot, it will always be just a controller for me. I can also understand why Sonos would utilize most of the coming SDK but stop short of allowing Echo/Sonos intermingling in a group. This is both from a financial protectionism approach and a brand value approach.

YMMV.
Exactly what I came on here to post! Fingers crossed it becomes a reality.
Exactly what I came on here to post. Fingers crossed it becomes a reality.
Jgatie
I’m using an echo dot to stream to my main HiFi system and use 3 sonos ones in other parts of the house. Yes, it would be nice to be able to group echo and sonos products together for whole house sound. and it’s not so I can listen to a dot.
Jgatie
I’m using an echo dot to stream to my main HiFi system and use 3 sonos ones in other parts of the house. Yes, it would be nice to be able to group echo and sonos products together for whole house sound. and it’s not so I can listen to a dot.


Hence why I soecfically stated "on a personal note". Your personal experience could very well be different.
I want this too. I just bought a pair of Sonos Ones and want them to be grouped with my Echo.