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Sonos One: Features i want so i keep it

  • November 28, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 489 views
N
I recently got a Sonos One at the same time as the new Echo. I have been comparing the 2 over the last few days as i am unsure which one to keep.

The sonos one should win hands down, sound quality is far superior and 90% of the time i use it for music, however there are a few features i would like to see or at least know are on Sonos's roadmap for the sonos one for me to consider keeping it.

1) Mic responsiveness, i have to raise my voice to activate it. The Echo activates at low volume requests. I would be nice to have a feature in the app to control the level of mic sensitivity and let the customer decide the level to set it at. I've also found i have to raise the pitch of my voice when saying "Alexa" to trigger sometimes and its not as good as triggering when speaking normally like the echo is. I can even be in bed next to the unit and say "alexa" at talking volume and it does not activate,

2) Alexa volume control, the sonos does change the volume of the alexa voice when you change the volume level on the unit up and down but it is still way higher then needed, when the sonos is set to low volume for listening to music while sleeping the alexa voice volume is very load in comparison. The echo adjusts the volume of the voice of alexa alot closer to the output volume of the units volume setting. Again ether a fix or the ability to control in the app would be good.

3) Skill, i have an issue where alot of the skills like Thunderstorm sounds is ether met with a flashing light or Alexa says it is about to start and then nothing happens. The echo works 1st time, the sonos just leads to frustration.

4) Groups, i want to be able to group the Echo and the Sonos into a Group called "All" and just say "Alexa play spotify on all" and for it to play on both speakers.

5) Alarm Snooze, i would be nice to be able to say a snooze time, eg "Alexa snooze for 15 minutes"

6) The notification sound that Alexa is listening, the option to pick this from a list would be nice. I like the sound but at some point i feel i might want something a bit more upbeat.

7) When playing tune in radio last night i could not get the unit to turn off in XX minutes. It would set a timer to tun off but not actually turn off once the time had elapsed.

I really love the sonos and want to keep it but the tiny frustrations with Alexa VS the Echo add up and i don't want a unit that ends up frustrating me on a daily basis despite the superior sound quality.

It would also be good to get an update on Audible support...
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2 replies

U
My baseline system is a pair of Play5 Gen1s plus sub with an Echo Dot wired to it. This combination seems to come closest to the Sonos/Alexa experience most folks are expecting. You get both music and Alexa responses through the higher fidelity Sonos speakers (Alexa responds through both left and right). You get gapless playback of your local library via the Sonos app. (You don't have to use the flashlight version of the app for wired connections). You get Audible and any feature Alexa has including all phone and intercom features because you are playing through an actual Echo device. You can set up persistent named groups that include other Echo speakers and/or other Sonos players wired to Echo Dots (Only Sonos models with line-in jacks like Play5, S5, Connect, and Connect Amp). and so on.

Hopefully Sonos is using this user experience as the template for what they will eventually implement using the Sonos One and the Sonos skill for Alexa.
Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever
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