The first few reviews of the Sonos One are emerging.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/18/sonos-one-review/
Unfortunately, there were a few times I ran into some strange and frustrating bugs -- the speaker wasn't recognizing that it was playing music, so "pause" or "next track" requests didn't work. Amazon Music also occasionally got confused and told me it was playing on another device so it couldn't play on the speaker I asked for.
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/18/16490866/sonos-one-speaker-review-alexa
The process of enabling Alexa was a different matter and left me, a tech reviewer, feeling pretty stupid. Alexa could answer general questions and control my smart lights just fine within minutes, but would give me a “Something went wrong” error when I asked for music (or podcasts) with voice commands.
https://www.wired.com/story/review-sonos-one/
Once you get things humming, the limitations of the voice controls become clear pretty quickly. The Sonos One can do most everything Alexa can do, but it can't do everything Sonos can do. So, when you ask it to play music, the Alexa living inside the One can only summon streams from the services Alexa supports. If you want to play something from your local MP3 library or one of the 80-odd services supported by Sonos (Apple Music, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, MLB.com), you have to pull out your phone and tap.
All are very complimentary about the hardware (it's a Play 1 after all) but have picked up on the unreliability of the software on several counts and the limited services that can be controlled by voice.
I'd be showing more empathy and urgency if I was Sonos as this will not go away and needs fixing quickly.
A dodgy public beta after so long since the announcement doesn't look good.
Sonos One Reviews are starting to appear... 'Good hardware.. buggy software'. What a surprise !!
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The two reviews in the OP are actually quite complementary, both giving the One a score of 8/10. They basically dinged it for lack of Spotify support. When that support arrives, these will no doubt rise to 9/10. Hardly the “bad” reviews implied by the OP.
Play 1 is a incredible speaker for it's size imho, hard to see how they could improve much hardware wise.
Userlevel 6
+11
I was looking for third party sound quality comparisons with the play 1 when I found this. The first part isn't true, but the latter is in line with what Sonos has said.
I suspect if anyone opened a Play:1 and Sonos One, the innards would be identical, speakers that is.
From another review:
"Since the Sonos One has the same audio hardware as the Play:1, sound quality was essentially indistinguishable between the two, and that's a good thing."
I was looking for third party sound quality comparisons with the play 1 when I found this. The first part isn't true, but the latter is in line with what Sonos has said.
"Since the Sonos One has the same audio hardware as the Play:1, sound quality was essentially indistinguishable between the two, and that's a good thing."
I was looking for third party sound quality comparisons with the play 1 when I found this. The first part isn't true, but the latter is in line with what Sonos has said.
Userlevel 6
+11
Still getting 5/5 from What HiFi (albeit with a caveat!)
https://www.whathifi.com/sonos/one/review
Bear in mind that the reviewers probably won't go near using the Sonos skill on an Echo, so won't see the other flaws, righlty so as that wouldn't be fair on the Sonos One.
https://www.whathifi.com/sonos/one/review
Bear in mind that the reviewers probably won't go near using the Sonos skill on an Echo, so won't see the other flaws, righlty so as that wouldn't be fair on the Sonos One.
No, it doesn't. Not at all.
Lol; I expected that to be called out soon. I did not do so because I have no personal experience of this, but it is easy to see why it can be an issue, more so than among users of Amazon hardware because those using Sonos do so because they expect better sound quality. I don't see a quick fix, so a mixed use of controller+voice is indicated for the medium term.
No, it doesn't. Not at all.
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/public-beta-my-feedback-6792177
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/limitations-of-voice-in-general-6792217
That's hardly relevant, and a poor argument. We're commenting on beta software, giving valuable feedback, in the official place for that. To be met with this kind of comeback isn't necessary or welcome, IMHO.
I would expect a public beta to work better than it does. If I ask it 'play (song name) in the back room' it says ' I can't find (song-name-in-the-backroom)' which is pretty dumb. It should be able to separate the registered device name from the requested song title as a matter of basic operational function. If I ask just to play something by (artist) in the backroom it says 'ok' and then plays something completely different. There's bugs and there's poorly implemented software . . .as it stands it's unuseable. Maybe my system has something wrong with it, I can't believe they'd release something this bad. It's a shame, the hardware is excellent but becoming redundant now with Alexa pairing to decent bluetooth speakers with multiroom abilities.
These reviews are easily misunderstood. A quote from one:
"But until that work is done—by Amazon and by Sonos—you'll need to assume an early-adopter mentality with regards to the One. "
The unsaid here is that the same mentality is needed by someone buying an Amazon Echo even today. And what is not properly stated is that as far as any non Alexa controlled action is concerned, the Sonos One is just as good as the play 1, for the same price, so there is no risk in the purchase.
I am not sure about how well Amazon does backward compatibility, but I expect Sonos to have built the One such that it will remain adequate for many iterations/generations of voice control to come, to take it much beyond the level that voice control - from any platform that offers it - is at today. I am not sure that would be the case with the Echo being sold today.
"But until that work is done—by Amazon and by Sonos—you'll need to assume an early-adopter mentality with regards to the One. "
The unsaid here is that the same mentality is needed by someone buying an Amazon Echo even today. And what is not properly stated is that as far as any non Alexa controlled action is concerned, the Sonos One is just as good as the play 1, for the same price, so there is no risk in the purchase.
I am not sure about how well Amazon does backward compatibility, but I expect Sonos to have built the One such that it will remain adequate for many iterations/generations of voice control to come, to take it much beyond the level that voice control - from any platform that offers it - is at today. I am not sure that would be the case with the Echo being sold today.
Userlevel 7
+21
Are you aware what Beta means? Of course it has bugs, that is why it is in public Beta to try and find the issues no amount of private testing would do. Have you used it yet? What is dodgy about it? It works great for what I suspect the majority, and if you already happen to have Amazon Unlimited it is a boon.
Personally I have found it to be excellent. Yes it is limited to calling up music from Amazon at the moment, and given the partnership and the proximity to the holiday season I can understand the business reasons for this. However you can still use it to skip, pause and control volume regardless of source. Radio stations calling works a treat too.
Let's see how the competition are doing? Oh yes there isn't any is there.
I have been eager to see this arrive, as we all have, but I cannot understand the slating Sonos are getting for trying to be first and provide a Hardware solution too with the One.
Personally I have found it to be excellent. Yes it is limited to calling up music from Amazon at the moment, and given the partnership and the proximity to the holiday season I can understand the business reasons for this. However you can still use it to skip, pause and control volume regardless of source. Radio stations calling works a treat too.
Let's see how the competition are doing? Oh yes there isn't any is there.
I have been eager to see this arrive, as we all have, but I cannot understand the slating Sonos are getting for trying to be first and provide a Hardware solution too with the One.
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