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I have an Amazon “Echo Flex” for Alexa.  It has a silly tiny speaker and I’d like to connect it to my Sonos 5 so that whenever I ask Alexa something, it responds via the Sonos 5 speaker.  

 

The Alexa app supports using WiFi Speakers for voice response output.  However, for the Sonos 5, the option is greyed out.  It says:

“Why can't I use my Preferred Speaker?

For a speaker to work with an Echo Inout, it must be able to play all audio.  Your Preferred Speaker is only available to certain types of audio, like music and audiobooks.  

To use a Preferred Speaker with Echo Input, select an Alexa device with a built-in speaker.”

 

Given that Amazon Alexa has been around for years, I thought that Sonos would have caught up?  The Sonos 5 is such a great speaker.  It seems a shame to have such small modern age issues.  

Your only option is to connect the Flex to the Five using a 3.5mm audio cable from the Flex’s audio output to the Five’s line-in port. If the Flex isn’t close enough to the Five, you might consider getting a 2nd or 3rd generation Echo Dot to wire to the Five instead.

I have an Amazon “Echo Flex” for Alexa.  It has a silly tiny speaker and I’d like to connect it to my Sonos 5 so that whenever I ask Alexa something, it responds via the Sonos 5 speaker.  

 

The Alexa app supports using WiFi Speakers for voice response output.  However, for the Sonos 5, the option is greyed out.  It says:

“Why can't I use my Preferred Speaker?

For a speaker to work with an Echo Inout, it must be able to play all audio.  Your Preferred Speaker is only available to certain types of audio, like music and audiobooks.  

To use a Preferred Speaker with Echo Input, select an Alexa device with a built-in speaker.”

 

Given that Amazon Alexa has been around for years, I thought that Sonos would have caught up?  The Sonos 5 is such a great speaker.  It seems a shame to have such small modern age issues.  

 

It’s not a matter of being caught up.  The preferred speaker has to be a speaker that has alexa built in, with it’s own mic and such.  If you had a Sonos One for example, that would work as a preferred speaker.  The Five doesn’t have Alexa built in, although it can take commands from Alexa like any Sonos speaker.  You could make an argument that the Five should have had Alexa built in, but Sonos didn’t do that for whatever reason.

 

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