Amazon Dot and Play 5 line in going quiet when replying from Alexa

Well I have given up on it ! Removed the Alexa skill all together and have gone back to a line in from the dot to a P5 in each room, it's not perfect but it works for me. I get voice control over selection of music from Spotify account in my zones, once again I can walk into a room and ask for the artist/track/Genre of music and it plays . Would love to have library integration of my music collection from my NAS, but this seems to be beyond the capabilities of both Sonos or Amazon, the cynic in me says this will never be a feature because Amazon will want to sale it's streaming service as the premier service on Sonos. I suspect that Spotify integration will be a long drawn out affair and ultimately be an unsatisfactory service when it does arrive. I can see Sonos being bought out by Amazon in the future and that will be a sad day .

Thanks Ryan for explaining the "ducking" process. I too have noticed that the volume drops momentarily on ALL Sonos speakers in the house when a command is issued to the Echo Dot (in my kitchen). I agree with mwiseman that this might be an irritation to those listening to music on a Sonos speaker at the other end of the house . As I wrote in an earlier post, I have connected my Echo Dot to the line-in of a Play-5 in my Kitchen. When the Play-5 was registered in the Alexa app as a Smart Home device, the Alexa responses were inaudible on the Play-5. By "forgetting" the Play-5 speaker in the Alexa app, audibility is restored (and I can still issue commands to Alexa to play music in other Sonos "rooms" in the house. HOWEVER, somehow, without my prompting, Alexa has rediscovered the Play-5 in the Kitchen and Alexa responses have become inaudible again. So I have decided to disable the Sonos skill in the Alexa app and will watch with interest as the Sonos/Alexa is refined and developed.

I experienced the same, even though I've moved the now unconnected Dot to a seemingly better position in the room.

I experienced the same, even though I've moved the now unconnected Dot to a seemingly better position in the room.

It is by design. Sonos "ducks" the volume so Alexa can hear.

Another one with the problem here! I got an Echo Dot as I could connect it to the Sonos system and not need the more expensive Echo, but as I can only use Spotify through the Dot, if I want to start it from the Dot, it needs to be wired to get any decent sound. It appear that what is needed is a greater set up for the Sonos skill, asking if the Dot is wired to a Sonos station, and which Sonos stations should duck if Alexa is woken. It seems that ducking is not perfect either, as if I have a long weather forecast or news report, then the music cuts back in before it is finished. Hopefully these problems, which I would not consider too tricky, will be sorted soon 😉 I'm intrigued to see that the question is marked as answered - only a work around has been given, this is like going to the doctor with an arm which is falling off, to be told that "it's ok, you can just use the other one".

I'm intrigued to see that the question is marked as answered - only a work around has been given, this is like going to the doctor with an arm which is falling off, to be told that "it's ok, you can just use the other one".
In this case "Answered" is just a way of getting the confirmation of the problem in an easily visible place. The flag isn't calling the problem solved, just putting confirmation and a workaround up there. We're still looking into it on our side, the state of the thread itself doesn't relate to our status internally.

Thanks Ryan, I was being a little facetious, I hope you can work out a solution soon! BTW, love the Sonos system!

I hope the desired outcome is clear for the eng team?
Whether Dot is physically plugged into a Sonos System (pre-skill, this is why Sonos users bought just a dot, we have the speakers set up in every room alreadyt) in a room OR wirelessly integrated (via the new skill, BETA....), the desired behavior is to have ALL audio output (music streaming and Alexa answers) from the Dot come through the Sonos system IN THAT ROOM (and only in that room).

That means no ducking in other rooms (nicely labeled 'Global Ducking' above - the only edge scenario I could imagine where that's useful would be to use the Dot in one room to make a house-wide 'PA' style announcement 🙂 )
It also means no ducking for non-music output in the current room.
And of course no one wants to have to repeat the name of the room one is in all the time.

Conclusion: Sonos 'zones' and Alexa ‘room’ concepts have to be aware of each other (and unless you want to implement some magic, users will have to pair them up manually).
Net result: Talking to the Kitchen Dot affects the Kitchen Sonos like it should and leaves the other Sonos zones alone.

Coupling things just via the name seems a bit fragile. For Hue lights, Alexa seems to have imported the Hue-side definitions - a bit kludgy but maybe there is a path similar to that to teach the systems about each other if there is no clean way.

Previously, the line out wire physically connected one Dot to one Sonos speaker, now that has to be done in software.
Piping that input to speakers other than the one in the same room would still be done via Zones...

I just enabled this new skill today and am generally very pleased with the features. The ducking issue is a disappointment. I suggest giving users the ability to disable ducking. My Dots don't really have much trouble hearing me with the music up anyway. I'd be very happy with the ducking feature disabled as a user choice, or just gone if making it optional isn't as easy as I assume it is.

Thanks Ryan for explaining the "ducking" process. I too have noticed that the volume drops momentarily on ALL Sonos speakers in the house when a command is issued to the Echo Dot (in my kitchen). I agree with mwiseman that this might be an irritation to those listening to music on a Sonos speaker at the other end of the house . As I wrote in an earlier post, I have connected my Echo Dot to the line-in of a Play-5 in my Kitchen. When the Play-5 was registered in the Alexa app as a Smart Home device, the Alexa responses were inaudible on the Play-5. By "forgetting" the Play-5 speaker in the Alexa app, audibility is restored (and I can still issue commands to Alexa to play music in other Sonos "rooms" in the house. HOWEVER, somehow, without my prompting, Alexa has rediscovered the Play-5 in the Kitchen and Alexa responses have become inaudible again. So I have decided to disable the Sonos skill in the Alexa app and will watch with interest as the Sonos/Alexa is refined and developed.

I too have this problem and have to get Alexa to 'forget device' on a daily basis for the sound to work. It simply finds the Play:5 and adds it into it's device list.