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Seeky
Prominent Collaborator II
April 25, 2020
Answered

Ducking not entirely working yet?

  • April 25, 2020
  • 47 replies
  • 1128 views

So as I understand the new ducking possibilies which rolled out some months ago, all speakers within an Alexa group should duck.

I have the following speakers:

  • 1x Play One SL stereo pair
  • 1x Play:5 stereo pair
  • 1x Play One
  • 1x Echo Dot 2nd Gen

All three Sonos are in a group, and also selected as “Preferred Speaker”

The Sonos One and the Echo Dot are selected as Alexa enabled devices.

 

When I talk to the Dot all speakers duck, when I talk to the Sonos One only the Sonos One ducks?

That does not seem right. Due to another bug i have undergone a full factory reset of all speakers, so it probably is an issue everyone is having? Can anyone confirm?

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      Best answer by Ryan S

      The ducking issue should be all fixed now for everyone. So go ahead and set up your Alexa groups as you want and the Sonos One should duck devices as expected.

      47 replies

      Show previous replies
      John B
      May 1, 2020

      Incidentally, Sonos factory resets never cure anything, and Sonos recommends against trying them for troubleshooting.


      I can tell you this is actually wrong. I had an issue where Sonos speakers were not able to skip songs anymore last week. The factory reset did really work. You can read it up in the thread from last week.

       

      Regarding the article you posted. @Ryan S posted a while later here, that a change was made:

      https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/sonos-one-echo-dot-group-ducking-6830792

      From https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3169?language=en_US

       

      To me it sounds that what we two just tried to do should work?

      Ryan’s comments seem to me to refer to using Amazon devices for control, not Alexa-enabled Sonos devices, so i don’t think anything we have found contradicts what he said.

      But I think in the third bullet point above the intended meaning of ‘Alexa-enabled device’ is ‘Amazon device’, because it is contrasted with ‘Sonos devices’.  But that is not what it strictly says.

       

        SeekyAuthor
        Prominent Collaborator II
        May 1, 2020

        Ryan’s comments seem to me to refer to using Amazon devices for control, not Alexa-enabled Sonos devices, so i don’t think anything we have found contradicts what he said.

        But I think in the third bullet point above the intended meaning of ‘Alexa-enabled device’ is ‘Amazon device’, because it is contrasted with ‘Sonos devices’.

         

        I am not sure what you are trying to say. Do you mean they wrote “Alexa-enabled device” but meant “Amazon device” instead?

        I was sure I purchased an “Alexa-enabled device” when buying the Sonos One, so I’d expect this feature to work as described in the knowledge base.

        melvimbe
        melvimbe
        May 1, 2020

        @melvimbe

        I suspect you can reproduce it like this:

        • Put the Show and the Beam into a group, both as controllers
        • Set the Show as preferred speaker
        • Mute the Shows mic and activate the Beams mic
        • Start music on the Show
        • Speak to the Beam, if we are right the Show won’t lower the volume, but it kinda should….

         

        I did a slightly modified test. 

        1. Added a nearby Sonos room (pair of Sonos Ones) to the group (Show, Beam, Ones) - preferred speaker.
        2. Turn off mics on the Show and Ones
        3. Music playing on Beam and Ones
        4. Gave voice command, and the Beam responded, but the Ones did NOT duck.

        That seems to confirm what you’re saying.  Sonos devices can receive ducking commands but are not sending them out.

         

        Assuming this is actually what’s happening, I can see it as a bug, but also as a low priority feature. The majority of people who have a Sonos speaker (or stereo pair, etc) in a physical room are going to have music play from that speaker only, or at least not at the same time as an echo other Sonos speaker in the same room.  Thus ducking would rarely be needed.

        Danny
          SeekyAuthor
          Prominent Collaborator II
          May 1, 2020

          @melvimbe

          I suspect you can reproduce it like this:

          • Put the Show and the Beam into a group, both as controllers
          • Set the Show as preferred speaker
          • Mute the Shows mic and activate the Beams mic
          • Start music on the Show
          • Speak to the Beam, if we are right the Show won’t lower the volume, but it kinda should….

           

          I did a slightly modified test. 

          1. Added a nearby Sonos room (pair of Sonos Ones) to the group (Show, Beam, Ones) - preferred speaker.
          2. Turn off mics on the Show and Ones
          3. Music playing on Beam and Ones
          4. Gave voice command, and the Beam responded, but the Ones did NOT duck.

          That seems to confirm what you’re saying.  Sonos devices can receive ducking commands but are not sending them out.

           

          Assuming this is actually what’s happening, I can see it as a bug, but also as a low priority feature. The majority of people who have a Sonos speaker (or stereo pair, etc) in a physical room are going to have music play from that speaker only, or at least not at the same time as an echo other Sonos speaker in the same room.  Thus ducking would rarely be needed.

          Thanks for your test, at least it’s confirmed now.

          Would this not be an issue if you added two One SL as rear speakers to your beam now?
          I’d expect them to duck too, but as it seems they won’t?

          melvimbe
          melvimbe
          May 1, 2020

          Thanks for your test, at least it’s confirmed now.

          Would this not be an issue if you added two One SL as rear speakers to your beam now?
          I’d expect them to duck too, but as it seems they won’t?

           

          No, rear speakers are bonded to the Beam and will always do whatever the Beam is doing.So when the Beam ducks, they will as well.  Same for bonded Sub.  I have play:1s as rears and Sub with my Beam, so easily confirm this.

           

          However, it’s worth noting that when a Beam (or playbar/playbase/Sonos Amp) is playing TV audio, it will never duck.  I can see where users may not want this, but it would be a nice option.  

          Danny
            John B
            May 1, 2020

            Ryan’s comments seem to me to refer to using Amazon devices for control, not Alexa-enabled Sonos devices, so i don’t think anything we have found contradicts what he said.

            But I think in the third bullet point above the intended meaning of ‘Alexa-enabled device’ is ‘Amazon device’, because it is contrasted with ‘Sonos devices’.

             

            I am not sure what you are trying to say. Do you mean they wrote “Alexa-enabled device” but meant “Amazon device” instead?

            I was sure I purchased an “Alexa-enabled device” when buying the Sonos One, so I’d expect this feature to work as described in the knowledge base.

            Indeed you did.  I can only speculate as to what Sonos meant, but I don’t think what is written here is correct where the device is a Sonos device.  Either that, or we are all doing something wrong.

              melvimbe
              melvimbe
              May 1, 2020

              Indeed you did.  I can only speculate as to what Sonos meant, but I don’t think what is written here is correct.  Either that, or we are all doing something wrong.

               

              I’m not doing anything wrong!  :slight_smile:

              Danny
                SeekyAuthor
                Prominent Collaborator II
                May 1, 2020

                Ryan’s comments seem to me to refer to using Amazon devices for control, not Alexa-enabled Sonos devices, so i don’t think anything we have found contradicts what he said.

                But I think in the third bullet point above the intended meaning of ‘Alexa-enabled device’ is ‘Amazon device’, because it is contrasted with ‘Sonos devices’.

                 

                I am not sure what you are trying to say. Do you mean they wrote “Alexa-enabled device” but meant “Amazon device” instead?

                I was sure I purchased an “Alexa-enabled device” when buying the Sonos One, so I’d expect this feature to work as described in the knowledge base.

                Indeed you did.  I can only speculate as to what Sonos meant, but I don’t think what is written here is correct.  Either that, or we are all doing something wrong.

                Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

                melvimbe
                melvimbe
                May 1, 2020

                Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

                 

                Sonos does read these threads.  I would be surprised if they don’t chime in sometime today.

                Danny
                  SeekyAuthor
                  Prominent Collaborator II
                  May 1, 2020

                  Hmm okay, I’ll open a support ticket and ask them for clarification. Now it’s kinda easy to explain what does not work

                   

                  Sonos does read these threads.  I would be surprised if they don’t chime in sometime today.


                  My last hope usually is @Ryan S 

                  The experience with support for me usually was “you did something wrong, remove all and re-add it, and if that doesn’t work make a factory reset”

                  Never had the impression they actually tried to reproduce a bug with their own hardware.

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