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Deluge
Contributor I
October 24, 2017

Echo Dot with Sonos speakers: "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

  • October 24, 2017
  • 18 replies
  • 92202 views
I have 6 Sonos Play 1 speakers in my house, and purchased an Echo Dot to enable Alexa with my speakers. Here are my initial impressions of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly":

==========
THE GOOD
==========

1) Voice commands to Alexa initiate requests to play music from Amazon Prime Music on my Sonos Play 1 speakers. Requests such as artist, album, song, etc. My speakers across my house are set up as a group, and the music plays in all rooms in my house. LIKE!

But see also: #2 in "THE BAD", below.

2) Voice commands to Alexa *control volume* on my Sonos Play 1 speakers, regardless of source of music. If it's playing in my Sonos app (including music I'm playing from "On this iPhone" on my Sonos app), I can control the volume with voice commands to Alexa. LIKE!

3) Voice commands to Alexa *skip tracks* in playlists that I'm playing, regardless of source of music. If it's playing in my Sonos app, (including music I'm playing from "On this iPhone" on my Sonos app) I can skip tracks with voice commands to Alexa. LIKE!

4) Setup was reasonably simple.

5) Coupon from Sonos for $25 off the Echo Dot. Thank you, Sonos!

==========
THE BAD
==========

1) Any non-music related commands to Alexa will only play results over the Echo Dot speaker (weather, traffic, flash briefs, etc). I don't want those to play through the crappy Echo Dot speaker. I have awesome Sonos speakers connected. Naturally want Alexa to give me updates through my better Play 1 speakers. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

(Yes, I know I could purchase Sonos One speakers to make that happen. I already bought 6 Play 1 speakers last year, and don't want to scrap them and spend another $400+ per pair, just to get the sound of Alexa's voice on my Sonos speakers.)

2) Can't use voice commands to Alexa to initiate requests to play music from "On this iPhone", on my Sonos Play 1 speakers. Most of the music I listen to is via "On this iPhone". BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

(Is there any way to upload my personal music collection to "My Music" storage on Amazon ($24/year to store 250,000 songs, and then have those play through Alexa to my Sonos speakers via Alexa?)

==========
THE UGLY
==========

- So far, I don't see anything. How about you?
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    18 replies

    jgatie
    jgatie
    October 24, 2017
    (Is there any way to upload my personal music collection to "My Music" storage on Amazon ($24/year to store 250,000 songs, and then have those play through Alexa to my Sonos speakers via Alexa?)

    If you upload your library to Amazon, you can then play them via Alexa with full support for starting playback, without paying for Amazon Unlimited.
      DelugeAuthor
      Contributor I
      October 24, 2017
      @jgatie, thank you! I uploaded some of my library to Amazon to test it. It shows in my Amazon "My Music" as an album and as a playlist. But so far, I'm unable to use voice commands to Alexa to initiate playing either the album or playlist to my Sonos speakers. Alexa says it can't find the album and can't find the playlist.

      Is there an special approach to be able to do this?
      jgatie
      jgatie
      October 24, 2017
      You have to enable Amazon Music for both Alexa

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201549700

      and Sonos.

      https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3524/~/amazon-music-and-sonos

      Set Alexa to use Amazon Music as your default.

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202056620
        pwt
        pwt
        Virtuoso
        October 24, 2017

        1) Any non-music related commands to Alexa will only play results over the Echo Dot speaker (weather, traffic, flash briefs, etc). I don't want those to play through the crappy Echo Dot speaker. I have awesome Sonos speakers connected. Naturally want Alexa to give me updates through my better Play 1 speakers. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!


        Just for a bit of diversity ... I actually don't want this, I prefer the separation of concerns.
        Nice summary, though.
        4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
          DelugeAuthor
          Contributor I
          October 24, 2017
          @jgatie, yes, had already done both of those steps - am able to use voice commands to Alexa to play music from Amazon Prime Music to my Sonos speakers. But so far, no luck with doing same to play playlist or album that I had uploaded to my Amazon "My Music" storage. If I can get that to work with that playlist or album, then I'll be uploading my entire iTunes library to Amazon. But so far, no luck. 😕
          allanj22
          Contributor I
          October 25, 2017
          Hi how did you connect your dot to sonos play 1?I can’t seem
          To do it
          melvimbe
          melvimbe
          October 25, 2017
          @jgatie, yes, had already done both of those steps - am able to use voice commands to Alexa to play music from Amazon Prime Music to my Sonos speakers. But so far, no luck with doing same to play playlist or album that I had uploaded to my Amazon "My Music" storage. If I can get that to work with that playlist or album, then I'll be uploading my entire iTunes library to Amazon. But so far, no luck. :-/

          You specifically have to specifically say the word 'playlist'. For example, if you have a playlist called 'mellow', you would say 'Alexa, play mellow playlist in the family room'. Otherwise, Amazon is going to search for an artist/song/their own playlist first. That's been my experience anyway.
          Danny
          jgatie
          jgatie
          October 25, 2017
          I concur. Denoting "playlist" or "album" in the command helps a lot.
          Kumar
          October 26, 2017

          1) Any non-music related commands to Alexa will only play results over the Echo Dot speaker (weather, traffic, flash briefs, etc). I don't want those to play through the crappy Echo Dot speaker. I have awesome Sonos speakers connected. Naturally want Alexa to give me updates through my better Play 1 speakers. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

          Is there not an advantage to this if all players are grouped, where responses aren't piped through out the home, but are heard just through the Echo/Dot that is asked the question?
          s0n0suser
          Lyricist I
          October 26, 2017
          I am very happy alexa/echo commands do not come through my SONOS play1 speakers.
          Alexa voice has a high default gain setting (which could not be independently adjusted on the echo device. Now with the Sonos integration I can independently lower or set the volume of echo dot voice prompts,while setting the speaker volume to the desired level.
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