Contributor I

Answered

How to activate Alexa mics on Sonos One surrounds?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
July 19, 2018
57 replies
15977 views

I have a Beam with two Sonos One surrounds, and it's my understanding that the mics on the Sonos Ones are by default OFF, and that the Beam is the only one with mic input for Alexa. Is there a way to turn on the mics on the Ones? I ask because I'm usually closer to the Ones than the Beam when using Alexa, and Alexa on the Beam usually has trouble hearing me (I usually have to yell). Thanks!

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Best answer by Ryan S

As soon as you Enable the Sonos skill within Alexa then all Sonos Alexa devices have the capability to take voice commands. Can you please open the Sonos App>Settings>Room Settings>{Your Sonos One} and ensure that Voice Services are Enabled? If not please click Enabled and follow the prompts.

This would work for everything but with the Beam and Sonos Ones.

When bonded with a Beam, Sonos Ones will have Alexa disabled on them. We found during testing that the best experience was when the Sonos Ones microphones were turned off. CEC based Alexa commands don't work through the Sonos One, so if those were hearing your commands instead of the Beam, it wouldn't pass them to the TV. I'll pass the word along to the team that you'd like to be able to turn the microphones back on, and more importantly, that the Beam is having trouble hearing you. That shouldn't be the case.

You might want to give us a call on our support line and see if they can help get the setup cleaned up a bit and improve the Beam's listening.

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UKMedia

The Sonos One microphones work just fine when used as surrounds. I'm not sure what the other posters are talking about. Nothing is disabled in the Sonos Ones when they are surrounds paired with Beam.

Hi Chris. This has been confirmed by Ryan, unless it has changed.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

S

Skystreaker

Lyricist II

Bought Sonos beam and 2x sonos One with subwoofer combo. Alexa situation super disappointing. It is nonsensical to disable the one’s mics. Surround speakers are always closer to people. So not turning on the ones mics basically means yelling at the beam from all the way across the room next to your TV - any time you want to use Alexa - especially when music is coming out of the beam. Ones mics would have been an excellent solution. Figure it out Sonos. It’s just software.

S

Skystreaker

Lyricist II

Even if you let us choose only one of the One’s for the Alexa mic and disabled the beam mic that’d be better the clunky Alexa setup now.

C

Christhompson1986

Contributor I

I was truly disappointed when, after spending nearly $1000 on Sonos gear, I found my Sonos Ones crippled once I added the Beam. I bought the Sonos Ones and a Beam specifically for full room coverage with Alexa. The One's are marketed as one of the best Alexa speakers on the market. There is no mention that Sonos would disable Alexa if you used them in a surround setup.

Sonos seemed to offer such a great, versatile system: you could use the Beam and Ones as a brilliant sounding 5.x surround setup; you could switch over to music and they would work together to fill your room; you would have three top-of-the-line smart speakers with sensitive microphones to pick up Alexa commands around your room. Except for the last part. We have to yell across the room to have the Beam pick up our voice when the One's are sitting 6" behind our head.

Please Sonos, at least give us the option to turn Alexa on/off on the Ones in a surround setup. If the choice is to enable Alexa on the surrounds without the ability turn on/off my TV, or remove Alexa from the surrounds completely, I'll gladly choose the former. I use Alexa far, far more than I use Sonos to turn on/off my TV.

I hope you can fix this and bring out the full value in our Sonos systems.

Thanks!i also have to agree. I am very disappointed to find out that the microphone is turned off on the sonos ones. Sonos, are you planning on making a change to this?

C

Christhompson1986

Contributor I

Please fix this! Please enable alexa mics on Play Ones surrounds

Just curious. As the only time the mics on the Sonos One's are disabled is when they are set-up as surround speakers with a Beam, why is this an issue? Is the mic on the Beam not sufficient? correct. The mic on the beam is not sufficient. It’s preferable to have the mic’s on the “ones” enabled so you don’t have to shout. This could be for regular functionality and not CEC in the short term if it made some fix happen. At least make it an option for the consumer.

J

jethrodonald

Lyricist I

As soon as you Enable the Sonos skill within Alexa then all Sonos Alexa devices have the capability to take voice commands. Can you please open the Sonos App>Settings>Room Settings>{Your Sonos One} and ensure that Voice Services are Enabled? If not please click Enabled and follow the prompts.

This would work for everything but with the Beam and Sonos Ones.

When bonded with a Beam, Sonos Ones will have Alexa disabled on them. We found during testing that the best experience was when the Sonos Ones microphones were turned off. CEC based Alexa commands don't work through the Sonos One, so if those were hearing your commands instead of the Beam, it wouldn't pass them to the TV. I'll pass the word along to the team that you'd like to be able to turn the microphones back on, and more importantly, that the Beam is having trouble hearing you. That shouldn't be the case.

You might want to give us a call on our support line and see if they can help get the setup cleaned up a bit and improve the Beam's listening.

I would like to second this, please pass on feedback that consumers would like to reactivate Sonos Ones microphones when used as surround speakers. I purchased these over Play:1’s for Alexa functionally. As it sounds with many on this thread, dissapointed to be mislead.
An update in software it seems will remove many customers frustrations.

S

Skystreaker

Lyricist II

Please fix this! Please enable alexa mics on Play Ones surrounds

Just curious. As the only time the mics on the Sonos One's are disabled is when they are set-up as surround speakers with a Beam, why is this an issue? Is the mic on the Beam not sufficient? correct. The mic on the beam is not sufficient. It’s preferable to have the mic’s on the “ones” enabled so you don’t have to shout. This could be for regular functionality and not CEC in the short term if it made some fix happen. At least make it an option for the consumer.

Someone from Sonos should actually try this in their home. Since getting the 5.1 setup my wife and I are always shouting across the room to get Alexa to hear. In short, if you want to art getting frustrated with Alexa, buy the beam/one 5.1 combo.

melvimbe

Someone from Sonos should actually try this in their home. Since getting the 5.1 setup my wife and I are always shouting across the room to get Alexa to hear. In short, if you want to art getting frustrated with Alexa, buy the beam/one 5.1 combo.

I find that the Beam is just fine for listening, and understand why Sonos wouldn't want to complicate things by making CEC functions only work if the Beam happened to listen to you. However, I completely get why users would want the option of deciding which mics are on and off.

As a potential work around, you can add echos in the same room and setup Alexa groups so that the music plays on the 5.1 setup by default.

Danny

G

GabrielLogan

Enthusiast I

I’m not sure about the cec functions since I can ask everything to Alexa through my iPad and it works !

melvimbe

I’m not sure about the cec functions since I can ask everything to Alexa through my iPad and it works !

CEC functions would be turn on/off TV, switching inputs, and volume control. It should be noted though that CEC functions are not the only way to control these features, and not all TVs support these features, so it does makes sense that some/many users would give up CEC functions to get the mics turned on surround speakers.

Danny

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