Limitations of Voice in general
I will start this with a caveat that all of this is speculation because I still have to see Alexa working with Sonos, so anyone that has is encouraged to shoot it down in a hurry if it isn't valid. It was triggered by a recent conversation here about trouble with Radio play started via a voice command as compared to via a controller tap.
On reflection it occurs to me that compared to tapping a specific line item, voice commands are convenient, but not made granular as easily as the former. An example: A station that I listen to, Radio Paradise, offers users a way to pick a stream out of a few options, that works best for them. The higher 320k bitstream offer better sound quality but also needs/consumes more internet bandwidth than the also offered lower one of 128 k. But if one can use the higher one, choosing its URL in the Sonos controller and assigning the Radio Paradise name to it ensures that the controller tap on the name will always result in the 320k bitstream being selected for play.
But if Radio Paradise were to be started with a voice command, which stream would be selected? I don't know, but I doubt it will consistently be the 320k one at my place. And what if it is the 320k one at a place where the higher required bandwidth isn't available? Both such choices will lead to poor music play quality via voice command/Alexa compared to that using the aforesaid tap the controller method where the desired URL is consistently selected.
On streaming service also there is a lot of scope for these issues to surface. I don't know about Amazon, but both Apple and Google have many versions of the same song, some of which are remastered at different times and by different people and sound different from one version to the other. People familiar with jazz will know about this by their exposure to the Rudy van Gelder remastered versions of numerous jazz CDs, but this applies across the genres as far as I have seen. Using the controller tap, one can choose the desired specific version for play, but how will Alexa deal with these many versions of the same song by the same artiste? If it does so inconsistently, it will again mean inconsistent and different sound quality from how music sounds when selected using Alexa.
One place where this should not happen is when playlists have been created either in Sonos or in the service account using the desired versions for inclusion in the playlist - assuming that if the playlist is selected for play by Alexa, the versions of the songs picked for replay will all be the specific ones added to the playlist when it was made.
These are matters that may perhaps have not raised their head among Alexa users till now with Amazon hardware, but are more likely to arise with Sonos users because they are using Sonos to obtain better sound quality than what is available via Echo.
Or perhaps this is empty speculation as I warned up front! But if it isn't what are the solutions?
On reflection it occurs to me that compared to tapping a specific line item, voice commands are convenient, but not made granular as easily as the former. An example: A station that I listen to, Radio Paradise, offers users a way to pick a stream out of a few options, that works best for them. The higher 320k bitstream offer better sound quality but also needs/consumes more internet bandwidth than the also offered lower one of 128 k. But if one can use the higher one, choosing its URL in the Sonos controller and assigning the Radio Paradise name to it ensures that the controller tap on the name will always result in the 320k bitstream being selected for play.
But if Radio Paradise were to be started with a voice command, which stream would be selected? I don't know, but I doubt it will consistently be the 320k one at my place. And what if it is the 320k one at a place where the higher required bandwidth isn't available? Both such choices will lead to poor music play quality via voice command/Alexa compared to that using the aforesaid tap the controller method where the desired URL is consistently selected.
On streaming service also there is a lot of scope for these issues to surface. I don't know about Amazon, but both Apple and Google have many versions of the same song, some of which are remastered at different times and by different people and sound different from one version to the other. People familiar with jazz will know about this by their exposure to the Rudy van Gelder remastered versions of numerous jazz CDs, but this applies across the genres as far as I have seen. Using the controller tap, one can choose the desired specific version for play, but how will Alexa deal with these many versions of the same song by the same artiste? If it does so inconsistently, it will again mean inconsistent and different sound quality from how music sounds when selected using Alexa.
One place where this should not happen is when playlists have been created either in Sonos or in the service account using the desired versions for inclusion in the playlist - assuming that if the playlist is selected for play by Alexa, the versions of the songs picked for replay will all be the specific ones added to the playlist when it was made.
These are matters that may perhaps have not raised their head among Alexa users till now with Amazon hardware, but are more likely to arise with Sonos users because they are using Sonos to obtain better sound quality than what is available via Echo.
Or perhaps this is empty speculation as I warned up front! But if it isn't what are the solutions?