Microphone sensitivity for the “Alexa” wake word is low

Though the microphones work great in the majority of homes and setups, we're at that point where we're collecting more and more samples and fine-tuning the microphones.

I wonder, though, if your analytics will capture the dozens of times that “Alexa!” fails to trigger? I find myself having to shout up to three times to finally trigger a response from the One, while speaking in a normal voice would ALWAYS trigger the Echo, which was placed in exactly the same location. This is a serious issue, which needs to be resolved.

But then there is also the mystery of the minority that finds things to be the other way - that the mic is too sensitive.

I have no issues with mic sensitivity with my two paired Sonos One's. I'm usually 5 or 6 feet away.

I have no issues with mic sensitivity with my two paired Sonos One's. I'm usually 5 or 6 feet away.

Interesting. Maybe the two of them working together help with the sensitivity issue. Guess I'll be forced to buy another to find out, lol.

I have no issues with mic sensitivity with my two paired Sonos One's. I'm usually 5 or 6 feet away.

Interesting. Maybe the two of them working together help with the sensitivity issue. Guess I'll be forced to buy another to find out, lol.
I've got 2 in a stereo pair and have the lack of sensitivity issue whether I have one or two microphones turned on.

Though the microphones work great in the majority of homes and setups, we're at that point where we're collecting more and more samples and fine-tuning the microphones.

I wonder, though, if your analytics will capture the dozens of times that “Alexa!” fails to trigger? I find myself having to shout up to three times to finally trigger a response from the One, while speaking in a normal voice would ALWAYS trigger the Echo, which was placed in exactly the same location. This is a serious issue, which needs to be resolved.
As it's failed to trigger and doesn't send anything to the cloud unless it does trigger I can't see that these events will be captured, which is a bit concerning for the prospect of the problem being fixed.

This issue is pretty severe with my recently-purchased Ones. If they don't fix it in the next 2 weeks, i'll be returning them while i still can. I can be on my balcony in perfect silence (no music playing, no loud cars or people talking), and my One only hears me when i'm less than 3 feet away. I bought it so i could sit on my favorite chair out there and ask Alexa questions or change the song or volume with my voice, but currently, i can't do that at all. I'm using normal speaking volume, which should be just fine... I'm not going to shout so the whole neighborhood can hear me.
And the One in my bathroom only responds about a quarter of the time, while i'm speaking loudly at it. By contrast - My Echo Dots can hear me from across the room just fine. Maybe if i see they fix this down the line somehow, i'll buy one to try again next year.

The variation in microphone sensitivity is odd. Some have no issues while others do. I assume this is software unless they have that poor a quality control on hardware. I can even say Alexa from another room and they respond.
Sonos calls this beta software but it’s more like alpha. They must be getting a lot of returns.
You would think Amazon is not happy about how this reflects on Alexa either.

The variation in microphone sensitivity is odd. Some have no issues while others do. I assume this is software unless they have that poor a quality control on hardware. I can even say Alexa from another room and they respond.
Sonos calls this beta software but it’s more like alpha. They must be getting a lot of returns.
You would think Amazon is not happy about how this reflects on Alexa either.I've got 3 Sonos Ones and the responsiveness is bad on all of them compared to Dots and Echos.

The variation in microphone sensitivity is odd. Some have no issues while others do. I assume this is software unless they have that poor a quality control on hardware. I can even say Alexa from another room and they respond.

The sensitivity is surely going to vary based on the local environment (acoustics, background noise, etc) as well the tenor of your voice and other related factors. In my case, I would almost swear my Sonos One is trained to think the wake word is "Alexa ALEXA!" Yet at the same, the Sonos will sound off at the oddest times even when the television volume is low and the nearest speaker is well across the room. I never had this issue with any of my echos or dots,

Overall I like the Sonos One and I'm going to hang in there and hope this will get better as Ryan suggests. While some are returning theirs, I am not. However, I have delayed making additional purchases of any additional Sonos product until I see whether there is progress on this and other issues.