New to Sonos or Alexa? How to set up

Ryan, thank you, and I look forward to any further insights you may obtain. I suppose one could register the devices in this manner, and when Sonos Skills are finally made available (!!!), see how Sonos control works. If it does not work well or at all, depending upon what is more important one Amazon device could be factory reset and reregistered to have just one Amazon account for all of them and meet the one ring to rule them all thing. At the expense of not having the ability to play more than one Amazon Prime stream at the same time.

Another question for a hoped for future. When I use Echo/Dot today in stand alone mode, I can command it to directly play at any volume level between 1 and 10 by my saying the number. Is there an equivalent voice command for Sonos volume control? If yes, what is it.

Apologies if this is already answered somewhere.

I can command it to directly play at any volume level between 1 and 10 by my saying the number. Is there an equivalent voice command for Sonos volume control? If yes, what is it.
The command would be "Alexa, set volume __ in ____." For the Sonos One, you can drop the room name. The same 1-10 applies and relates to the percentage of max volume in 10s. More fine control isn't available right now.

I don't believe there's a single command right now that starts playing and sets the volume at the same time. I've tried out "Alexa, play ____ in ____ at volume ___." But it didn't apply the volume level. I'll let you know if there's a different command that will or should work, but I don't believe there is.

The command would be "Alexa, set volume __ in ____." For the Sonos One, you can drop the room name. The same 1-10 applies and relates to the percentage of max volume in 10s.

Exactly as I hoped would be the case. Thanks.

I must say that personally I’m really disappointed that this doesn’t allow me to select and play from my own music library. I don’t use streaming or hosted services as music I like isn’t typically available on them. The ability to select music from a known library on a local drive already in the Sonos ecosystem must be possible. It’s interesting that this use case wasn’t prioritised; but I’m perhaps in a minority here....

I am astonished that the much-touted voice control only works with streaming services. When I bought my first Sonos device (I have 12 now) you pointed it at your server or the music directory on your hard disc and it played that. Its primary function was to play locally-stored music. Streaming services were added later, but I don't use them because of the cost (why pay to listen to music I aready own) and the quality.

I have all my music stored as FLACs and I enjoy the sound immensely. In the early days I simply ripped my CDs to mp3/m4a and used the system that way, but I found that over hours of listening I found the sound fatiguing. I listened to the CD version of an album and compared them and they were very close, but I could listen to the CD version all day without fatigue (ie different albums throughout the day in CD format, not the same CD all day!). I have a good ear for music quality but wouldn't call myself one of the 'golden ear' brigade (the ones who claim to be able to hear difference between a standard and gold-plated mains lead...) so I was suprised by this finding.

So out came all the CDs again (and a bigger hard disc) and I ripped them all again, this time to FLAC and can now listen all day without fatigue. I find the same with low bitrate music stations, although the 320k streams are bearable for an hour or two.

Streaming services may be convenient for most people who are used to mp3-level sound quality, but for me I want to be able to listen to my own music (which I've already bought) at the quality level of the original CD, ie FLAC and not compressed.

As an aside, I may be in the minority of people who buy CDs and rip them to a server, but I'd be equally happy to pay for the music and download it in FLAC format and not have to store the CDs in the loft. I know some CDs are available in this way, and of course the model exists if you don't mind a compressed format, but as yet I've not seen it available in a mainstream way for uncompressed formats.

You are not alone. I want to voice control MY music collection not the streaming stuff. Very disappointed.

I received my Echo yesterday excited about this Sonos-Alexa integration... I actually had a Google Home which I sold since it doesn't integrate natively with Sonos (yes, I know the Google Audiocast workaround).

Anyway, I went to set it up and low and behold the Sonos skill is not available in Canada!?!?!? Seriously?

Is there a planned release date for the Sonos skill for Alexa in Canada?

Can you please add 2 features that will make Alexa with Sonos perfect?

1. The ability to add songs to play next on Queue.

2. I have Sonos play bar and it would be great if i could have Alexa switch back the audio to tv when done listening to music in the living room without having to pick up my phone open the app and switch it there.

Any update on if this is in the works or not would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Signed a loyal Sonos Customer.

Hei,

I plan on getting a connect amp with Alexa. I want to use my TV on the Line In port.
Would it still be possible to turn on the whole system via voice command or does Alexa need more than just a wifi connection?

Sorry for the clueless question. 😞

Paperwings

You would need a harmony hub or something similar to communicate between Alexa and the and the rest of your system. But if you go that route it works really well. Hope this helps.