Trending Lyricist I

Public Beta - My Feedback

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 16, 2017
36 replies
4231 views

After waiting for the announcement for Echo integration with Sonos for what seems like an eternity (I was really looking forward to it), I have to say I am somewhat underwhelmed by the current offering. For what it's worth, here's my feedback: -

A glorified Bluetooth speaker - is what it feels like. I could have done most of what I'm currently getting by putting a cable from my Echo Dot to my Sonos Connect Amp's line in. In fact I tried that some time ago but quickly disconnected it as the streaming TuneIn Radio via the Echo cuts out a lot more than the TuneIn Radio via Sonos, and I listen to radio probably 90% of the time.

Everything is through the Echo - as above, it seems you're not controlling Sonos through Alexa at all, you're simply outputting Alexa audio through Sonos. When that's TuneIn Radio, it cuts out just as bad as when using just the Echo. If I could hard-wire my Echo I would, but it's WiFi only, and it's 4 feet from a Google Wifi hard-wired WiFi point, so the network connection to it can't really be improved upon. My (hard-wired) Sonos very rarely drops out, but when I say "Alexa, Play BBC Radio One in the Kitchen" it starts, but drops out a lot. Which makes me think it's the Alexa source, not Sonos's own, that it's playing. This is (to me, at least) confirmed by the fact that you can't access local libraries, Spotify or Deezer. It's crippled by only being able to access (surprise, surprise) Amazon Music streaming service.

So...all it's really good for at the moment (IMHO) is start / stop, as long as the input is from the Sonos app in the first place, and volume control. And it's useful that the Sonos volume drops when Alexa hears "Alexa", so you're no longer shouting at the Echo over the Sonos volume.

I saw this at https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4343 :-

"Spotify users: We’ve heard from you and are working hard to bring you the ability to ask Alexa to play Spotify music on your Sonos speakers as quickly as we can."

Please add Deezer to that? And local libraries? What we have is next to useless to anyone not using Amazon Music.

I was expecting full control of Sonos over Alexa. What we currently have (and I know it's in Beta, which is why I tagged this as feedback) is a crippled, glorified Bluetooth speaker.

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Marc JAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

I just tried to switch from a Deezer playlist to TuneIn Radio via Alexa and it failed miserably, as in completely failed to play anything, which it has done a few times in the past. This time I kept the Sonos app open on my phone to see if there was any indication there.

So, when I said "Alexa, play BBC Radio Two in Kitchen", the currently playing on the App did change to "88.6 BBC Radio 2" for a while with a "connecting..." message, but it gave back and went back to my playlist (paused).

I tried again, "Alexa, play BBC Radio Two in Kitchen", this time the app had "89.1 BBC Radio 2" and "connecting..." but again failed to connect and went back to my playlist (paused).

I then went into the Sonos app on my phone and clicked on "BBC Radio 2" (no numbers) in TuneIn stations and it connected and played immediately.

So, somehow the stream selection is not great when via Alexa. In the past it has dropped out a lot, but for now it's failing to connect at all...

ETA: This is more of an Alexa problem but most of the time Alexa would completely ignore the "in Kitchen" part of my request and play through the Dot's own speaker. Seemed a bit hit and miss...between this and the stream failing to connect I really wanted to throw something out the window!

jgatie

I just tried to switch from a Deezer playlist to TuneIn Radio via Alexa and it failed miserably, as in completely failed to play anything, which it has done a few times in the past. This time I kept the Sonos app open on my phone to see if there was any indication there.

So, when I said "Alexa, play BBC Radio Two in Kitchen", the currently playing on the App did change to "88.6 BBC Radio 2" for a while with a "connecting..." message, but it gave back and went back to my playlist (paused).

I tried again, "Alexa, play BBC Radio Two in Kitchen", this time the app had "89.1 BBC Radio 2" and "connecting..." but again failed to connect and went back to my playlist (paused).

I then went into the Sonos app on my phone and clicked on "BBC Radio 2" (no numbers) in TuneIn stations and it connected and played immediately.

So, somehow the stream selection is not great when via Alexa. In the past it has dropped out a lot, but for now it's failing to connect at all...

ETA: This is more of an Alexa problem but most of the time Alexa would completely ignore the "in Kitchen" part of my request and play through the Dot's own speaker. Seemed a bit hit and miss...between this and the stream failing to connect I really wanted to throw something out the window!

Since you are participating in a beta, when something like this happens, you should submit a diagnostic and list the reference number here, in addition to the report of the incident. That will help greatly in the fixing of this problem.

K

Kumar

@ Marc - a thread triggered by your experience: https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/limitations-of-voice-in-general-6792217/index1.html#post16155594

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Marc JAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Since you are participating in a beta, when something like this happens, you should submit a diagnostic and list the reference number here, in addition to the report of the incident. That will help greatly in the fixing of this problem.

OK - my confirmation number for 5 mins ago is 7967914 - BBC Radio 2 initiated by "Alexa, play BBC Radio 2 on Kitchen". Took a long time to connect, Sonos app says "88.6 BBC Radio 2 Edinburgh" (I'm in Edinburgh), and the stream quality is terrible.

I think I see how this is going to pan out....Amazon will say they're doing everything right. Sonos will say they are too. And then TuneIn will blame something out of their control. End result being, as I'm not an Amazon Music customer, voice control is almost useless to me (only start / stop / volume control).

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Marc JAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

And 7967935 is the diagnostic for everything being as it should. "BBC Radio 2" started from the Sonos app, with no dropouts.

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Marc JAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

It seems both mine and Jacob's problems are caused, at least in part, by location awareness. He get's the BBC Radio 1 Cardiff feed, I get the BBC Radio 2 Edinburgh feed.

I think this must be Alexa adding this. If I do a search in the Sonos app for "BBC Radio 2" ONLY the national feed, and BBC Radio 2 Country, show in the results. In fact, BBC Radio 2 Edinburgh doesn't even show when I search local radio in TuneIn via the Sonos app. But somehow, when initiated via Alexa, the location becomes a factor and it finds stations / feeds I can't find via the app even if I wanted to!

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BIg Vern

Lyricist III

Hooked up Alexa to Sonos last night and while I can see where this is going, the Amazon music stream is Sooooo bad it sounds like Sonos has been put in a damp sock - closed Beta MUST have picked this one up. Net result is Sonos is going to get bad mouthed for sound reproduction which is entirely unfair. @Sonos Really need to accelerate this Spotify integration and give me access to my own library as at the moment its a little like Apple trying to ditch Google for maps and finding out they are really bad at it!

Come on Sonos team, don't compromise your quality for commercial benefit as it will get you into trouble.

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BoredofBalham

Prodigy II

Hooked up Alexa to Sonos last night and while I can see where this is going, the Amazon music stream is Sooooo bad it sounds like Sonos has been put in a damp sock - closed Beta MUST have picked this one up. Net result is Sonos is going to get bad mouthed for sound reproduction which is entirely unfair. @Sonos Really need to accelerate this Spotify integration and give me access to my own library as at the moment its a little like Apple trying to ditch Google for maps and finding out they are really bad at it!

Come on Sonos team, don't compromise your quality for commercial benefit as it will get you into trouble.

All Alexa does is tell Sonos what to do. Sonos then goes and gets the music. Ergo Alexa has nothing to do with the sound.
Have you compared the sound between Alexa and direct with the app?

K

Kumar

Net result is Sonos is going to get bad mouthed for sound reproduction which is entirely unfair.

If Spotify has different masters for a song in its library like Apple/Google do, this problem will continue because Alexa will pick pick any one of these in some apparently random way; the way to force it to use a specific version is by using playlists that contain these.
IMO, the road to consistency is via access to the local NAS that rarely contains more than one version of a song, but I don't see that coming in a hurry, so the present answer to this if it is important is using voice to control just subsequent actions of stop/restart and volume level changes.

K

Kumar

All Alexa does is tell Sonos what to do. Sonos then goes and gets the music. Ergo Alexa has nothing to do with the sound.

See above: in a controller one can pick a specific mastered version from those offered by the service by the finger tap; Alexa will influence sound in a way that isn't controlled, by the version it chooses between the many available ones.

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