Patiently waiting for Alexa Integration
Userlevel 2
Anyone else? I am using Yonomi to connect to SONOS, but it is quite buggy... especially if I have my zones grouped, etc. I am PATIENTLY waiting for full integration from SONOS...... hoping it is soon!:D
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And make sure it doesn't sound like a cat fighting a hedgehog
I can now assure you that it does not. To my ears it is a big improvement over the sound of the original Echo and plenty good enough for the kitchen and several other use cases but of course still no bass with those tiny 2 1/2 inch speakers. As far as usability it is already a huge hit at our house. Play a song or playlist from Amazon music and you get album art plus lyrics by default from a UI perspective it is a pleasure to use.
For $189 (sale price) I can't complain too much about the sound quality because it has not only improved over the previous Echo model but I also have to take into account that I get access to YouTube, Amazon movies and TV shows, video calling, security camera viewing, room-to-room intercom, weather, and so on all available today plus the promise of Sonos control sometime in the future. Until then I may stick a Bluetooth dongle on some decent powered speakers just to see what the experience will be like to use the Show in a higher fidelity scenario. I'm also keeping the Play5 Gen1 in the kitchen so I am ready to use the Show for testing Sonos integration as soon as it comes out.
Userlevel 7
+22
And make sure it doesn't sound like a cat fighting a hedgehog
First step is to see what the Show can do on its own with the improved speakers and built-in display... those answers are just a few hours away now.
When playing music from Apple, it would be nice to not have to first find the phone and then invoke the app to know what is playing. But the neat trick will be for music to be seen when Alexa has ordered Sonos to play either Apple Music or other services, or from the NAS.
That would be a nice use case... I hope if you use the Show to play from Amazon music through a Sonos speaker that you can see the lyrics on the Show's screen the way you can when playing music directly through the Show itself.
Also interested in using the Show to play from YouTube but I doubt if it will be able to share that feature with Sonos.
Anyone interested in the Amazon Show? It looks like it might be a good candidate for a Sonos controller that does voice and screen control of a Sonos setup.
Gah. Yea, I turned off PMs because I was getting random stuff all the time. Thought that if I initiated the process, a reply would come through. I'll have to give some more thought to that. My apologies.
Glad to hear that things are getting better. The equipment we shipped to our office in Bengaluru was used, and not from a "manufacturer" facility, so I suspect it got a tad more scrutiny, and sometimes I would just bring it over myself in my luggage. But I certainly had less trouble shipping there than I did to the office I worked with in Bangkok. Those Thai customs folks were persnickety :)
A pleasure, sir.
Glad to hear that things are getting better. The equipment we shipped to our office in Bengaluru was used, and not from a "manufacturer" facility, so I suspect it got a tad more scrutiny, and sometimes I would just bring it over myself in my luggage. But I certainly had less trouble shipping there than I did to the office I worked with in Bangkok. Those Thai customs folks were persnickety :)
A pleasure, sir.
Bruce, thanks for the message about Dot procurement, which I can only reply to here based on how you have set up messaging at your end!
Hopefully I should not need to take you up on the very kind offer; Amazon now has a large online retail presence in India and going by the Kindle experience, should be selling all devices online in India as soon as they launch the Echo in India.
I bought all my Sonos kit from Amazon US whose policy on India shipments of the kit is a on again/off again kind of thing. But for all my purchases I was very impressed with all the logistics including how fast it cleared Indian customs. Time taken from order click to home delivery in India from US warehouses was usually just 10 calendar days. Total cost including shipping for even items like the Sub was just 1.3 times the Amazon US prices, which was very reasonable considering the 25% Indian customs charge.
But, thanks again.
If you don't need a dot (or full echo, or show), then that would imply a new Sonos device with Alexa/mics built in. The only way I see that happening is if Amazon feels that Apple Homepod is a real threat, and they believe customers won't see a dot paired with a PLAY:3 as a legitimate equivalent. So perhaps Amazon works with Sonos, maybe even provides funding, to get that product out the door by Christmas.
Although, assuming it's still a real concern for Amazon, they could also invest in a marketing campaign to convince customers that Sonos+Dot is as good as Homepod (or better). That would avoid the need to rush a new product to market. As well, Sonos has said they want to eventually work with Google Home, Homepod, and whoever else, not just Amazon. So why build a product that only works with Amazon? Why not wait and come out with a product that has the mics and capability to work with the voice assistant of your choice? Then again, maybe Amazon and others won't license to a product that works with all three...don't know yet.
Regardless of the speculation above, Sonos has said that it will work with existing Sonos products, so I think you can safely concluded that you'll only need to get a dot once it's available.
Although, assuming it's still a real concern for Amazon, they could also invest in a marketing campaign to convince customers that Sonos+Dot is as good as Homepod (or better). That would avoid the need to rush a new product to market. As well, Sonos has said they want to eventually work with Google Home, Homepod, and whoever else, not just Amazon. So why build a product that only works with Amazon? Why not wait and come out with a product that has the mics and capability to work with the voice assistant of your choice? Then again, maybe Amazon and others won't license to a product that works with all three...don't know yet.
Regardless of the speculation above, Sonos has said that it will work with existing Sonos products, so I think you can safely concluded that you'll only need to get a dot once it's available.
We don't know how Sonos-Amazon will/have addressed this issue - for example searching for music tracks, etc. in a skill is currently dependent on an intents library which doesn't exist for UK/DE echos, but only for US registered devices.
Maybe the Sonos-Alexa integration will by-pass this restriction?
My logic, admittedly not based on full appreciation of the subject, says that integration should allow anything that Sonos does anywhere in the world to be also done via Dot to the same extent everywhere. For instance, voice command to playing music from a NAS.
The saving grace is that getting one prematurely may have one left with a paperweight for a while that isn't too expensive - only because I can't pick one up where I live just when it is ready to work. I certainly see no need to pick up more than one Dot in this manner.
Userlevel 7
+22
Time to get myself one Dot then; it isn't as if that will be a big financial outlay at risk.
I bought one last year with the £10 Prime discount when it launched in the UK. I barely used it. But the reason I bought it was I thought it would be fun to use with Sonos as my Sonos is with me everywhere in the house (well, not the bathroom, yet!).
It's not something I need though. Sonos is easy enough for me to navigate and control without having to be concerned about voice control. But maybe I'll think differently once I'm up and running!
Time to get myself one Dot then; it isn't as if that will be a big financial outlay at risk.
Bear in mind that Alexa is linked to your amazon account. For example, a UK dot linked to a UK amazon account only has access to UK skills.
We don't know how Sonos-Amazon will/have addressed this issue - for example searching for music tracks, etc. in a skill is currently dependent on an intents library which doesn't exist for UK/DE echos, but only for US registered devices.
Maybe the Sonos-Alexa integration will by-pass this restriction?
Time to get myself one Dot then; it isn't as if that will be a big financial outlay at risk.
Userlevel 7
+22
Then you rather posted in the wrong thread eh?!
I'm tired of waiting. At this point, all Amazon has to do is release a new Echo with a decent sized speaker in it, and I'm gone.
Userlevel 7
+22
1. I think that would be a logical assumption.
2. Unless Sonos are going to launch new hardware, and who knows?, I would have this is a reasonable assumption as well. At the end of the day Amazon aren't doing this to help Sonos. They, presumably, expect it to drive sales of their Echos.
2. Unless Sonos are going to launch new hardware, and who knows?, I would have this is a reasonable assumption as well. At the end of the day Amazon aren't doing this to help Sonos. They, presumably, expect it to drive sales of their Echos.
Perhaps you can answer these even now without any corporate consequences being visited on you:
I cannot use the Echo in India today, because Amazon is still to launch it here. I have seen it being used, but that is by people cleverer than I, that do back door workaround that I don't desire to. Amazon is expected to launch it in 2017, but assuming that does not happen:
1. When Sonos releases its integration, will I still have to wait on Amazon to launch the product here for it to work only with my Sonos speakers?
2. Am I right in assuming that I will have to buy at least one Dot to get it to work with my Sonos kit, post integration and if so, will just one Dot work to control one group of Sonos speakers in a large open space? Assuming it isn't at the other end of the open space when using it of course.
I usually need to pick up such kit when someone from my orbit travels to the US, hence the questions.
Userlevel 7
+26
jgatie is correct. It's still on schedule, but we aren't sharing the timeline just yet. We'll let you know as soon as there are more details to share.
Sonos does not schedule releases by calendar date, they schedule by testing goals met. They aren't going to give you an approximate date any more detailed than sometime by the end of the year.
Sometime before January 1, 2018. That is as approximate as they are going to get.
If Sonos say the'll connect To Alexa, Then it'll happen this year (Ryan S said !!!). Hey Sonos (Ryan S) , any idea (approximately please !!!!), before we change Sonos ??? Due to .....waiting .....
I am using Lutron bridge to control my sonos. I set up different scenes with my favorite artists so I can just say, "Alexa, turn on Keith Urban" It is pretty easy. Can not control pause or volume with this method but it gets things started.
LOL. Nice catch, Bruce.
Perhaps the title of this thread should be changed to "Impatiently waiting...."
Userlevel 4
+13
Replace it then! I don't believe Echo is the holy grail or a deal breaker in deciding upon Sonos.
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