Skip to main content

I have four Sonos One SL speakers (2 in the living room and 2 in the bedroom) and wish to add one more, but I have a question and a problem.

First, my problem: With the exception of Spotify (and perhaps 1-2 other apps I don’t use), in order to listen to anything on my speakers, it HAS to be accessed through the Sonos app itself (meaning you can’t just open your app and have it connect to the speakers) AND be on the Sonos app’s limited list of available apps. So you can’t use your speakers to listen to anything. Aside from the obvious inconvenience and significant restriction this places on your use of the speakers, there are other problems with this. An example: I have an app called Calm that offers nature sounds, meditations, soothing music, etc. I use it primarily as white noise because some of its nature sounds do a great job masking the noise from my upstairs neighbor. It won’t connect directly to my Sonos speakers, but luckily, it is available through the Sonos app. Great, you say. HOWEVER. Through the Sonos app, the Calm app is actually different. My selections are extremely limited and the nature sounds I like require me to pay for a Calm subscription. In the Calm app itself, those sounds are free. Since they’re the only ones that mask the upstairs noise well, I went ahead and PAID for a Calm subscription simply so I could listen to them with my Sonos speakers. I think that is freaking ridiculous. In general, the configurations of other apps in the Sonos app look and function differently than they do on their own (more like Beta versions of themselves), making everything feel off even if they don’t require you to pay for things that are otherwise free just so you can utilize the speakers you invested good money in. I have another meditation app I’d like to listen to on my speakers, but it’s not available in the Sonos app, so I can’t. 

At this point, almost everything is app-centered, so I find it unacceptable that Sonos restricts the use of their speakers to only a few apps and mainly through THEIR app where they might not function the same and handoff to the apps themselves is non-existent. If I start listening to a Spotify album through the Sonos app and have to leave home, I can’t continue listening to it via the Spotify app & my headphones because the Spotify app itself has no record of what I played on its Sonos-app iteration. I have to look everything up again. At the very least, Sonos should make their app more functional and allow users to add other apps to it rather than giving them a fixed number of options. 

Anyway, that was my complaint. Now for my question: If I buy a different type of Sonos speaker, like a Move or a Sonos Five, would I be able to group it with my existing One SLs and have them all work together? 

To answer your last question… yes, a Sonos Move or Five can be grouped with your existing speakers so you will be able to play music through all of your speakers together.

Thank you! Perhaps that way, the Move’s or Five’s Bluetooth functionality would override the restricted connectivity of the One SL? In other words, if I connect my iPhone to the Move/Five via Bluetooth, and that speaker is grouped with my One SLs, could I listen to anything on my iPhone on all the speakers? Thanks again for the response.

The only Sonos speaker that uses Bluetooth is the Move. And when it is in Bluetooth mode, you cannot group your other Sonos speakers with it. Grouping is only allowed when the Move is in Wi-Fi mode.

But you could use the Line-in on a Five to connect anything with a suitable output, and group your other speakers to the Five. 

I see. My One SLs are connected to my WiFi network, though. Not sure if that would make a difference.

Thanks, nik9669a. The One SLs are compatible with Airplay 2, which I could technically use to bypass the app connectivity limitations, but while they show up in the Sonos app’s Airplay settings, my iPhone itself doesn’t recognize them (and it’s a new, up to date device). 

Thanks, nik9669a. The One SLs are compatible with Airplay 2, which I could technically use to bypass the app connectivity limitations, but while they show up in the Sonos app’s Airplay settings, my iPhone itself doesn’t recognize them (and it’s a new, up to date device). 

Sonos, please do something about this with ONE or ONE SL. I feel like i have been tricked into buying a ONE pair and then get stuck with the limited choice of apps to use on them. Now i can only use them as surround paired with my Beam. Which i find is very much wasted as they dont produce much sound if the content on the TV is mainly news or some variety channel. Either you enhance them as a better surround by directing more sound (even including newscaster’s voice) to it OR even better which is to allow a pair of ONEs to be use directly with the TV or any other phone apps (via WIFI).

@Tsukasa C How are you limited with the One and One SL? Which apps can you not use with them?

Using a One and One SL as surrounds with a Beam sounds great from a 5.1 source. If you want the surrounds to be louder when viewing a stereo source, you can increase the TV Level under Surround Audio in the Sonos app.

Please can I correct a HUGE misconception on this thread, namely that Sonos only ‘allows’ certain apps to play on the system.  The app is a remote control for the Sonos system, not an audio player.  It cannot and does not play anything itself.  Any service provider can use the Sonos API to add their service. 

Airplay provides an alternative way to play other apps.  There is no reason for this not to work - often just power cycling router and speakers is sufficient to get it working.

@Tsukasa C How are you limited with the One and One SL? Which apps can you not use with them?

Using a One and One SL as surrounds with a Beam sounds great from a 5.1 source. If you want the surrounds to be louder when viewing a stereo source, you can increase the TV Level under Surround Audio in the Sonos app.

@GuitarSuperstar “If you want the surrounds to be louder when viewing a stereo source, you can increase the TV Level under Surround Audio in the Sonos app.” <--- tried this but it is only allowing some sound going through the ONEs (ambient sound) whereas majority of the other sound comes out from the Beam. Why do i say this is because when i play directly from Spotify all (Beam + dual ONE) sound perfectly. Dual ONEs play loudly and gives depth of whatever being played. But if its via TV (like if its on any news channel or variety such as MTV) then only some sound comes out and very loudly for those sound that comes (when TV level turn up high, otherwise it is too soft). As there is a setting for Music (Full or ambient) but there is no setting for TV. 

Switch from Ambient mode to Full mode for the surrounds?

Switch from Ambient mode to Full mode for the surrounds?

 

That is for streaming sources only.  It sounds like @Tsukasa C is asking Sonos to have a configure for rear surrounds to play the front stereo channels when the TV audio is stereo PCM, rather than actual dolby digital surround. 

I tend to agree that it would be a nice feature to have, but also wonder how technically complicated it is for the rears to switch from stereo to surround when the audio changes on the TV.  I don’t want to assume it’s easy.

Switch from Ambient mode to Full mode for the surrounds?

Something like this. :wink:

Switch from Ambient mode to Full mode for the surrounds?

 

That is for streaming sources only.  It sounds like @Tsukasa C is asking Sonos to have a configure for rear surrounds to play the front stereo channels when the TV audio is stereo PCM, rather than actual dolby digital surround. 

I tend to agree that it would be a nice feature to have, but also wonder how technically complicated it is for the rears to switch from stereo to surround when the audio changes on the TV.  I don’t want to assume it’s easy.

Am not a sound engineer and i do not think that this is easy too.

But if i can see the dfferent indication of sound format on the Sonos App (PCM, Dolby, Dolby Atmos, etc), then it means that existingly there is already an available data that the system can refer to. But then again, if the Music setting can allow Ambient/Full option, why not on TV. I mean why not let the user choose if they want the ambient (or surround effect) or full.

I have an even better suggestion like “semi-Full” option. Much like ambient but enhanced mode. Take news channel for example, the news reader’s voice would come out from the Beam/Arc but small volume of the same voice (to create the effect much like voice reverberating from the back when the person speaking in front of you) can also come out from the dual ONE + the ambient (or back ground noise around the news reader’s environment). This i have to say is probably not easy. Complex coding algorithm is needed i guess.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings