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Airplay 2 support for PLAY 1


Will SONOS be adding Airplay 2 capability for the PLAY 1 speaker?
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Best answer by John B 12 July 2018, 13:53

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22 replies

The indications are that the Play:1 lacks the hardware necessary for Airplay 2, and that it cannot be added by a firmware update. Therefore this appears to be a 'no'.
Although if you get a Sonos One or other Airplay 2 compatible Sonos speaker you can effectively add Airplay 2 by grouping rooms.
Thanks for that John - guess that means either way 'buy another speaker' 🙂 I only have the one
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Be warned about all this talk of old speaker compatibility. It is very misleading. I was advised prior to Airplay 2 release about the functionality we were likely to get. It is very limited. I now have mixture of compatible (SONOS ONEs) and in compatible SONOS speakers (PLAY 3, PLAY:1s, PLAYBAR). Firstly if you have ONEs set as surrounds to a PLAYBAR they will not be compatible with Airplay2 as it is a closed group and the ONEs cannot be seen, when in fact the PLAYBAR is the lead speaker in that set (not compatible). This negates Airplay 2 completely. (this is what I did in an attempt to provide access to my older speakers throughout the house). The only way I can bring that theatre set into play is by having an additional play ONE to drive the airplay2 commands. Also, 'accessing' older speakers by simply having a single SONOS ONE limits your entire network of speakers as it must be part of the group. For instance if room A has a compatible SONOS ONE and room B has an in compatible PLAY:1 you cannot play music in room B without playing in room A also (as it needs to be one group/room not two), which kind of ruins the notion of multi room. Essentially you have to set up your entire multi room house as one single room/group and toggle the volume on each room depending on which you want to play. This will then further restrict the beauty of airplay 2 and Siri as you will not be able to send room commands to seperate spaces. You will not be able to say 'play music in the kitchen' as the kitchen will be grouped with the rest of the house. Its a complete hack.

The ONLY way around this is to have at least one compatible speaker in each room/group. ie, ditch everything you have and start again.
Indeed very misleading. If you have sonos one speakers in a home cinema setting with playbar, you do not have the airplay 2 functionality. I really like the system, but I am truly upset by the misleading way this has been communicated by Sonos.
Thanks for the info, it’s such a shame to have to replace equipment that does sound great still even after a couple of years of constant use 😃
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Maybe we are being engineered to repurchase, and should remind ourselves that there are other players out there now
Maybe we are being engineered to repurchase, and should remind ourselves that there are other players out there now
... with AirPlay2 support?
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Thanks for the info, it’s such a shame to have to replace equipment that does sound great still even after a couple of years of constant use :D
I'd hardly call it replacing! I'd call it an excuse to buy more!! 🙂
Maybe we are being engineered to repurchase, and should remind ourselves that there are other players out there now
... with AirPlay2 support?
Indeed. Sonos make a significant free upgrade, from which nobody loses, and many gain, and the response is a threat to leave?? Jeez.
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Dear Jeez

I believe we have lost. We’ve lost functionality, lost the ability to group speakers without making purchases and now forced to buy a system that uses Alexa where I made the choice buying the last 2 of my 4 play 1’s not to buy the latest because I specifically did not want an Alexa machine in my house (for reasons)

But thanks for your forgiveness
We’ve lost functionality, lost the ability to group speakers without making purchases
Nonsense. Grouping works just as before. The addition of Airplay to selected players simply means that an AP-capable player must be part of the group if you want to use AP.

now forced to buy a system that uses Alexa

Again, nonsense. Just don't enable voice control. And turn the microphone off..
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Don’t trust a listening device that just doesn’t listen because you flicked a switch in software
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Don’t trust a listening device that just doesn’t listen because you flicked a switch in software
So I'm guessing you don't trust the microphones in your cell phone and computers? Siri or Cortana is always listening too unless you flick a switch in some software.
Don’t trust a listening device that just doesn’t listen because you flicked a switch in software

The microphone power is hard wired to the LED on the top, so unless someone breaks into your house, opens the Sonos unit, and desolders the wire, you will always know when it is turned on.
And send the audio to where exactly, if you don't actually have an Alexa-enabled Amazon account? The 'switch in software' is in fact one with a hardware telltale, since the microphone LED is physically wired to the microphone array.

BTW there's a hitherto unused microphone in the PLAY:5 gen2, so you'd better avoid that one too. And, yes, you'd better give up your phone as well.
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Sorry. I should have said “non Apple device”

I’ll just stand against this wall and paint an X on my chest now
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Sorry. I should have said “non Apple device”

I’ll just stand against this wall and paint an X on my chest now


LOL, we're not attacking you! We're discussing, debating if you will.

And Cortana is a Microsoft "innovation."
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Being enlightened has never felt so good
I'm not sure if its ok to post links, but there was a way around this glitch to play songs using Airplay on any group.

however there are a number of things to keep in mind:

  • you will need to invest in buying Apple airport express
  • you will need to invest in buying a sonos amp or something from sonos that you can connect the "express" to.
  • using this system you can only stream one song at a time, you can not play different songs on different groups using the same express.
Apparently apple discontinued the apple express however u may still find some laying around.

The link to setting up the system as such is below:
https://www.lifewire.com/airport-express-airplay-with-sonos-system-1847382

I hope this helps.
Basically this shouldn’t be legal. If taking the feature “On this iPhone” out of the app means that a user can no longer make use of the installation for which they’ve paid many hundreds of Pounds, Dollars etc.

Sonos, be aware I shall never buy another Sonos product if I can no longer use my speaker network.

I am not about to invest time and money upgrading something that has until now worked perfectly fine.
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Basically this shouldn’t be legal. If taking the feature “On this iPhone” out of the app means that a user can no longer make use of the installation for which they’ve paid many hundreds of Pounds, Dollars etc.

Sonos, be aware I shall never buy another Sonos product if I can no longer use my speaker network.

I am not about to invest time and money upgrading something that has until now worked perfectly fine.


What's that got to do with this topic?
Also if you don't want to lose that feature, just don't take the coming update(s).