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Trueplay and Android

  • 11 January 2017
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I have nearly $2000 of Sonos equipment. I love Sonos. Now comes Trueplay for tuning my Sonos speakers. What? Only iOS? Does anyone else here have an Android phone? I have used a Yamaha 4000 sound bar for years with speaker tuning and I love it. I really think Trueplay would improve my Sonos experience so I guess I better get an iPhone? :S:?
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Best answer by jgatie 11 January 2017, 19:15

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Honestly, it's not a required step to set up speakers. If you set them up in a normal fashion, they'll be just fine. When I ran TruePlay on my various 6 rooms, only in 1 case could I hear a difference. However, if you choose to stick your speakers underneath a table, or behind a cabinet, then TruePlay will make a difference that is impressive :)

Remember, there are quite a few users like you who only have Android devices, and somehow they muddle along without TruePlay use quite well.
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Remember, there are quite a few users like you who only have Android devices, and somehow they muddle along without TruePlay use quite well.

I have; but it would be nice to get TruePlay on Android. I really like the idea of Sonos producing a plug-in mic. This might also make TruePlay on iOS even more accurate.
Oh, no argument from me on that. But I wouldn't use it as a reason for not purchasing the speakers.

I'd be quite happy with some sort of solution for you silly Android users 🙂 Seriously, I do kind of like the concept of a microphone of known quality that could be connected to the Android. But then I'm not sure how you could make sure that the system recognized that it was the appropriate microphone, and people would end up using anything they have lying around, and then complain to Sonos about it not working.

I just may not have enough brain power (obviously, just read my posts!) to solve this problem easily. Glad it's not in my hands.
We just purchased a playbar, sub, and 2 ones. They are either to loud or quite. Cant even tell one ons are on or they are blasting us out. Unfortunately we are android lovers and do not own apple products. Guess were going to either take the system back or buy a $100 product so wr can set them up. Kind of gives Sonos a black eye in my mind.
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Surely you must know someone with an iPhone or iPad? Trueplay only needs to be done once, providing you are not moving the equipment or furniture about. It's not about Sonos deciding not to do this. It's about the number and variety of Android devices that are about vs Apple. With apple devices they have a small group of devices, with similar form factor and components that they can be sure how the microphone picks up sound.

There are literally thousands or variation on android devices with multiple microphone manufacturers. It would be impossible.
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It's obvious that most of you don't know how calibration works and that mics themselves can be calibrated. I don't think Sonos truly wants to resolve the problem or there software would have an algorithm, and calibration process for any mic. Maybe they think we aren't smart enough to go through the analyzer process... I would prefer to even buy a mic than having to ask around for an iPhone, and install Sonos on someone else's phone. At the cost of the speakers they could build in mics and analyize their invironment and reflections... Or a mic that plugs into the speaker... I had an iPhone and had my speakers tuned, but I switched to Android and when I moved my speakers they sounded terrible, so I turned off trueplay, and I can tell a difference in the clarity of my music. Disappointed that it's been over a year and nothing has changed. But like their soundbar that needs an update, they don't seem in any hurry to fix problems. Instead you can get red, green and yellow speakers. Lol.
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Figure I'll pile on this thread to keep it active.
I once had to borrow an iOS device to get them tuned at first. Recently relocated my Playbar, renamed the device from my Pixel 2, and of course, lost all my tuning. I no longer have access to an iOS device, so left with a sub-optimal experience 😞 Not cool. Pls, put on the dev planning schedule.
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As a 10 year iPhone user, I switched to a Google Pixel 3XL this fall and have no plans on returning to iPhone anytime soon. Last year I spent $2,400 on Sonos speakers. Tonight I discovered that I can no longer tune them because I am not using an Apple iPhone. That is either a pure disregard for your customers or you are saying TruePlay isn't really necessary (unless you're an iPhone user). While I love the sound from my Sonos speakers, they do have a great deal of limitations compared to a much cheaper bluetooth system (i.e. no way to play sound from other applications like bluetooth can). I was willing to work around those limitations, but this TruePlay discovery has a sting to it. You make a Sonos app for my $1,000+ premium phone, but you're not willing to include tuning capabilities unless I am an iPhone user? Either TruePlay is a Sonos feature or it's an Apple feature. Which is it?
Much more likely they will use the microphones in their speakers, which have known performance, and obsolete the iOS-dependent process eventually.
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I'm going to scrweem and scweem until i'm sick unless Sonos provide Trueplay for Android 😉
As chicks alluded to, I think the ultimate solution will eventually be removing your phone from the equation entirely, and using microphones on the speakers. I've heard hints this method will allow for continues tuning, so tuning will update as you move the speaker around, or move furniture in the room around, without you having to specifically execute a tuning command.

As for Bluetooth, I feel that's largely becoming irrelevant as applications are developing alternative methods of casting audio from your device to Sonos without using Bluetooth. over wifi and/or through 'the cloud'. That gives you greater range and better quality that Bluetooth. You can currently do this with Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart, and probably others (not to mention Apple airplay). Granted, this does not work with every possible audio source the way Bluetooth does.

Personally, if airplay 2 proves to be successful, I can't see Google not coming up with their own version, making Bluetooth completely unnecessary in a wifi network. Not hard to see chromecast going this way.
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As chicks alluded to, I think the ultimate solution will eventually be removing your phone from the equation entirely, and using microphones on the speakers. I've heard hints this method will allow for continues tuning, so tuning will update as you move the speaker around, or move furniture in the room around, without you having to specifically execute a tuning command.

The mics on the Sonos one's I have are terrible at picking up my voice especially when they're playing music. I doubt that they're good enough for tuning.
As chicks alluded to, I think the ultimate solution will eventually be removing your phone from the equation entirely, and using microphones on the speakers. I've heard hints this method will allow for continues tuning, so tuning will update as you move the speaker around, or move furniture in the room around, without you having to specifically execute a tuning command.

The mics on the Sonos one's I have are terrible at picking up my voice especially when they're playing music. I doubt that they're good enough for tuning.


You're saying the mics on the Sonos One aren't as good as the single mic on an iphone? I'm not really seeing that. I am speculating, but I think the function of recognizing a work word is partially due to the software that's doing the listening as it is to the ability of the mics. And tuning doesn't require voice recognition at all, just recognition of tones when you've told the device to listen for tones, as I understand it.
I'd argue that for TruePlay purposes, a microphone right next to the emission point of the sound will have difficulty picking up the aspects of the room dynamics. Much easier on a microphone that is in a separate device. I wouldn't say that has much to do with the quality of the microphones, but of their placement.

Now, I also don't think it's impossible to mitigate that with software, but I'm not smart enough to know how much of a possibility that is. I suspect that there's some amount of software adjustment being done so that it can "hear" your voice. But it's one thing, I think, to reduce the impact of what's being played in order to hear something else, and another entirely to listen to what is being generated, and reflected back.

I do know that if I want to tune a pair of speakers, I'd prefer not to have a jackhammer going in the same room. 🙂
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You're saying the mics on the Sonos One aren't as good as the single mic on an iphone? I'm not really seeing that. I am speculating, but I think the function of recognizing a work word is partially due to the software that's doing the listening as it is to the ability of the mics. And tuning doesn't require voice recognition at all, just recognition of tones when you've told the device to listen for tones, as I understand it.


I agree with you that tuning doesn't require voice recognition, nor do I think that the mics on the Sonos one are worse than an iPhones, but the Sonos one compared to my Google home or my parents echo Dot, they are leagues behind. (you can hear the audio recordings in the Alexa app, and they're really poor quality).

I just don't think the mics in the Sonos are built for tuning like the Homepod/Google Home Max are. You would think that if they were, they would have introduced this feature already?

or maybe they're just really slow at software, I'm still waiting for Google Assistant support.
The mics on the Sonos one's I have are terrible at picking up my voice especially when they're playing music.
I don't have a Sonos One, but the mic in my Sonos Beam quite often picks up a command intended for a much closer Echo Dot. I guess in that situation there is generally no music playing on the Beam.

I have seen people on here claim that the Sonos mics are not sensitive enough, and others that they are too sensitive. I have no explanation for that!
Well, I suppose....different use cases, different room layouts, different house layouts, different volumes, different voices, different expectations.....
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To be honest, the users may need to retune the speakers for some reasons... like moved them or reset them etc. Sometimes it's not easy to borrow an IOS device or to bother a friend for such thing. It will be great if there can be a solution for the Android users. Even it will be used for several times, I think a lot of people may rather pay for some 10 or 20 dollars instead of asking someone to borrow a device.
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To be honest, the users may need to retune the speakers for some reasons... like moved them or reset them etc. Sometimes it's not easy to borrow an IOS device or to bother a friend for such thing. It will be great if there can be a solution for the Android users. Even it will be used for several times, I think a lot of people may rather pay for some 10 or 20 dollars instead of asking someone to borrow a device.

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Is it possible for a simple software solution whereby android users can borrow an iphone to tune, export a calibration file, and then simply download it into android?
Would users be prepared to take their Android to a dealer and have its microphone calibrated? Would they pay a fee for this service?
You could just borrow the iPhone to run Trueplay. Then you could toggle it at will using the Android device, I believe. You just can’t run the TruePlay process, but you can toggle it off and on.
You could just borrow the iPhone to run Trueplay. Then you could toggle it at will using the Android device, I believe. You just can’t run the TruePlay process, but you can toggle it off and on.

Oh! Thx is tht so?! Then its not so much a disappointmt..:)

But because u r nt so sure when u said "I believe.." haha. Can anyone else verify tht this is so? Thx
Yes, it is so, for sure. You can toggle Trueplay off via Android if you prefer the sound that way. Or, if you shift the speakers to another location, till you get a chance to retune via a borrowed iPhone.
Yes, it is so, for sure. You can toggle Trueplay off via Android if you prefer the sound that way. Or, if you shift the speakers to another location, till you get a chance to retune via a borrowed iPhone.
Oh great! Thx