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Will my existing Sonos speakers allow voice control when this goes live?

  • 29 August 2017
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Hi, I have various Sonos speakers including Play 1's, Play 3's, Sub and Play Bar (I do not have any Play 5's, Connect or Connect Amp). Will I be able to connect an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to my existing set up when this functionality goes live, or do I need to purchase new speakers when/if Sonos release speakers with microphones built in? Thank you.
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Best answer by jgatie 29 August 2017, 13:16

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I would just like to be able to name a group. And then recall that group by name. As far as I know groups don't have names currently.

This can now be done in the Alexa app for Echo speakers, and in the Google Home app for Chromecast devices. It's very intuitive. I hope Sonos adds this soon, as it's become the de facto way to group speakers. You can play to any named group using voice control via Echo / Google air freshener. "Alexa, play some jazz downstairs". Simple.
Honest question to the readers here: would you consider this product to be a disappointment if it turned out to essentially be the very same hardware as in the original Play:1, resulting in the same sound quality?

Not in the least. For its size, the Play:1 sounds great in my opinion. If they charged the same, or up to $50 more to offset the cost of the integrated Echo Dot, I wouldn't call it out of line.
Sonos has stated that the Sonos/Alexa implementation will work on all new and previously purchased Sonos devices.
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Thanks Jgatie, thats great news.
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Anyone know how Alexa will deal with grouping/ungrouping rooms? Will I have to specify which room to play the music in? Thanks
just a guess but i would think that if you have a group established in the sonos controller named group1 and told Alexa to play Death metal (LOL) on sonos group1 it would play on all defined speakers in that group. only a theory, fingers crossed!
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I would just like to be able to name a group. And then recall that group by name. As far as I know groups don't have names currently.
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Thanks for the info chicks! Great, now I really am jealous. With 13 Zones, I have a few diff setups with my Sonos, and the ability would be quite useful. Maybe Sonos will take notice. Heck it might even make me interested in voice, which doesn't really do much for me currently.
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Interesting link...
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/142359-new-sonos-play-1-speaker-with-amazon-alexa-leaks-out
From the review: " we can safely assume Sonos would have reworked the speaker drivers and audio processing to improve upon the sound of the previous generation Play:1 speaker."

That to me is the really interesting bit and also how much of that will be retrofitted to existing 1 units in the Alexa upgrade.
I'm interesting to hear with the retail price is. If it is essentially an P1 with echo dot inside, then it can't be much more then $250. If it has significant sound improvements over the current P1, then maybe you could go for around $300? What if the sound quality is in the same range as the P3, and perhaps becomes a direct competitor to the homepod in terms of sound quality?
Honest question to the readers here: would you consider this product to be a disappointment if it turned out to essentially be the very same hardware as in the original Play:1, resulting in the same sound quality?
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So we have a new sonos speaker imminent with added alexa integration? Does this mean no alexa support for current Sonos speakers? I bought a dot recently because i thought we would not need to buy a new sonos speaker but could use existing hardware.
So we have a new sonos speaker imminent with added alexa integration? Does this mean no alexa support for current Sonos speakers? I bought a dot recently because i thought we would not need to buy a new sonos speaker but could use existing hardware.

As stated earlier:

Sonos has stated that the Sonos/Alexa implementation will work on all new and previously purchased Sonos devices.

This also happens to be designated the best answer in the very first post.