Product Suggestion: Sonos Amp to be able to mix audio sources instead of switching between them

I own an IKEA Symfonisk that is set as a preferred speaker to a Nest Mini in the Google Assistant/Home app. No need to plug it in the Line in. Couldn’t this be done with an Amp?

I highly doubt this is even possible.  The analog in and HDMI inputs don't even cross paths, never mind including the chip needed for mixing digital audio.

Thanks. I’m not sure I follow. I’m guessing you set your Nest mini to stream all its audio via WiFi to your Symfonisk speakers? If so, this still requires switching back and forth between sources and I’m not sure it would be as seamless as what I’m describing. I will try what you mentioned though and see if it functions any better than using the line-in.
 

Generally speaking the main problem I face is that if I play music from the Sonos amp itself, I have to take out my phone to manually switch it back to the Alexa (line-in) input because the auto-play doesn’t seem to trigger.
 

Another issue exists in my office. I have the HDMI from my computer outputting audio into the Amp. If I play music from the Amp itself (i.e. Apple Music) that music gets interrupted every time I get an email notification or any random sound happens on the computer.
 

So it seems like this issues would go away if I had the option to just mix the sources together. 

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Interesting. The Sonos Amp is essentially a computer. So, I imagined this being done programmatically via software instead of the need for an additional piece of hardware. But I definitely cannot speak to the technical feasibility of doing this or if the Amp’s existing DSP could handle a software update like that. 
 

But, even if it’s not possible due to current hardware limitations, I would think it’s still a good idea for Sonos to implement something like what I described in future versions of their Amplifier. 

As I understand it, the Nest Mini will command the Symfonisk to fetch music from the internet. So the Nest Mini is not a source, but more of a remote. Not sure this will work with an Amp, but it would be worth a try.

Could you report your findings here?

Ah okay gotcha. What you describe is similar to using the Sonos skill with Amazon Alexa. Like you said, the Alexa is basically telling the Sonos to play the audio instead of playing it itself. I tried that route years ago and it was an absolutely horrible experience lol. But maybe the developers have updated the skill and made it better now, not sure.

From what I’ve seen, Sonos usually doesn’t develop features where the primary reason for the feature is to circumvent features already in place.  They might work on improving the existing feature if needed instead.

On GA this works almost like GA on a One for example. Normal questions and commands (close my Sonny blinds for example) are acknowledged by the Nest Mini, but if I ask the Nest to play Spotify it plays on the Symfonisk, just like when I ask GA to play from Spotify my One. Sonos is added to GA.

I’m not sure that I understand how having the ability to mix the sources together would circumvent existing features. I’m not suggesting that Sonos implement this feature instead of any current features. To the contrary, I would like this feature in addition to the existing features. Mixing would not break any existing feature. It would simply add more functionality. 

Like I mentioned in a different reply here, another issue I have, exists in my home office where I have the HDMI from my computer/dock outputting audio into the Amp. If I play music from the Amp itself (i.e. Apple Music) that music gets interrupted every time I get an email notification or any random sound happens on the computer. 

So it would seem this problem would go away if I were able to simply mix the sources.

How would you suggest I handle a setup like this with the current features of the Amp? 
 

Your last complaint can be solved by turning off TV Autoplay.

If Autoplay were turned off, I am back to manually  switching back to the computer’s audio after every music listening session on the Sonos.

*** Removed quoted content as spam

Awesome! Thank you. Hopefully, when relaying the message, you can also include the scenario involving a computer which I have mentioned in other replies here but I did not include in the original post.

For clarity that scenario is as follows:

In my home office I have the HDMI from my computer/dock outputting audio into the Sonos Amp. If I play music from the Amp itself (i.e. Apple Music) or via Airplay, that music gets interrupted every time I get an email notification or any random sound happens on the computer. 
 

So it would seem this problem would go away if I were able to simply mix the sources.

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

Note that the post you replied to was not from a Sonos representative.  Matter of fact, it was obvious Spam, and probably written by AI.  I wouldn’t take it as confirmation of anything, awesome or otherwise.

As to your request, I’ve been here almost two decades. and this is the first time I recall anyone asking for this feature.  So regardless of the capabilities of the Sonos hardware, I highly doubt Sonos spends the man hours on something which would appear to be fairly difficult, for such a low ROI. 

You stated that you wanted to use 

You first stated that you wanted this feature for Alexa integration.  Sonos already has Alexa integration.  No you can’t have Alexa speak through your Amp (through the passive speakers), but you can use Alexa to control your amp and you can have the Amp ‘duck’ it’s volume when Alexa is speaking.  None of this requires connecting an echo through the Line In port and any sort of mixing of data.  Any improvement to this feature would likely be embedding Alexa directly into the Amp. Sonos existing powered speakers can listen and speak for Alexa, or SVC, or GA in some cases, without  the user having to utilize the line in or do any sort of manually switching of inputs.

As was already answered, if you don’t want the HDMI input to automatically play audio, then turn off autoplay.  Yes that means you would have manually choose which audio source you want to hear.

The Sonos Ace headphones due operate similar to how you are requesting.  It does have Bluetooth Multipoint, and you can have two bluetooth sources connected at the same time.  However, I think this feature works smoothly because of the bluetooth protocol.  If I have Ace connected to phone and laptop (which I do all the time) the headphones don’t just play one source or the other, but intelligently switches between the two with priority.    In coming phone calls take precedent over streaming audio through the laptop, and pause that stream.  Likewise, a zoom call on the laptop will interrupt streaming audio on the phone, pausing it.  In both cases, the streaming audio will resume once the call is ended.  I don’t get interruptions from and email notifications or similar, but I don’t think I have that turned on.  The point is that this feature works with high depenence on the bluetooth protocol, and 2-way communication.  It would not work as smoothly with analog line-in and probably HDMI as the the protocols were not made to handle this.  It would likely end up being chaotic.

In case you are wondering, the bluetooth multipoint does get a little chaotic when I am on a zoom call and then receive a phone call.  The audio cuts out in the zoom call, but after rejecting the phone call it does automatically switch back to the zoom call.  I don’t know that I want that changed, its going to be a bit chaotic with any solution.

I don’t think I’d ever cable a ‘voice assistant’ device to a Sonos Line-In.

As an alternative, I would use an ‘echo dot’, for example, separate and link it to the Sonos speakers/products using the ‘Sonos Skill’ instead and use ‘Amazon Alexa enabled Groups’ - That way. any music requests play on the assigned Sonos products (You can also make the request automatically group together any/all Sonos rooms (if required)) …and the skill will cause any playing audio to ‘duck’ (reduce) its output volume to receive and respond to the Alexa voice instructions.

See link for further details:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/alexa-smart-home-device-groups-and-sonos

An example of such an Alexa ‘enabled’ group is attached too. Maybe explore/research this topic to see if it may achieve some of the things you’re perhaps looking for.

Um okay well not awesome? …

But thanks for your input. Hopefully the feature would not be too difficult for Sonos to implement. Maybe you’re right and the ROI on the development of the Alexa skill, that currently maintains a 1.5 star user rating, has been better for them.​​​​​​

Thanks! I definitely didn’t know about those headphones. They seem pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I don’t think turning Autoplay off is a viable option as it will be very inconvenient to constantly switch back to the HMDI source literally over one hundred times throughout an average work day.

I did consider turning all computer notifications off as you mentioned, but that honestly isn’t ideal as I depend on certain notifications for my work.

I have seen several analog line-in mixers and several digital toslink in mixers. In fact I use a cheap mini Line-in mixer made by Rolls to input both my Alexa audio and my TV audio as one source into the Sonos Amp in my bedroom. The mixing aspect works perfectly (allows me to hear Alexa while the TV is on), besides the fact that line-level audio is not of as good of quality as digital and besides the fact that the Sonos Amp’s Line-in “Autoplay feature” does not work consistently so I always have to manually switch back after an Airplay music session or Internet source music session, played from the Amp itself.

Admittedly I have not seen any mixer products with both digital and analog so perhaps that isn’t possible but it would be nice if I could at least mix my computer source (digital Toslink) with the internet source that plays directly from the Sonos Amp (i.e Apple music or Spotify) which is also digital audio.

Nothing wrong with the Sonos Skill for Alexa by the way, it works fine. It’s often more the case that the end-user perhaps does not fully understand how the components of an ‘Alexa enabled group’ work - the Sonos skill works just fine for my own setup.

Thanks! Believe it or not, I do actually like the idea of ‘cabling’ the voice assistant. I have architectural speakers installed throughout my house so I do like the Star Trek esque effect that this provides by hearing the Alexa responses through the speakers that are built into the house itself. When I originally setup my system, the plan was to use the Alexa skill as you mentioned but at the time the performance of the skill was so bad, it was completely unusable. Admittedly, that was a long time ago, (around the time the skill was first released). When I get some time I will have to play with skill again and try what you mentioned.