Amazon Alexa amplifier, receiver, subwoofer

I think the Microwave is the biggest threat because there is no "Sonos enabled" microwave to compete with the Amazon offering. It wouldn't surprise me if Sonos stock takes a hit as a result of the Alexa Microwave announcement.

"Alexa, nuke my leftover chili fries." Definite selling point there.

I probably did not say that bit right. What I meant was that for someone that needs what Sonos can provide, but prefers to not buy Sonos, there are now many more options that what there were 5 years ago. The Sonos market reach may be increasing, but they have lost a lot more market than that to Amazon and Google. Indeed, Echo was the first product in Sonos' history to put the frights into them.

Yes and no. I'd argue that a rather large portion of the market that Amazon and Google took did not really exist before voice assistants. Put a different way, the typical person who bought up and echo or google home was never going to buy a Sonos to begin with. At the same time, I think that perhaps Sonos was able to gain more market as customers who were now onboard with voice assistants were now seeing that they could upgrade sound quality for a little bit more, and opened up to the possibility of a multiroom system.


At the same time, prices for alternatives that can match Sonos sound quality AND ease of use are dropping; which is slightly different from " there have always been cheaper options than Sonos." I can get a 5 pair experience of ease of use and sound quality for half their price via a Dot connected to a pair of active speakers like JBL LSRs.

Maybe. I would guess that most of the people with that kind of setup already had their JBL LSRs, then added the dot. I don't see too many people get the dot first, or at the same time, as the JBLs. And again, were those customers going to buy Sonos products anyway? While I agree with you that a component approach is a smart approach, I don't think most people think that way. They'd prefer an all in one setup.

That said though, I do think these new Amazon products could be good competition for Sonos, as is the Homepod, and some other multiroom type products with built in voice assistants.

And yes, you probably can get an amp cheaper then a Connect:Amp, but when you factor in the cost of a Connect + 3rd party amp, you're going to be paying more.

Why would one even need the Connect? I would just wire the Dot to the third party amp/active speaker. And even where the Dot is connected to my Connect Amp, the sound drops when I speak to the Dot, and I don't have to use targeted commands either. The only downside of this route is access to NAS based music; the set up works well with streamed music from Amazon/others.

You'd only need the Connect if you intended to use Sonos multiroom functionality. If you have no interest in multiroom, or are going to have dots connected to all your amps and use Alexa for multroom, then the Connect isn't needed. And of course, you also wouldn't need a amp with multiple inputs or auto-switching features.

And yes, you probably can get an amp cheaper then a Connect:Amp, but when you factor in the cost of a Connect + 3rd party amp, you're going to be paying more.

Why would one even need the Connect? I would just wire the Dot to the third party amp/active speaker. And even where the Dot is connected to my Connect Amp, the sound drops when I speak to the Dot, and I don't have to use targeted commands either. The only downside of this route is access to NAS based music; the set up works well with streamed music from Amazon/others. I am using the myMedia skill to play NAS based music locally via my Echos and it works fine. The Connect still maintains the ability to integrate with Sonos which most folks on this forum would likely want.

I'd argue that a rather large portion of the market that Amazon and Google took did not really exist before voice assistants.
Why then did Sonos panic the way they did? I submit it was because they saw the market they were in also being taken away rapidly by Amazon/Google because the latter were soon expected to offer to that market voice control AND all else that Sonos was offering. Sonos was not confident that what they offered minus voice was unique enough to withstand a voice control based competitor.
I concede that this is speculation on my part, but it is clear that Sonos are not out of the woods yet. All this partnering thing can equally easily backfire.

I think the Microwave is the biggest threat because there is no "Sonos enabled" microwave to compete with the Amazon offering. It wouldn't surprise me if Sonos stock takes a hit as a result of the Alexa Microwave announcement.

"Alexa, nuke my leftover chili fries." Definite selling point there.

Sounds cool, but it probably isn't going to be that useful. Since you have to put your food in your in the microwave first, you're going to right where the buttons are convenient to use. Now, if the microwave has a camera inside, and knows you just put in food, then asks you how long you want to run it for...that could be something. Or if it even recognizes that you put in chili fries and knows how long that should cook without asking....

The thing I wonder about this is how they'll be able to cover the market. Microwaves come in various sizes these days, with many built in. I haven't bought a microwave in a decade or so, as every place I've lived had an existing built in.

The Connect still maintains the ability to integrate with Sonos which most folks on this forum would likely want.
Why? What's then the benefit of integrating with Sonos? I recently gave my surplus Dot away to my daughter who has a Connect driven Rotel amp+KEF speaker set up being used with Apple Music as a source. For now, I have wired the Dot to the Connect line in, but if it wasn't already there, I would have just wired direct to the Rotel and switched service providers from Apple to Amazon.

I'd argue that a rather large portion of the market that Amazon and Google took did not really exist before voice assistants.
Why then did Sonos panic the way they did? I submit it was because they saw the market they were in also being taken away rapidly by Amazon/Google because the latter were soon expected to offer to that market voice control AND all else that Sonos was offering. Sonos was not confident that what they offered minus voice was unique enough to withstand a voice control based competitor.
I concede that this is speculation on my part, but it is clear that Sonos are not out of the woods yet. All this partnering thing can equally easily backfire.

Agreed that they were in a panic and stated that they felt they were late to the game, but I saw that concern that other competitors, not really Amazon, were going to take advantage of voice assistants and take away Sonos market. And as well, that they were missing out on an opportunity to gain customers.

But you are also correct that there were customers who were chosing to use an echo over their Sonos speakers, knowingly sacrificing sound quality, in preference to ease of use. Sonos definitely needed to get a voice assistant to stay relevant.

And Sonos is not out of the woods. Agreed. Getting google integration will help stabilize them to some degree, but there is still fierce competition and will be for many years to come. Sonos does have some advantage over it's competitors though, and I think will leverage those well. Time will tell.

BTW, I'm willing to bet that one of those other 8 products is a soundbar. Hard to imagine Amazon would come out with a receiver, amp, sub woofer, but no soundbar. I wouldn't be too surprised if they built in firetv to the unit as well. If it's using an HDMI-ARC connection, that actually would be very slick.

There are a few issues with this plan though. First the switch over is not instantaneous. You'll find that part of Alexa's response is likely to be unheard as your amp is decided to switch over.

Second, since your echo dot isn't 'feeding' your Sonos devices in anyway, you won't be able to make a music request in hear it over the Sonos system. You could utilize the Sonos skill, but you would need to remember to target all your requests.

Third, you're going to have issues with volume control. I have a similar setup (my inputs are a TV and a Connnect) and getting the volume correct is a pain. I don't want to set the Connect to fixed volume as I want to control by phone. When using TV audio, I need to be in IR range of the amp in order to control the volume.

And yes, you probably can get an amp cheaper then a Connect:Amp, but when you factor in the cost of a Connect + 3rd party amp, you're going to be paying more.

These may not be problems for you, and people have different scenarios and different priorities though.

You can set the Spot to play a sound before speaking and that is what gets cut when the amp wakes up. Subsequent commands will have the sound which may be an annoyance.. probably the biggest drawback of this setup. Also with class D amps and modern switching circuitry the response is much faster than you might think.

I use the spot for playback of all streamed or local files so voice request works fine. The purpose of the Connect is for syncing a group that includes a Play1 pair or to stream from a source that Echo does not support. (I don't but somebody might)

I can see TV being tough to work with but I have been testing for months using Connects and Squeezeboxes as sources and have not had any real volume issues. I'll probably test with a few more sources before switching everything over.

Connect Amp $500. Connect plus dual source Amp $450 - $530 for the models I have been testing. (Same power range as the Connect Amp).