Prominent Collaborator I

Amazon Echo 2

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There are rumours of an Amazon Echo 2 being released soon, It'll be a very interesting time with all of these new 'Smart Speakers' being launched.

The Apple Homepod, the new Sonos speaker with built-in voice mics and the Echo 2 will all be competing to become the speaker of choice for those customers looking for a great sounding smart speaker.

Pricing will be critical, as although there are millions of people who are prepared to pay a premium for Apple products, mainly to keep everything within the Apple ecosystem, I'd imagine Amazon will have to undercut them significantly and Sonos will probably be somewhere in the middle if they release a new Play 1 style speaker with built-in mics.

The only issue that Sonos have is that they don't have their own voice control system, but will rely on Alexa, and Alexa already has a huge userbase, helped by Amazon using their affordable Echo dots as a trojan horse and 'converting' them to Alexa users before either Apple or Sonos have their own voice controlled speakers.

Although we all know that Sonos speakers sound fantastic, and it remains to be seen ( or heard! ) how good the Homepod or Echo 2 will sound, the sound quality advantage that Sonos currently has will be eroded, possibly to the point that for the vast majority of people will be more than satisfied.

Tough times ahead for Sonos, especially if Amazon announce the Echo 2 before the Sonos voice control.

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chicks

Just waiting for the indignant posts - Sonos, why aren't you supporting Alexa Glasses yet! You'll be out of business soon if you don't keep up! Sigh.

S

Skelton

Prodigy I

I was very impressed with all the engineering that has gone into the X.

Yeah, it was even more impressive when Samsung put it into their phones early this year. ;)

Perception is reality, after all? And Apple manages that a lot better than what Samsung does; I for one can't be bothered to read about their latest launch, but what I do know is that they explode in flight!!

I'm always impressed by the brand loyalty that Apple instills in some of their customers. I don't really understand what they've done to earn it myself, but you can't dispute the existence.

Personally, I find it in my interest to be well informed about a device I'm going to spend more on than my Playbar. If you're absolutely crushed for time though, here's a concise article:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/galaxy-s8-vs-iphone-x-3286424

U

upstatemike

Just waiting for the indignant posts - Sonos, why aren't you supporting Alexa Glasses yet! You'll be out of business soon if you don't keep up! Sigh.

Probably not the intention but this brings up a good point: Will the Sonos integration with Alexa work with any Alexa enabled device or just with actual Amazon Echos? Alexa is starting to show up in a lot of third party devices as well as additional non-Echo Amazon devices like Amazon Glasses... are these all potential control points for Sonos gear?

Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

Airgetlam

Interesting question. I'd think, since it has to be a wifi connection (Sonos only has that 🙂 ), then it should be all Alexa enabled devices, assuming that they're connected to the same wifi as the Sonos device.

Although I'm honestly not sure how potential cases would be handled if it wasn't connected to the same wifi. I guess we can find out when Sonos releases the promised update this year. I'm pretty sure I can use Alexa on my Amazon app, but I'll be honest, I've never tried it, either in my home, or on the road.

Bruce

jgatie

Sonos has previously stated it will work with any Alexa enabled device, specifically listing Fire tablets and Fire TV (in addition to Echo) in the press release.

M

mataglap

Internet connectivity is required for the Alexa voice recognition, I (strongly) suspect Internet connectivity will be required for the Sonos units as well.

There are Alexa design scenarios where there is no direct communication between the echo units and the devices being controlled. Echo -> Alexa cloud -> device cloud -> device Example, i can control my TP-Link smart outlets from the Amazon app on my phone even when I'm not at home because there's an Alexa agent built in. "Alexa turn on reading light." works over mobile data, or any wifi because the command goes from the phone to the Alexa cloud which sends the data to my account on the TP-Link cloud which the smart outlets are connected to.

We don't know (yet) if Sonos will implement a requirement to be on the same local network or not, but there are plenty of real world examples that they don't *need* to. They certainly could, but don't need to.

It's the Alexa "client" -- whether an Echo device, 3rd party device like Eufy, Amazon app on your phone, FireTV, whatever -- is just a remote agent for your Alexa account.

T

Toolio

Prodigy II

I have Echo Dot (and Sonos) setups in two homes, one in Brasil and the other in Canada. I can, for example, control Philips Hue lights in one house through spoken commands to an Echo Dot in the other country. I can do the same with my August door locks. So that multi-wifi-network capability exists. I’m not sure why I would want to turn on or control Sonos from another country, but I will be interested to see whether it is possible.

S

Skelton

Prodigy I

I can do the same with my August door locks... I’m not sure why I would want to turn on or control Sonos from another country, but I will be interested to see whether it is possible.

The upside of remote music is limited. We do sometimes put some "soothing" music on for the animals remotely.

Let's talk more about how I can unlock your doors when you're in another country though... 😃

T

Toolio

Prodigy II

I can do the same with my August door locks... I’m not sure why I would want to turn on or control Sonos from another country, but I will be interested to see whether it is possible.

The upside of remote music is limited. We do sometimes put some "soothing" music on for the animals remotely.

Let's talk more about how I can unlock your doors when you're in another country though... :D

Lol. You also must speak the “secret code” to unlock the door. Good point, though, otherwise a thief could say “Alexa, open the door” from the window and he’d be in. I can lock it without the code.

Airgetlam

Heh. One reason I've not hooked up my August locks to voice control.

It would be really nice (and I suspect very hard) if Amazon were to create a way for voice control to be locked down to a specific voice(s). Not foolproof, I could tape someone, but it sure would stop the damn system from responding to the TV all the time. 🙂

Bruce

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