Prominent Collaborator I

Amazon Echo 2

50 replies
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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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S

sjw

Local Superstar

The one drawback I've seen is that it will only play Amazon music sources. I tried to tell it to play Pandora and it told me it wasn't supported.Yes, I think when the 'whole voice controlled thing' finally (initially) arrives, it will 'only' control Amazon sources. Maybe that's what many expect but I think there's far more expecting 'full' voice control of their System, irrespective of the music's source (inc. locally stored music).
Anyone know where Amazon sits in the numbers regarding streaming services?

melvimbe

The one drawback I've seen is that it will only play Amazon music sources. I tried to tell it to play Pandora and it told me it wasn't supported.Yes, I think when the 'whole voice controlled thing' finally (initially) arrives, it will 'only' control Amazon sources. Maybe that's what many expect but I think there's far more expecting 'full' voice control of their System, irrespective of the music's source (inc. locally stored music).
Anyone know where Amazon sits in the numbers regarding streaming services?

I disagree. It makes sense that you can't play pandora through the amazon music app. It's different from echo in the sense that it doesn't have to stream everything. It could be playing a track stored locally. I would think for music app, all music requests are just handed to the Amazon app. If the music was simply streamed through Alexa, then it should be able to handle Pandora, or XM, or anything Alexa can handle on an echo.

So what happens if sonos works the same way? All music requests are just handed off to Sonos. Then it should be up to sonos to decide what it can and cannot play. So theoretically, if you had Apple music setup on Sonos, but no amazon, and Amazon Unlimited on your echo...your request to play Song X in a sonos zone, commanded through echo would actually play on Apple music.

I can see where Amazon, being a business would try to push the use of Amazon music. However, they already opened up Spotify, Pandora, iheart radio, tunein, and xm...clearly competitors. I don't see why they wouldn't do the same with these integrations.

Danny

M

mataglap

I tried to tell it to play Pandora and it told me it wasn't supported.

Can you play Pandora from a regular Echo device?

M

mataglap

I can control my smart outlets using the Amazon Music app Alexa button. it looks to be a full Alexa client with additional controls over the Amazon music app, so I'd expect it to be usable to control Sonos just like any other Alexa device.

J

Johnnie WalkerAuthor

Prominent Collaborator I

I see the new Echo devices have now been launched, and as predicted now claim to offer better audio quality than the previous models at a lower price. The new Echo does look much nicer now, and I'd be interested to see/hear a comparison in sound quality with a Play 1.

chicks

I see the new Echo devices have now been launched, and as predicted now claim to offer better audio quality than the previous models at a lower price. The new Echo does look much nicer now, and I'd be interested to see/hear a comparison in sound quality with a Play 1.

No way will it sound even remotely as good as a Play:1, and it won't stereo pair, so hardly a competitor for serious listeners.

K

KS

Lyricist III

I see the new Echo devices have now been launched, and as predicted now claim to offer better audio quality than the previous models at a lower price. The new Echo does look much nicer now, and I'd be interested to see/hear a comparison in sound quality with a Play 1.

No way will it sound even remotely as good as a Play:1, and it won't stereo pair, so hardly a competitor for serious listeners. I agree. Amazon has the house covered for the masses (small bedroom, kitchen, etc) but leaves off where Sonos can pick up. Higher end quality for your main music listening. If they integrate seamlessly, they complement each other perfectly.

J

Johnnie WalkerAuthor

Prominent Collaborator I

Yeah, I'm sure that the echo devices won't sound as good as Play 1's, and in my opinion the Sonos speakers sound fantastic and I think they actually are the perfect middle ground speaker, when you need great sound and convenience.

The Echos are a more feature packed Speaker, but with lower sound quality, and then if you're really serious about high quality audio then you're prepared to lose out on the convenience and use 'proper' hifi equipment.

melvimbe

Can you play Pandora from a regular Echo device?

yes.

I see the new Echo devices have now been launched, and as predicted now claim to offer better audio quality than the previous models at a lower price. The new Echo does look much nicer now, and I'd be interested to see/hear a comparison in sound quality with a Play 1.

No way will it sound even remotely as good as a Play:1, and it won't stereo pair, so hardly a competitor for serious listeners.

But control is a major factor. I'd argue that many sonos customers would be willing to sacrifice a bit of quality for the convenience of voice control. Many people have come here saying the exact same thing. And looking in history, you could make an argument that consumers chose lower quality mp3s over CD audio because of the control factor.

That does not mean that Sonos is doomed, since they most certainly can integrate voice control. They just need to do it well.

Danny

M

mataglap

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.

And they don't. I can control my Sonos players from my cell phone's Amazon music app using the Alexa agent when on mobile data, and not on wifi. So one can remotely control Sonos via Alexa.

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