My ARC tends to rob the microphone over my Amazon Dot in a nearby room. So, when the ARC Alexa responds, it really can’t be heard from the other room where the Alexa wake request was issued.
is there a way to make the microphone less sensitive on the Arc? I don’t want to disable it entirely as I do use the functionality when in that room, but want it to play well with my Amazon Echo and dots in other rooms.
Hey 
!
At this moment it is not possible to adjust the sensitivity of the microphone on any Sonos product that has one.
I’ve marked this thread as a feature request and forwarded it to the appropriate teams for consideration.
I can imagine a similar feature can be requested to Amazon for their devices as well, to increase your chances.
I hope this helps.
My experience has been that the microphone processing is very good at discriminating by distance. In my environment a difference of about three to four feet is more than sufficient for the nearest microphone to discriminate. There may be some discrimination by intensity because I can be very close to one microphone, but facing another that responds. I can’t be certain that a reflection from a wall is stronger for the microphone behind than the direct sound and therefor the microphone behind is effectively more distant than the microphone I’m projecting to.
Perhaps you can move the DOT in order to enhance distance discrimination.
My experience has been that the microphone processing is very good at discriminating by distance. In my environment a difference of about three to four feet is more than sufficient for the nearest microphone to discriminate. There may be some discrimination by intensity because I can be very close to one microphone, but facing another that responds. I can’t be certain that a reflection from a wall is stronger for the microphone behind than the direct sound and therefor the microphone behind is effectively more distant than the microphone I’m projecting to.
Perhaps you can move the DOT in order to enhance distance discrimination.
My Arc is in my bedroom. My dot is atop the media cabinet credenza in my den, adjacent to the bedroom. I can be sitting in a chair watching tv in the den, facing the dot and the door into the bedroom., like around the corner, through a doorway and at least 18’ away from the Arc, and yet the Arc will respond.
Experiment with moving DOT.
My experience has been that the microphone processing is very good at discriminating by distance. In my environment a difference of about three to four feet is more than sufficient for the nearest microphone to discriminate. There may be some discrimination by intensity because I can be very close to one microphone, but facing another that responds. I can’t be certain that a reflection from a wall is stronger for the microphone behind than the direct sound and therefor the microphone behind is effectively more distant than the microphone I’m projecting to.
Perhaps you can move the DOT in order to enhance distance discrimination.
This has been my experience as well. I can be 2 feet away from an echo show, but if I’m facing a Roam 10 feet away, there’s a good possiblity that the Roam will bet the speaker responding.
With a few exceptions, my solution is to disable Alexa on Sonos speakers and only use them for Sonos Voice Control (SVC). For the most part, dots and shows are pretty cheap, and if you aren’t using it for a music speaker, audio quality is mostly irrelevant. And it can be placed in locations where you want a microphone rather than in locations where you want a speaker. My exceptions are bedrooms and bathrooms where voice control isn’t used much and there is little chance of other mics picking up the command. The Roam is usually sitting with the mic turned off, as I only use that in the backyard or away from home where another mic isn’t going to compete with it.
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