It looks like the rumours were true. Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo devices now support 'multi-room '.
Amazon has announced that you can use its voice assistant to control and synchronise music across multiple Amazon Echo devices. All you have to do is open the Alexa app and create groups with two or more Echo devices. You can name the group - such as “upstairs" - and then once you’ve created it, simply say, “Alexa, play John Lennon upstairs.”
Saved groups has been repeated request from the user community for some time. Sonos may regret not heeding that feedback.
If Amazon produces a high end speaker then I worry for the future.
Amazon beats Sonos to permanent groups
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If Amazon produces a high end speaker then I worry for the future.
Why? Sonos is not in the high end speaker market at all. Neither is Amazon, and that for good reason.
Or did you refer with 'high end' to anything with a better sound than an Echo? That's not even yet HiFi in its' original definition.
Yes, it's quite a development, and works well. Amazon has opened its API so that any speaker maker, including those without an existing multiroom technology, will be able to use it, including voice control, without any Amazon hardware. Interesting times ahead.
I stumbled on this feature earlier today while poking about the Alexa app. Took me by surprise and I had to do a double-take and think hard if it was something always there or new, it seemed to be such a subtle new option that I wondered if I simply overlooked it before.
Anyhow, it seems decent yet has some modest constraints.
I don't own any dots, just Echos and Echo Shows, there seems to be no problem grouping the Echo's together. I would compare them to pairing Sonos devices together because once units are placed into a group, they are unavailable to be placed in other groups unless removed from the group they are currently in. For example, I have a 'downstairs' group of an echo in the living room and an echo show in the kitchen, and I also wanted to create an 'everywhere' group that would include my echo show in the kitchen, and my 3 echoes in my bedroom, living room, and office. I cannot populate the 'everywhere' group as I would like because the echo show in the kitchen and the echo in the living room are assigned to a group ('downstairs') and are not selectable items when choosing the units that will be included in creating a new group. That was a bit of a disappointment, I don't know if "dynamic" is the right description but the name 'group' gave me the hope that any manner of combination could be created, just like the groups we can create with on the fly the Sonos devices.
Instead, these Echo groups are otherwise precisely what we do when pairing Sonos units.
The positive is that this is an added feature apparently offered, and subsequently sorted out in time via software updates. It'll do for now. I'm not complaining--hey! It's an added function, right! And soon to be usurped by Sonos upgrades. . . any day now??:P
Anyhow, it seems decent yet has some modest constraints.
I don't own any dots, just Echos and Echo Shows, there seems to be no problem grouping the Echo's together. I would compare them to pairing Sonos devices together because once units are placed into a group, they are unavailable to be placed in other groups unless removed from the group they are currently in. For example, I have a 'downstairs' group of an echo in the living room and an echo show in the kitchen, and I also wanted to create an 'everywhere' group that would include my echo show in the kitchen, and my 3 echoes in my bedroom, living room, and office. I cannot populate the 'everywhere' group as I would like because the echo show in the kitchen and the echo in the living room are assigned to a group ('downstairs') and are not selectable items when choosing the units that will be included in creating a new group. That was a bit of a disappointment, I don't know if "dynamic" is the right description but the name 'group' gave me the hope that any manner of combination could be created, just like the groups we can create with on the fly the Sonos devices.
Instead, these Echo groups are otherwise precisely what we do when pairing Sonos units.
The positive is that this is an added feature apparently offered, and subsequently sorted out in time via software updates. It'll do for now. I'm not complaining--hey! It's an added function, right! And soon to be usurped by Sonos upgrades. . . any day now??:P
Or saved/named groups have been one of the many things that Sonos has been working on since announcing Alexa support.
Instead, these Echo groups are otherwise precisely what we do when pairing Sonos units.
The positive is that this is an added feature apparently offered, and subsequently sorted out in time via software updates. It'll do for now. I'm not complaining--hey! It's an added function, right! And soon to be usurped by Sonos upgrades. . . any day now??:P
I haven't played with the grouping yet, but that's sort of what I took from the description. Thanks for the clarification.
I’ve been a Sonos owner since the early days and static groups have been a top requested feature for as long as I can remember. I don’t understand why this seemingly simple feature request has been ignored for 10+ years. Any comment from Sonos?
ahk totally agree .... whilst a very happy and widespread Sonos user, I was thinking exactly the same whilst reading this thread.
I have two CA's with a sub in the kitchen and whilst they pair lovely, the next day they have separated. It's not a huge effort to sort but as you rightly say, the option to set say three semi-permanent groups would be the business e.g for me it would be upstairs, downstairs and kitchen.
I have two CA's with a sub in the kitchen and whilst they pair lovely, the next day they have separated. It's not a huge effort to sort but as you rightly say, the option to set say three semi-permanent groups would be the business e.g for me it would be upstairs, downstairs and kitchen.
Maybe denon heos is worse, but they have lots of products now in the heos line with many features and a real wireless tv avr... i am thinking to switch...
One thing about the Amazon groups. You can not seem to add a Sonos room to the Amazon group. Would be nice if they would support that.
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