New Product showing on FCC - S15

Indeed you did. I missed that, sorry.

I doubt it's a microphone setup. That's just competing on the wrong playing field, playing the wrong sport.

Rock solid integration with Alexa/Echo (and the other players) is the way to go, while continuing to deliver a superior audio experience.

I think this could be the best of both worlds....Sonos adding Mics to all new speakers released after a certain Date so that you don't need to have a amazon echo or dot in them rooms for it to work and for our older Sonos speakers all we need to do is just place a echo or Dot in them rooms for it to work...and it could work like said before for the true play side of things with the release of new speakers as well.

Airplay 2 adapter 😃

So.. it's the Sonos microphone but no idea what service it works with, just have to wait a little bit.

How do you know that ?

I posted this in another thread but my money is on a design update of the PLAY:1 that incorporates a microphone array for voice control. Amazon are up to something as well. The Amazon Echo is available at a heavily discounted price of just $100 for the next few weeks. There were rumors circulating last month via Engadget of the Echo 2 with improved construction materials and acoustics.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/12/amazon-echo-homepod/

Could it be a collaboration with Sonos? They have been working together for over a year.

Amazon have a roadshow running through the fall showing off all that Alexa can do in the smart home. Sonos are a tour sponsor and according to the copy on the Amazon developer site "More Alexa-enabled products, smart home devices, and Alexa skills will be added and demonstrated over the course of the tour." Here's the link for more info:

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/8e2af64c-e4f5-4358-bb27-a16a7d82cd8a/amazon-alexa-and-intel-hit-the-road-with-the-smart-life-roadshow.

I think it's going to be an interesting few months.

Echo needs to emanate sound 360° so that it can be heard anywhere in a room. The Play:1 is a hi-fi speaker, more directional, so that it sounds far better, and produces an excellent stereo image when paired. I hope Sonos doesn't make the voice-enabled Play:1 omnidirectional.

I see why the microphones are omnidirectional but don't understand your assertion that the speakers need to be too. I can hear my Play 1 just fine no matter where I am in the room.

I typically place my echo dots somewhere there are most likely to hear me. For example, my kitchen and living room is one open room, so I have the dot on the counter in the middle between the two. If the dot was against the far wall, it wouldn't hear me well when in the kitchen. If it was against the kitchen wall, it wouldn't hear me well in the living room. Getting 2 dots for each room wouldn't work well as the wrong dot would hear me (it matters sometimes). So in the middle is where the dot goes.

I would not want to place a PLAY:1 in the middle of my kitchen/living room.

Looking at it another way, speakers are almost always up against the walls of a room. However, you never see microphones up against a wall. They are always either held, attached closed to your face, or placed above near by to pick your voice. Voice Assistance are different as quality of the voice is a bit less important, but the concept is still in place.

So it's very difficult to get ideal speakers and ideal microphones in the same device/location. IMO anyway.

melvimbe wrote:

So it's very difficult to get ideal speakers and ideal microphones in the same device/location. IMO anyway.

Yep, which is why I'll be using Dots to control my Sonos speakers. Omnidirectional speakers aren't meant to sit near walls, and thus can't take advantage of the bass reinforcement that near-wall placement provides. They will never sound as good as proper hi-fi speakers like the Sonos line. I'm hoping this new device is just a microphone array, perhaps with Chromecast built in (to allow Google voice integration from Google Home, and casting).

In total contrast to all the current voice recognition buzz, I'd really love to finally see a Gen2 Play:3. The original model looks rather vintage by now and could certainly use an update in sound characteristics as well, compared to those of the Play:1 and Play:5.

Not long before I am put out of my misery:)

For this to be a Play 1 equivalent it would have to use about 1A, the label at FCC shows 100mA.

Belly M wrote:

For this to be a Play 1 equivalent it would have to use about 1A, the label at FCC shows 100mA.

100mA sounds like a battery charger... for a very small battery.

heres my hope - a simple base unit and remote control handset....

- base unit plugs into any sonos device providing both power via POE and communication OR wireless and powered with the lowly 100ma power supply.
- handset is charged from base unit (maybe wireless charging also)
- handset has NO screen and communicates via RF so has very long battery life.
- handset has backlit buttons for volume up, down, previous, next, play/pause, 5 presets to sonos favorites, 5 'room' buttons to switch rooms (perhaps with led to indicate which room is being controlled)
- buttons for night/speech mode for playbar
- a few 'custom' buttons for grouping or other functions (all controlled by the base unit so no firmware update needed for old units)
- a 'Snooze' button for alarms
- provide a simple wall cradle similar like philips hue switch.
- 'bonus feature' of line-in on the base unit ;-)

would be far more convenient than reaching for a phone which must always be charged and sometimes slow to respond or lock screen controls arent active (nothing is playing) plus 101 other reasons why a phone is sometimes annoying.

Id buy one for every room if the price was right (e.g. sub $100).
I know logitech can do some of this but you have to be pretty 'tech savvy' to get it working right.

@nicka99...sounds like a lot like a Lutron pico remote. Doesn't meet your price though since the remote will require a Lutron hub. And it doesn't meet your custom button requirements

Alternately, wait for the Alexa integration, then get a dot and echo remote. That would be under $100, but again, not meeting your custom requirements.

upstatemike wrote:

100mA sounds like a battery charger... for a very small battery.

My HDMI multiswitch doesn't require much more...🆒

I'm curious if we'll see an announcement today given that the confidentiality of the photos is due to expire Sunday.

Just looked at my Sonos Dock. 5V @ 2A, or 10 watts. However, that had to charge an iDevice. 100mA should be enough to power a wifi transceiver and a microphone array, perhaps with Chromecast capabilities.

Those labels are usually samples, and are only representative of the location of the FCC label and/or the wording required by the FCC to meet their requirements. Everything else about them can likely be taken with a grain of salt. Until Sunday (or more likely, Monday) comes around, we won't know what it is.

My guess. It's the replacement for the Connect. It will be priced at $99. It will have a combined 3.5mm optical/analog output, like the CCA. It will also have a far-field microphone. Maybe an analog input, but not necessarily, given Sonos emphasis on streaming.

Possibly Chromecast support, to instantly integrate Google Home.

No idea what the S stands for. Source? Streamer? Spot? (Play on Dot).

I notice from the label that it draws 5W directly from the wall socket, so no external power brick. Good.

I'm probably completely wrong, but we'll see tomorrow.

When the Play 5 (gen 2) was added to the FCC database its name was S100, Sonos got wise at this point and started hiding the names of devices.

It is probably the long awaited Play 7. It will be a 7 foot floor standing electrostatic speaker to fill in the high end of the product line. Electrostatics are a good match for Sonos because they struggle at the low end which makes them the perfect complement to the Sonos Sub. Unfortunately no line-in or headphone jacks but will have a port to plug in a separate microphone array for use in voice control as an alternative to using an Echo Dot.

chicks wrote:

No idea what the S stands for. Source? Streamer? Spot? (Play on Dot).

How about the Sonos Speak?:8