Pairing a Play:1 with the new Sonos One

How is it the same as play:5 2nd gen exactly? Your entire point is based on them upgrading the speaker... Really dont think the speaker has been upgraded at all, otherwise that would have been marketed as well. As far as I can see its a play:1 with added Alexa support.

Sonos has stated the only part shared between the two units is the power plug assembly. So no, it is not a Play:1 at all.

But I think the main question of whether granting the ability to pair them or not comes down to two things:
1. is the sound quality that much different
2. Does sonos want to make us buy new units

It would be much appreciated to have the stereo effect like pairing two play:1s together would. I am very thankful though that we can still connect the one to the older play:1 because I just bought the one and currently have the play:1 but it would make sense to be able to do the surround sound set up interchangeably (between devices).

I would buy 5 Sonos Ones if I could pair it with my existing Play:1s in each bedroom. If not I'll save the change and get dots instead. You can pair it just not the surround sound studio effect (2 sonos parts) with the play:1 and the Sonos One. You can only do it if both are the same (one-one and play:1-play:1) that’s my understanding at least

I don’t think it’s that big of a deal though it looks like that’s the way it’s been before the one-you have to link the same product to the same product like you can’t studio effect the play:1 and play:5 I don’t believe. So not like there screwing us over here. Haha

I would buy 5 Sonos Ones if I could pair it with my existing Play:1s in each bedroom. If not I'll save the change and get dots instead.

Yeah, I'm considering buying another Dot and getting a couple of the Vaux speakers, unfortunately, Echos can't be made to work in stereo pairs at all at the moment, I'm hoping that's something that will change very soon.

https://ninety7life.com/products/vaux-echo-dot-speaker?variant=27663402891

But for the price of a single Play One, or ONE I can buy 2 echo dots and 2 Vaux Speakers

@Johnnie Walker, of course you're going to be able to find cheaper speaker solutions than Sonos. That was never a debate. If you think your Vaux speakers are going to sound any where near as good as Sonos will, I think you'll be rather disappointed.

I don't have a big issue with Sonos not allowing the Sonos One to pair/bond as if it was a Play:1. On the service, it looks as if it's just to get you to buy 2 instead of 1, but here's some counterpoints.

- How many customers are going to replace their current pair of P:1s by getting a Sonos One instead of an echo dot? Especially if it sounds no different? Some sure, but that probably isn't your biggest market.

- If they allowed pairing, then they would be deciding not to upgrade their existing design with the latest available. That would probably upset some customers, and give competitors a chance to 'catch up' to Sonos Perhaps the changes are minor, I don't know, but we shouldn't assume that making a P:1 w/Alexa on top is all that went in to this build.

- Since the P:1 has been out a while, it may be that it was time to reduce the price of this. Marketing probably sees $200 as the sweet spot for this, and it made sense to put in new tech for this to help justify the cost.

- Perhaps they felt like a pair of P:1s didn't sound better that a homepod, or Google Max, or other compete product. An improvement was required in order to beat the competition.

I get that it would be nice to be able do this odd pairing, but the reality is that I probably wasn't going to do that arraingement anyway. I

No, I don't expect them to sound as good as the Play 1's I currently have and use daily, but they would cost half the price!

I do however expect them to sound reasonably good from the reviews I've read, and certainly ok for somewhere like the bedroom.

Also, they're perfect for taking out into the garden ( as long as they're kept dry ) or moving around the house if needed.

Of course, if you wanted really good sound quality, most likely better than a pair of Play 1's or ONE's it's also possible to buy a pair of active speakers and connect them to Echo Dots.

In fact, I'd be interested to hear a good quality pair of active speakers connected to an echo dot, obviously it wouldn't be such an elegant solution as a Pair of Sonos speakers, but again, they would probably sound better for less money.

I've just seen these new speakers from Dynaudio, they look very interesting and versatile: https://www.dynaudio.com/home-audio/music/discover#

Hi everyone, thanks for all the feedback. There are several threads asking this question, and we're making sure to share all your feedback with the team. There are some technical reasons why the PLAY:1 and Sonos One can't bond as a pair. That may be something we are able to work around, but I don't have any specifics to share on if it'll happen.

To be clear for anyone new to the conversation, you can use Sonos One with all Sonos players. It can control what's playing on itself and other rooms through the built-in microphones via Amazon Alexa, and later on other assistants too, where available. However, Sonos One will only pair with another Sonos One if you are looking to set it up as a stereo pair or as part of a surround setup, it can't bond with a PLAY:1.

Recently purchased 2 Play Bars, a Sub, and 6 PLAY1's to run as stereo pairs. Now find out if I want Alexa through the speaker I now need to buy 6 new Sonos 1's???? As a loyal Sonos customer I'm very disappointed at this approach. Perhaps Sonos would be prepared to offer a buy back scheme for customers with PLAY1's now being forced to buy again if they want the feature?