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Ryan S
Ryan SAnswer
Retired Sonos Staff
May 8, 2018
Hi everyone, thanks for sharing your feedback and voice. The official answer on this topic is in the thread, but it's a bit buried at this point.

To be clear, the Sonos One can be used with all Sonos players. It can control what's playing on itself and other rooms with voice, 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.

While the Play:1 and Sonos One share a similar appearance and sound, the two are aesthetically and acoustically two different speakers. Stereo pairing the two is not possible through the Sonos app.

This comes down to the hardware in the players themselves. You're going to start seeing more differences between the Play:1 and the Sonos One when it comes to features in the future, as new things are added to the system that might not be compatible with older hardware. We strive to keep products working with core functionality for as long as possible. As we add new features, older products may have more limitations.

You might have heard recently that we're bringing Airplay 2 to Sonos on a selection of players. The Sonos One will be available as an Airplay 2 target, but the Play:1 will not be. The first Sonos players ever, the ZP100, is still out there rocking today, so don't worry about the life of your Play:1s. That one won't be an Airplay 2 target either, but you'd be able to group a Sonos One with a ZP100 and play Airplay 2 to both, just like with a Play:1. The group is different from stereo bonding.

There are some community suggestions for ways to bond a Play:1 with a Sonos One, mentioned in this thread, but they aren't officially recommended. They may work for what you're looking for, but the setup could potentially be unstable.

Thanks again everyone for sharing, and we'll make sure the team knows this is still something you'd like to see happen, but there aren't any plans to share on bonding a Play:1 and Sonos One as a pair.
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177 replies

Ryan S
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
October 4, 2017
You can use Sonos One with all Sonos players. It can control what's playing on itself and other rooms with voice, 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.

I'll make sure to pass on to the team that you're interested in seeing this at some point in the future, but there aren't any plans to share that this might happen.

Made some edits for clarity
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    SHARKB8T
    SHARKB8T
    Prodigy I
    October 4, 2017
    Hey Ryan,

    You can understand why this question arises, I'm sure. If have a 5.1 setup.... (and I do) why have two speakers taking audio commands? I don't need that. Why not just have one of them be the controller/ input mechanism for audio control. I get they *look* like Play1 s and may not actually be the same in audio response - and therefore hard to pair, but from a use perspective, it is an obvious and evident question that I think Sonos needs to have a position on as to why it isn't appropriate or enabled out of the starting blocks.
      Ryan S
      Ryan S
      Retired Sonos Staff
      October 4, 2017
      I totally hear where you're coming from SHARKB8T. They are different visually, colors and top as well, but they certainly do look similar. There are several factors that went into the decision on this one, so, for now, the best we can do is keep on passing the feedback to the team.

      In larger rooms with stereo pairs or surround setups, it's good to have multiple microphone arrays too, that way you know it'll pick up your voice.
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      twangus
      Lyricist III
      October 4, 2017
      I understand that there are technical issues that would need to be overcome, but I think it is worth noting that I think this backwards compatibility feature would lead to more sales of the Sonos One, not less. I own a bunch of Play:1s and I would be really tempted to get a matching Sonos One for each if it could mean I'd get stereo pairs with built-in Alexa support. But there's no way I'm going to pay to replace each of my current Play:1s with Sonos Ones just to get Alexa support if I can get similar functionality by just adding an Echo Dot.
        mhutchz
        Enthusiast I
        October 4, 2017
        I agree with twangus. Please re-consider. I have a Play:One and don't want to (and definitely won't) pay AU$299 for a Sonos One just to add voice control (which anyhow is currently inactive in Australia) BUT I would pay $299 for a Sonos One if I could create a stereo pair with my Play:One. Stereo plus voice control is definitely worth $299 - but voice control by itself isn't. I bought my Play:One to listen to music and have no trouble controlling it from my iPhone or from the top buttons. If I buy a Sonos One, my Play:One (which I bought new last year) won't be used anymore since I have no need for 2 mono wi-fi speakers, even if they can play the same mono music simultaneously (which I assume is possible). If you refuse to allow stereo pairing, please allow us to trade-in our redundant Play:One's which were bought with the understanding that they would continue to get "better over time". Since I have used mine for only one year and it's in pristine, as-new condition, can I have $250 as a trade-in? Or should disgruntled Play:One owners dump their redundant Play:One's on e-bay (which unfortunately might hurt your sales of Sonos One)? What is your preference? My preference is "stereo pairing" - please!!
          calumsbigtrip
          Lyricist I
          October 5, 2017
          I also see this as something of a deal-breaker. Sonos One would be an obvious way for me to expand my current system through pairing it with one of my existing Play:1s. But as others have said, I am not going to replace two Play:1s. I think this is a function that Sonos should provide right from the start. It would be good to know from Sonos what their plans are with respect to this. I'm open minded, but in the meantime, it does reduce my confidence that Sonos will be the future-proof system that I'm looking for going forward.
            jgatie
            jgatie
            October 5, 2017
            So you now have (at least) two Play:1's. You want to buy a single Sonos One to pair with one of your Play's, thus having a Sonos One paired with a Play:1, and (at least) a single Play:1 not paired with anything?

            I want you to look at my statement and try to figure out why someone would find it baffling. Look close now, and take your time. Note also that any Sonos device, any at all, can be controlled from any Alexa enabled device, even a $50 Echo Dot.
              thausnk
              Lyricist I
              October 5, 2017
              I would like to add a play one in my excisting sourround system and not to buy two new play one speaker. Also I did not want to have Alexa echo dot extra beside. I´m shure from tecnical side it would not be a problem to combine play one with play 1, they only want to make more money. It is a cheek that they force us to spend more money
                Pete 110
                Lyricist I
                October 5, 2017
                I was just about to pre-order a pair thinking I could create two stereo pairs by combining with my existing pair of Play 1s. Just lost £400 of Sales that may have led to more. A missed opportunity.
                  Stuart_W
                  Stuart_W
                  World-Class Superstar
                  October 5, 2017
                  I was just about to pre-order a pair thinking I could create two stereo pairs by combining with my existing pair of Play 1s. Just lost £400 of Sales that may have led to more. A missed opportunity.

                  You CAN create 2 x stereo pairs with one pair being Play:1 and one pair being Sonos:1 and then GROUP them.

                  This will be pretty much the same as doing the same thing with 4 x Sonos:1
                  Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, Play 1 stereo pair in Study, Play 1in Bathroom, Sonos Move 2
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