Contributor I

Answered

Play:1 stereo pair with Sonos One

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Will it be possible to pair a ‘One’ with a Play:1 to create a stereo pair?

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Ryan SAnswer

Retired Sonos Staff

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.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

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Pinkysbrains

Trending Lyricist I

I will personally wait to see what the final word is on this, and make do with my single speaker in the meantime. If there is no change I will have to decide if I want to snap up a few second hand Play 1s from those who choose to upgrade, or invest in the newer speakers.

Did I miss something? Sonos is going to announce a final word on this functionality? I highly doubt that. That said though, I would think that if they are going to make a change, they would announce it before the retail season moves into full swing. If they opt not to do it at this time, I doubt we'll here a thing.

I was going on MikeV's comment: "A couple of days ago, their CEO tweeted that they are considering allowing the Play:1 and Sonos One to be paired together. No guarantee that it will happen, but our voices have been heard at the highest levels of the company."

Fingers crossed.

jgatie

I was going on MikeV's comment: "A couple of days ago, their CEO tweeted that they are considering allowing the Play:1 and Sonos One to be paired together. No guarantee that it will happen, but our voices have been heard at the highest levels of the company."

Fingers crossed.

I think the CEO's statement will be as definitive as you are going to get, at least until they actually release this functionality.

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Pinkysbrains

Trending Lyricist I

I was going on MikeV's comment: "A couple of days ago, their CEO tweeted that they are considering allowing the Play:1 and Sonos One to be paired together. No guarantee that it will happen, but our voices have been heard at the highest levels of the company."

Fingers crossed.

I think the CEO's statement will be as definitive as you are going to get, at least until they actually release this functionality.

Well I would still be interested in hearing the technical reasons for the incompatibility, if indeed there are any.

If someone from the sonos team is reading this, I think allot of us would really appreciate a transparent honest discussion on the subject.

If there are technical problems with stereo coupling of the two speakers, I would imagine there has been a number of emails exchanged between engineers and management discussing the problems.

If someone in charge is willing to authorise such transparency, it should simply be a matter of copying a few relevant paragraphs from said emails to explain the problem to us. Who knows, maybe someone from the community would have a solution you hadn't thought of.

Stuart_W

World-Class Superstar

I was going on MikeV's comment: "A couple of days ago, their CEO tweeted that they are considering allowing the Play:1 and Sonos One to be paired together. No guarantee that it will happen, but our voices have been heard at the highest levels of the company."

Fingers crossed.

I think the CEO's statement will be as definitive as you are going to get, at least until they actually release this functionality.

Well I would still be interested in hearing the technical reasons for the incompatibility, if indeed there are any.

If someone from the sonos team is reading this, I think allot of us would really appreciate a transparent honest discussion on the subject.

If there are technical problems with stereo coupling of the two speakers, I would imagine there has been a number of emails exchanged between engineers and management discussing the problems.

If someone in charge is willing to authorise such transparency, it should simply be a matter of copying a few relevant paragraphs from said emails to explain the problem to us. Who knows, maybe someone from the community would have a solution you hadn't thought of.

Except that we know from past experience that is not the way Sonos operate.

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

jgatie

You would sooner see pigs fly than see Sonos release internal e-mails of any kind, never mind e-mails between engineers and management.

Though I am amused at your final sentence; for it is indicative of something I've been saying for years. It seems you feel this information should be released for the purpose of allowing folks to critique their conclusions and offer their own solutions, rather than accepting their conclusions as a definitive statement of those in the know. That in itself says volumes as to why Sonos doesn't bother with this type of communication, as they are truly damned if they do and damned if they don't. But at least by shutting their mouths, they don't have to listen to outsiders tell them how stupid they are.

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Pinkysbrains

Trending Lyricist I

I was going on MikeV's comment: "A couple of days ago, their CEO tweeted that they are considering allowing the Play:1 and Sonos One to be paired together. No guarantee that it will happen, but our voices have been heard at the highest levels of the company."

Fingers crossed.

I think the CEO's statement will be as definitive as you are going to get, at least until they actually release this functionality.

Well I would still be interested in hearing the technical reasons for the incompatibility, if indeed there are any.

If someone from the sonos team is reading this, I think allot of us would really appreciate a transparent honest discussion on the subject.

If there are technical problems with stereo coupling of the two speakers, I would imagine there has been a number of emails exchanged between engineers and management discussing the problems.

If someone in charge is willing to authorise such transparency, it should simply be a matter of copying a few relevant paragraphs from said emails to explain the problem to us. Who knows, maybe someone from the community would have a solution you hadn't thought of.

Except that we know from past experience that is not the way Sonos operate.

Well, like I say, I'm new to the sonos world, so I'm not familiar with their past transgressions, and I'm still young enough to think it's never too late to change.
Maybe they will realise the value 21st century customer relations, and raise to the challenge of real transparency, before I form a definitive opinion and decide it's worth paying the extra buck to go the Bluesound route.

jgatie

I highly doubt Sonos is afraid of Bluesound. Bluesound's only real "advantage" is streaming hi-res audio, a feature Sonos not only rejected supporting, they rejected it in a fashion which basically stated they think it is a sham.

D

dawn1234

Lyricist I

I was so excited to get the new One but unfortunately I didn't realize it won't pair with a play 1. I have a 3 floor town house and 4 play:1s....I really wanted to put a One on each floor and stereo pair them with what I have. It is so sad that now the only way is to have 2 Alexas on one floor and none on another....I would have bought more play:1 when they were on sale with a couple of dots. This is a real flaw in my opinion.

melvimbe

I was so excited to get the new One but unfortunately I didn't realize it won't pair with a play 1. I have a 3 floor town house and 4 play:1s....I really wanted to put a One on each floor and stereo pair them with what I have. It is so sad that now the only way is to have 2 Alexas on one floor and none on another....I would have bought more play:1 when they were on sale with a couple of dots. This is a real flaw in my opinion.

You could get 2 Sonos Ones for 1 zone, and use the Play:1s for other zones...with dots. As far as buying play:1s on sale, it's highly likely that the price will go down rather soon, since they have less features then the Sonos One are currently the same price.

Danny

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guinnra

Contributor I

Please add me to the list. I have a Play 5, two Connects, a Conncect Amp, and two Play ones. I also want to buy two Sonos Ones and pair one of them and the Play One. It makes total sense to have this functionality. Why make us by Echos?

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