Question

A Pair of Sonos One and Sub

  • 11 October 2019
  • 9 replies
  • 922 views

Hi All,

I've been using a pair of Sonos One and love them. I wanted to add a sub to it but don't know if I can just add one or do I need to get an echo to make them work together. Any help would be appreciated.

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9 replies


I think it might be interesting to be Patrick Spence, and help guide the course that Sonos is taking.

Lol. You do know the Chinese curse - May you live in interesting times...?:-)

Spence was part of RIM senior leadership when it went bust with the demise of the Blackberry model, so this is deja vu for him and perhaps another chance to get things right this time.

As to buying Sonos, all potential buyers have large M&A departments, so all the hard work you refer to is their bread and butter deliverer, so if business leadership decides that a buy is a good idea, the hard work is never an issue.

I fear that a buy will leave the installed base underserved on the altar of subsequent growth/expansion drives, so as a user, I hope that happens only after my devices have died a natural death; I too see no point in replacing any. I have been able to use Echo hardware to augment/complement my Sonos kit, so this best of both worlds approach is ideal for me, as long as both worlds remain viable.
Userlevel 7
Hi

@Airgetlam has answered your question. Just curious...why were you considering adding an Echo in order to make the Sub work? Did someone tell you needed an echo?
Note that only a Sonos made Sub can be so added. Not the Echo Sub - or any other - if that is what you are thinking of doing.
Ah, I hadn’t thought of that, since you can’t get an echo speaker to play in sync with a Sonos speaker. Good catch!
Userlevel 7
Ah...me too. I didn’t know an echo sub existed. That never crossed my mind.
It's not something I've ever considered, since all of my Echo devices are pretty low fidelity. Not sure adding a sub to them would really help. They're useful to me as voice control devices, but I don't consider them real "listening to music" speakers. YMMV, and I've only got first and second gen, I'm sure they've come out with newer and better stuff, I just don't own them 🙂
I've only got first and second gen, I'm sure they've come out with newer and better stuff, I just don't own them :)
It will be interesting to read about some side by side comparisons of Sonos One v the just released Echo Studio that are at identical price points, and from what I see in the specs, this Echo may well be in the same league as Sonos for sound quality - and perhaps even ahead of Sonos Ones.

The thing is that Amazon is on an upward slope where sound quality is concerned while Sonos has plateaued. With Amazon able to better integrate sound services that they own into the Echo experience, this has to be a big concern for Sonos, and one reason why the suggestions for Apple to buy Sonos are resurfacing.

Where Amazon is very much behind Sonos at this time is where TV is to be integrated into the set up, but I can't see Amazon allowing that state of affairs to last.

PS: it seems that the Studio also offers some Atmos tricks inside that allow it be a home HT set up, so catching up with Sonos where TV is concerned may have begun. The Echo Studio may not do much to sway existing Sonos users, but it could make it harder for the company to grab those new customers who ultimately buy into Sonos as a system.
I'm fairly replete with Sonos devices at this point, so there's no real reason for me to try any of these newer Alexa devices. I'm also moderately paranoid about devoting my entire personal information to Amazon....they have enough control of my data. I've avoided giving them too much knowledge about my music listening habits, albeit they know what CDs I purchase.

Your point about the TV integration is a good one. I find that Apple is similarly handicapped as Amazon at this moment. Shoot, it even took Apple months to be able to create a stereo pair. If I were interested in purchasing a company in this space, I'd think that Sonos would be near the top of anyone's acquisition list. But then it would also break down to how much money they wanted. I've tangentially known about offers of various companies out there, and the absolute intense scrutiny there is across the board. Back in the day, I was partially involved in the sale of the largest number of home mortgages ever, back when the Savings and Loan here in the US failed. That deal was complex, but we weren't selling the entire "company" , but just some assets. I can only imagine how more challenging it might be. But then again, I would think many of these partners might have the spare cash lying around that would make an attractive offer to Sonos....assuming that Sonos was willing to entertain an offer. Now that it's a public company, I think that's a more complex situation with the laws of the US, and complicated by the fact that they have locations in other places in the world. Not impossible, just more difficult.

As for Atmos, I'm a little disenchanted at this point. It seems to be more of a marketing pitch than a real surround system. How can a phone, with one or two speakers, have "Atmos"? The challenge here is figuring out which codec has staying power, so that Sonos can invest in the appropriate one. If it's a flash in the pan, I don't see it worth dealing with, despite the clamoring here in these forums. Sonos strategy, as near as I can tell, is to deliver middle to high end mass market devices, slightly after they've become big time. It provides Sonos the opportunity to sell to the maximum number of people with a pretty good implementation of software. What I don't see Sonos as is a cutting edge, try anything kind of company. I'm OK with that. I'd rather have them around for the long term, and not waste effort where it doesn't benefit.

I think it might be interesting to be Patrick Spence, and help guide the course that Sonos is taking. I'm not sure they're doing wrong, for the company. It doesn't always align with what I want them to do, but I'm looking out for me, and not 200 employees and a multi-million dollar hardware company.
You can just add a SUB, and bond it to the stereo pair of Sonos Ones. Or, if you separate them, you can have the SUB bonded to one of them 🙂