Beam + 2 Play One's or Beam + 2 Play 1's?

I agree with your plan. The play:1s should be fine for surround sound duty. The best reason to get the Ones would be if the Beam has trouble hearing you. I believe it will be good, but if you putting Ones on nightstands in your bedroom for example, maybe that's better.

Another vote for the P1s. I can’t tell much difference between the two (have a pair of each in the same room), to my ears they are very similar. And as the Beam will have all the ‘new’ functionality built in, then you might as well take the saving. The more I listen to them, flat out the P1 is the best ‘bang for buck’ speaker that Sonos sells. Awsome bits of kit!

Your plan is very sound. From a “smarts” perspective the Beam has what you need. No need to duplicate or triplicate it within the same set up once you have decided to stick with that set up. If you had in your mind flexibility and the possibility of moving the surrounds to other rooms later for pure audio and smart home duties maybe. But if I were you I would stick with the P1s.

Thanks guys! I'm definitely reassured that I'm making the right choice by going with the Play 1's. I've no plans at the moment about changing the set up so I'll be good for the foreseeable future :D

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Has anyone done a comparison? Do you have to yell at the Beam for its Alexa to hear you? Can you speak at a more normal voice to request Alexa if you're surrounded by Ones?

My wife and I use a Beam and two Play:1’s in our Dining Room... sound is great for both TV and Music. We love it !

We find that the Alexa Mic picks up our instructions really well indeed. No complaints at all here and love the 5.0 surround sound.

The Bass level is good too and so I’m not thinking of adding a sub as the low tones are fine for our room/ears.

huey01 wrote:

Has anyone done a comparison? Do you have to yell at the Beam for its Alexa to hear you? Can you speak at a more normal voice to request Alexa if you're surrounded by Ones?

No I haven't done a comparison yet. Maybe I will in the future but the Beam can easily pick up my voice from across the room when either music, TV shows or movies are playing. Now I haven't tested it at ridiculously loud levels yet but so far so good.

Ken_Griffiths wrote:

My wife and I use a Beam and two Play:1’s in our Dining Room... sound is great for both TV and Music. We love it !

We find that the Alexa Mic picks up our instructions really well indeed. No complaints at all here and love the 5.0 surround sound.

The Bass level is good too and so I’m not thinking of adding a sub as the low tones are fine for our room/ears.

I'm in total agreement with you on this 😃 I'm no audiophile but it works great for what want it to do. I don't feel the need for the sub either but if they release a cheaper one, I may consider it.

FYI, when Sonos Ones are setup as surround speakers with a Beam, the microphones on the Ones are automatically turned off. I didn't know that at the time of my previous post. So I'd say there is really even less reason to get a Sonos One over a Play:1. It's mostly a matter of cost and which one looks best.

As far as Alexa hearing you, I've had no issue out of the norm issues with Alexa. I used to have a dot on my nightstand, and now I have the Beam across the room. I haven't really changed the volume of my voice. In general, I find it best to speak relatively loud, slightly above normal conversation, no matter where I am in a room, to Sonos or echo devices.

Melvimbe,

I didn’t realise that the mic's were turned off on a Sonos One either, when used in a bonded setup... everyday is a school day, it seems.

I would stick with the Play 1’s aswell. They’re still a great speaker.

Yep, I've seen Ryan post that a few times. Makes sense, no need to have 3 mics going in the same room. I'm guessing it didn't test out well. Also explains why the Beam speaker set includes play:1s and not Sonos Ones.

And just to be sure it's clear, we're talking about the Beam only. Sonos Ones with the playbar or playbase will have the mics turned on if you want them.

melvimbe wrote:

Yep, I've seen Ryan post that a few times. Makes sense, no need to have 3 mics going in the same room. I'm guessing it didn't test out well. Also explains why the Beam speaker set includes play:1s and not Sonos Ones.

And just to be sure it's clear, we're talking about the Beam only. Sonos Ones with the playbar or playbase will have the mics turned on if you want them.

Oh right ... thanks for that information too.

Go with the Sonos Ones. The reason being post IPO the support model may be changing. The Sonos Ones have at least another 5 years in them in terms of software support. The Play 1s another 2-3 years.....maybe. After that it's 'here be dragons' for patching, software updates and so forth.

h1lt0n wrote:

Go with the Sonos Ones. The reason being post IPO the support model may be changing. The Sonos Ones have at least another 5 years in them in terms of software support. The Play 1s another 2-3 years.....maybe. After that it's 'here be dragons' for patching, software updates and so forth.

There is absolutely no evidence of this. Sonos still supports units that are 13 years old, and the only unit they have ever ceased supporting was the CR100, which was designed back in 2003. What exactly is there about an IPO that suggests Sonos is going to stop supporting units after a mere 5 years?

h1lt0n wrote:

Go with the Sonos Ones. The reason being post IPO the support model may be changing. The Sonos Ones have at least another 5 years in them in terms of software support. The Play 1s another 2-3 years.....maybe. After that it's 'here be dragons' for patching, software updates and so forth.

I would agree with this if the intention was to use the speakers as a separate room, but as surrounds, their expected functionality is very minimal. It basically doesn't need to do anything other than take a signal from the playbar/playbase/beam, which will handle all the other functionality for the setup.

And your dates estimates don't match up with Sonos history. The only device that no longer works in the system is the CR100. That stop selling what, 5 or more years ago? Everything is else still supported, including the ZPs that were initial products sold. I would expect the play1 to be supported for another 10 years, the Sonos One 15. Sure there could be a major upgrade in technology, but that isn't known now, and it's entirely possible that neither speaker is compliant with this hypothetical new tech.

jgatie wrote:

h1lt0n wrote:

Go with the Sonos Ones. The reason being post IPO the support model may be changing. The Sonos Ones have at least another 5 years in them in terms of software support. The Play 1s another 2-3 years.....maybe. After that it's 'here be dragons' for patching, software updates and so forth.

There is absolutely no evidence of this. Sonos still supports units that are 13 years old, and the only unit they have ever ceased supporting was the CR100, which was designed back in 2003. What exactly is there about an IPO that suggests Sonos is going to stop supporting units after a mere 5 years?

Read the quotes from management in the article and between the lines. Now they are public it's a different deal.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17644386/sonos-nasdaq-ipo-google-assistant-speakers-holiday-shopping

In the IPO filing, Sonos explained that in the near future, it would no longer be “practical or cost-effective” to continue offering backward compatibility for older products.

“We’re going to continue to try and support as far back as we can — it’s what we’re known for,” he says. “The further you can go back, and the longer you can make those products last, people will stick with you longer and people will buy more.” He says that 93 percent of Sonos products ever shipped are still active.

I suppose it's open to interpretation, but I'm not reading that to mean that the play:1 (a unit currently sold today) will no longer be supported 3 years from now. Again, no new features? Sure. But if it's your surround speaker, why do you care?

h1lt0n wrote:

Not exactly 'captain current affairs' are we? Read the quotes from management in the article and between the lines. Now they are public it's a different deal.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17644386/sonos-nasdaq-ipo-google-assistant-speakers-holiday-shopping

It's a bold interpretation that them saying they may have to retire older units (of which there are some that are 13+ years old and haven't been manufactured in this decade), means the Play:1 is being retired after 8 years.