Play:1 purchased instead of Sonos One


Gentlemen please help. PI bought 2 Play:1’s some weeks ago only to discover that these are not the same speakers as the Ones 😢 I love their sound but still I feel err fooled. Only solution is just sell 1 play:1 and replace it with a One? I can then stream to both my Play:1 and One as a stereo pair? Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t want to fall into a wrong buy again 😉 Also,does the play;1 (used as channel L stereo) sound exactly the same as the One gen2 (channel R stereo). If not it would be impossible to use the play1 and One gen2 as a stereo pair.

Thanks 🙂

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10 replies

Ignore previous question,found out it’s impossible.
O damn Sonos why would you use similar sounding names for similar looking devices? Recipy for wrong buys 😞 Love the sound tho but need airplay and functionality of the Ones.Now I’m stuck with the play:1.

I guess no workaround here?

Btw I’m not rich 😉
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi Tim, I moved your question over to a new thread to make it easier to answer here.

You've found out all the details at this point from what I can tell. The Play:1 is an older product and we designed a new one with similar style and many new features. The Sonos One can be grouped with older players using standard room grouping, but you can't stereo pair or use a Play:1 with a Sonos One as part of a surround sound. If you're looking for Airplay 2, you could use a single Sonos One as the room that you play the Airplay stream to, and then you can use the Sonos app to make a temporary group with the two of them. However, they wouldn't be functioning as separate left and right sides.

The best thing to do, is to change out the Play:1s for a pair of Sonos Ones.

If the Play:1s aren't within their return period, you could probably recover some of the cost on the second hand market. We offer a pretty liberal money back guaranty for units purchased directly through us, so if you did purchase through us, I'd suggest giving our sales team a call.

Sorry for the confusion, and let me know if I can help with anything else.
Userlevel 4
Badge +6
Ignore previous question,found out it’s impossible.
O damn Sonos why would you use similar sounding names for similar looking devices? Recipy for wrong buys 😞 Love the sound tho but need airplay and functionality of the Ones.Now I’m stuck with the play:1.

I guess no workaround here?

Btw I’m not rich ;)


Tim, just an FYI if you decide to get some Sonos Ones, IMO make sure you get the 2nd gen Ones not the original Ones (marked 2nd gen in the box). No different function yet, but who knows in the future.
Userlevel 5
Badge +13
Ignore previous question,found out it’s impossible.
O damn Sonos why would you use similar sounding names for similar looking devices? Recipy for wrong buys 😞 Love the sound tho but need airplay and functionality of the Ones.Now I’m stuck with the play:1.

I guess no workaround here?


If you purchased from Sonos directly, they have a 45-day money back guarantee. Use that option to get the Play:1 swapped for a One.
Thanks everyone 🙂 I bought them from an official Apple shop.Will contact Sonos to see what’s possible 🙂 I will go for 2 Sonos Ones 2nd gen..Thanks 4 the support,and damn how you get so much bass out of these things...solid sound 😉
Userlevel 5
Badge +13
and damn how you get so much bass out of these things...solid sound ;)

Imagine if you add a sub to it!
Userlevel 7
Hi TimWellens

I upgraded all of my Play 1's to Sonos One's a while back by selling them on ebay. At the time Sonos had not yet reduced the price on the Play 1's to what they are today ($149.00). My point being I was able to recoup 75% of their $199.00 cost. If you have the original packaging, pamphlets; and the speakers are within one year, I'd venture to say you should be able to recoup at least 60% to 75% of their cost to you. Sonos hold's it's value very well.
Badge +7
Somebody was on Reddit the other day posting about how they had just purchased (within a month or two) a few Gen 1 Ones, and felt duped because Sonos released the Gen 2 shortly thereafter.

In your case, the Play:1 and One are different units but perform relatively the same, unless of course you're needing the voice assistant functionality. Otherwise, both sound great in my opinion.

In the aforementioned user's concern, I can't really see justifying the replacement of all their Gen 1 Ones to upgrade to Gen 2 Ones. There's a faster processor in the Gen 2 from my understanding, and BLE implementation, but needing the Gen 2 seems a stretch. Do others agree, or am I being too near-sighted here?
Userlevel 7
@spydrwebb

TimWellens post was a bit confusing. He actually purchased a Play 1 instead of a Sonos One. Two distinctly different speakers. The Sonos One has AirPlay2, Alexa and touch sensitive controls. The Play 1 has none of the aforementioned. Agreed that the Sonos One (Gen2) for the moment has no useable advantage over the original Sonos One.

TimWellens was also asking if the Sonos One and Play 1 could be used together as surrounds and/or in stereo a pair...which they cannot. Although the Play 1 can join a Sonos One in a group.

So inconclusion I wasn't suggesting that TimWellens sell a Sonos One_Gen1 for a Gen2 model. At this time their is no need to upgrade a Sonos One Gen1 to a Gen2 model and hopefully not so in the future. 🙂
Badge +7
Oh, I understood. Wasn't suggesting you were making any recommendations beyond what you clearly stated.

In some ways, I hijacked the thread without intending to because that reddit raised a curious question, and I was equally intrigued by what others might think regarding the upgrade from Gen 1 to Gen 2 One.

Cheers!