Your Sonos Move experience and thoughts so far?

  • 25 September 2019
  • 9 replies
  • 2476 views

I just set mine up a couple hours ago. My current setup:
Play5: Kitchen
Play3: Living Room
Play3: Office
Play3: Basement
2 x Play3 Left & Right Pair: Master Bedroom
Sonos Move - for deck time

Expectations:
I was HOPING this speaker would come close to the Play3 given the price. (I've never heard what a Play1 sounds like). I didn't think it would come close to a Play3 based on listening to the Youtubers trying to give sound comparisons through my own crappy computer speakers.

Initial Reaction:
Wow! These actually sound BETTER than my Play3's. I know audio is very subjective but I think I like the Move better than my Play3's. The "power" and "clarity" seem to be better on the Move than compared to my Play3's. But my Play3's seem to have a bit more "depth" to the audio. Hope that makes sense. When comparing to my Play5, I think the Move is closer to the Play5 than it is to the Play3 in my honest opinion. The Play5 does have more power, more clarity and more depth than the Move. But for $400, the Move is a pleasant surprise that I was hoping for but expecting much less.

Initial Problems I expect to be fixed over the next week or 2:
(1) The Move alexa mic isn't working at all. I've gone through all the basic fixes (reconnect sonos/alexa in the app, ensure the mic was on with a white light confirmation, and ensuring I'm on wifi with a top white light confirmation and not a blue light (bluetooth connection).
(2) When playing the Move and then trying to add another speaker so they're playing at the same time (not Left/Right pair) it seems to sputter and music turns off...whether it's for 2 seconds, 10 seconds, or for good. This problem doesn't doesn't matter which speaker I use first when trying to add to another. Sometimes it stops all together even though the track time on the app continues counting. Weird.

What's your experience the first time you heard the Sonos Move?

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9 replies

In comparing the Move to a Play:3 as far as sound quality goes, I'd agree the Move is better for the most part, I do think the context of how it's used makes a difference.

The play:3 does work as a stand alone speaker, but I think it was designed to work well as component of a larger room setup. The speaker is rather directional, and not too heavy on the base....which is great when you pair it with another speaker for a stereo pair, plus sub for the base. It's great as a surround speaker as well.

The Move was designed for a different purpose. It's much wider, not as directional. It handles bass better. This is going to make it sound better when it's stand alone. It will still sound good good when paired for stereo, but not sure that it's going to give you quite as good of a stereo image. It's also in much less need of a sub. Worth noting that the Move can't be used in surround sound, probably because it's wider nature makes it poor for providing the directional sound you want for surround speakers.

So I'll take the Move over a Play:3 any day. Move vs 2 play:3s...probably go with the pair. 2 Moves vs 2 play:3s and I think the Moves wins but I haven't listened to really tell for sure.and what the room is used for will matter. None of that is factoring in the Move's battery, auto trueplay, or voice assistant.

I also find that I tend to psychologically prefer different sound than the sound that I'm used to. So I'll favor the sound of the Move for awhile until I'm used to it. I actually have been finding myself listening to the Move over a playbar+sub+ 2 play:3 setup just because of the change of pace.
Good news - I got a random pop-up in my Sonos App that was able to connect alexa with the Move. Maybe it just takes some time after the registration for it to ask the user.
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Good news - I got a random pop-up in my Sonos App that was able to connect alexa with the Move. Maybe it just takes some time after the registration for it to ask the user.
There's a step in the Sonos app where you need to enable voice services within the Settings. if the Move is your first microphone enabled Sonos device, you need to go through there, but we'll have a banner notifying you that you need to do it if you haven't yet. Sounds like you're all set now.

Thanks for sharing your impressions!

Good news - I got a random pop-up in my Sonos App that was able to connect alexa with the Move. Maybe it just takes some time after the registration for it to ask the user.There's a step in the Sonos app where you need to enable voice services within the Settings. if the Move is your first microphone enabled Sonos device, you need to go through there, but we'll have a banner notifying you that you need to do it if you haven't yet. Sounds like you're all set now.

Thanks for sharing your impressions!

That's correct. It was my first Alexa enabled sonos device. My other sonos speakers I use the stand-alone alexa device to play music on the speaker(s).
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I’m beginning to wonder if I have a defective Move?…

I’ve had it about 10 days and REALLY want to love this speaker as much as my others but have been slightly underwhelmed :(   I mean it’s a nice speaker and all, but I was hoping to be blown away the way I have been with all my other Sonos speakers (Beam for TV, pair of Ones w Sub in LR, One in Kitchen, One SL in Bathroom and One SL in Bedroom).

Some of the online reviews I’ve read said that the Move is more powerful than the One, but frankly I can tell very little difference between one of the Ones and the Move when I put them side-by-side. The Move may have slightly more base, but if anything the Ones are actually a bit clearer, and the power difference at med or high volumes is negligible.

The TruPlay tuning seems to make very little difference either – I’ve tried putting it in different places and I can’t even tell if/when it kicks in (it’s barely noticeable when I toggle it on/off). Am I missing something or have others had this same experience?

 

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I just set mine up a couple hours ago. My current setup:
Play5: Kitchen
Play3: Living Room
Play3: Office
Play3: Basement
2 x Play3 Left & Right Pair: Master Bedroom
Sonos Move - for deck time

Expectations:
I was HOPING this speaker would come close to the Play3 given the price. (I've never heard what a Play1 sounds like). I didn't think it would come close to a Play3 based on listening to the Youtubers trying to give sound comparisons through my own crappy computer speakers.

Initial Reaction:
Wow! These actually sound BETTER than my Play3's. I know audio is very subjective but I think I like the Move better than my Play3's. The "power" and "clarity" seem to be better on the Move than compared to my Play3's. But my Play3's seem to have a bit more "depth" to the audio. Hope that makes sense. When comparing to my Play5, I think the Move is closer to the Play5 than it is to the Play3 in my honest opinion. The Play5 does have more power, more clarity and more depth than the Move. But for $400, the Move is a pleasant surprise that I was hoping for but expecting much less.

Initial Problems I expect to be fixed over the next week or 2:
(1) The Move alexa mic isn't working at all. I've gone through all the basic fixes (reconnect sonos/alexa in the app, ensure the mic was on with a white light confirmation, and ensuring I'm on wifi with a top white light confirmation and not a blue light (bluetooth connection).
(2) When playing the Move and then trying to add another speaker so they're playing at the same time (not Left/Right pair) it seems to sputter and music turns off...whether it's for 2 seconds, 10 seconds, or for good. This problem doesn't doesn't matter which speaker I use first when trying to add to another. Sometimes it stops all together even though the track time on the app continues counting. Weird.

What's your experience the first time you heard the Sonos Move?

I think I am right in saying that the only speaker you can pair the Move with its another Move. 

Really enjoy my Move BTW. 

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This doesn’t sound like the problem the O/P had with the Move microphone, but I just purchased one today and discovered that you can’t turn it on unless you configure a Voice Assistant, which means no automatic TruePlay.

This is disappointing, as I really don’t need (or want) the Voice Assistant functionality on the Move, but I obviously do want the automatic TruePlay.

Does the S2 software let me enable it without Voice Assistant? Probably not...

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This doesn’t sound like the problem the O/P had with the Move microphone, but I just purchased one today and discovered that you can’t turn it on unless you configure a Voice Assistant, which means no automatic TruePlay.

This is disappointing, as I really don’t need (or want) the Voice Assistant functionality on the Move, but I obviously do want the automatic TruePlay.

Does the S2 software let me enable it without Voice Assistant? Probably not...

Is this true? I’m on S2 and never enabled a voice assistant but it still gives me the option to turn Trueplay on/off - as long as the microphones are turned on. Most of the time I can’t tell a whole lot of difference though - only when I put the Move in a really strange position to test it (i.e. directly facing a wall or other object). Could not having a voice assistant be affecting Trueplay?

This doesn’t sound like the problem the O/P had with the Move microphone, but I just purchased one today and discovered that you can’t turn it on unless you configure a Voice Assistant, which means no automatic TruePlay.

This is disappointing, as I really don’t need (or want) the Voice Assistant functionality on the Move, but I obviously do want the automatic TruePlay.

Does the S2 software let me enable it without Voice Assistant? Probably not...

 

Incorrect on both S1 and S2.  Never activated a Voice Assistant on my Move, voice assistant microphone light is off.  Auto Trueplay is active in the settings and works just fine.