Question

Automatic Trueplay: Sonos Move in same room as other sonos speakers

  • 9 September 2019
  • 8 replies
  • 1336 views

I'm seriously considering the Sonos Move. I will mostly move it around indoors using only WiFi.

I already have some stationary Sonos speakers (Play:1) around the house.

What will happen if I bring the Move in to a room with another Sonos speaker (assuming both speakers are playing the same song)? Will Automatic Trueplay adjust the sound output from the Move to give a good overall listening experience in that room (including the output from the other Sonos speaker)?

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8 replies


Ah, I see. I honestly don’t know the answer to that question, as normal TruePlay tuning does indeed check the noise level before it tunes a speaker to a room, but presumably Sonos engineers will have thought of that situation... I would guess the auto-tuning process is probably an ongoing thing in anycase, whilst the music is playing in a room anyway... otherwise it might get a bit tedious if we have to pause the music and wait until the speaker finishes tuning itself. Maybe the Sonos Staff will chime in here at some point and clarify the matter.


This is the way I understand it. And it seems reasonable to expect that the player can tune with other noises occurring in the room, besides the audio it's playing. Wouldn't that mean that mic is looking for specific frequencies,specifically the frequencies it's sending out through it's speakers? That would make sense to me.

Assuming that true, I would think that other Sonos speakers in the room would throw off the tuning then, since they would be playing the same frequencies. I thought the tuning worked like Sonar, audio sent out (speaker) and then the system tracks when the audio returns to the mic, giving a rough idea of distance from the speaker to walls (time x speed of sound). If there's a 2nd Sonos speaker in the room, then that's going to throw off the time it takes for audio to return back to the speaker, perhaps making it appear that the room is twice as small as it is?

Then again, if you have a stereo pair of Moves in a room, you'd have the same issue, unless you only used the audio frequencies unique to the specific channel of your speaker. Don't know.

I imagine you can turn auto trueplay off, so I would guess this is the option you want for that scenario It's not going to be ideal anyway if you're including a mono speaker in the same room as a stereo pair.
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I'm happy to chime in!

Move is regularly tuning (assuming it's turned on) while playing music. So if you bring it into a room with another Sonos speaker or for that matter any speaker at all playing music, Trueplay will tune the unit for room and sound levels. The goal is to make it sound the best it can, at all times.
Thanks for your reply!

I think I was a little unclear in my op. I understand that my current speakers will not automatically adjust. I was thinking only of the Move.

Let's say I bring the Move in to an empty (no other speakers) room. My understanding is that Automatic Trueplay will automatically adjust the output to give the best possible listening experience for that room.

In my scenario I'm bringing the Move in to a room where one of my static Sonos speakers is already blasting away. Now when the Move runs Automatic Trueplay, will it adjust itself taking the output from the static speaker in to consideration?

Ah, I see. I honestly don’t know the answer to that question, as normal TruePlay tuning does indeed check the noise level before it tunes a speaker to a room, but presumably Sonos engineers will have thought of that situation... I would guess the auto-tuning process is probably an ongoing thing in anycase, whilst the music is playing in a room anyway... otherwise it might get a bit tedious if we have to pause the music and wait until the speaker finishes tuning itself. Maybe the Sonos Staff will chime in here at some point and clarify the matter.

I imagine you can turn auto trueplay off, so I would guess this is the option you want for that scenario It's not going to be ideal anyway if you're including a mono speaker in the same room as a stereo pair.

If it can’t TruePlay tune the Move speaker, for any reason, perhaps it falls back to a default EQ setup anyway, without having to switch off the feature? I would prefer to 'set and forget' such settings.
Thanks for your input guys!

It would be interesting to hear from Sonos staff on this...
I'm happy to chime in!

Move is regularly tuning (assuming it's turned on) while playing music. So if you bring it into a room with another Sonos speaker or for that matter any speaker at all playing music, Trueplay will tune the unit for room and sound levels. The goal is to make it sound the best it can, at all times.


So that means another speaker playing the same output as Move will not interfere with Automatic Trueplay?

If so, would that mean that I can put the Move in a room where I today only have a Play:1 to beef up the sound (the speakers not working as a stereo pair but as two mono speakers)?
This is my understanding, from things I have read so far online...

Firstly the speaker(s) already in the room, the Play:1 etc are not Auto-TruePlay enabled, so you simply TruePlay tune those speakers as normal using an iOS device.

In the case of the new 'Move' speaker, from what I’ve seen in the reports, you do not need to use an iOS device, it somehow uses its in-built microphone(s) (I believe) and it will Auto-TruePlay tune itself. Once all speakers are 'separately' tuned to the room, then that’s all there is to do.

If you move any of the Play:1 devices, you would have to manually TruePlay tune them again. If you move the 'Move', I believe it will go onto auto-TruePlay tune itself.

It’s perhaps easiest to think of them as each working in different and separate ways.

I have certainly not read anything where it says the 'Move' device will auto-TruePlay tune any of the other static Sonos speakers.
Thanks for your reply!

I think I was a little unclear in my op. I understand that my current speakers will not automatically adjust. I was thinking only of the Move.

Let's say I bring the Move in to an empty (no other speakers) room. My understanding is that Automatic Trueplay will automatically adjust the output to give the best possible listening experience for that room.

In my scenario I'm bringing the Move in to a room where one of my static Sonos speakers is already blasting away. Now when the Move runs Automatic Trueplay, will it adjust itself taking the output from the static speaker in to consideration?