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Mix Sonos One and Play:1 for surround speakers

  • 17 November 2017
  • 9 replies
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I currently use a PlayBar and SUB for my home cinema. I have a spare Play:1 so was considering getting a One and using it alongside the Play:1 for surround speakers along with the PlayBar and SUB.

I know you can't stereo pair a Play:1 and a One, but can you mix them as the rear speakers in a 5.1 setup? Or is that essentially the same as creating a stereo pair?

Buying a new speaker, I'd prefer to get the One, but not if I can't mix it with a Play:1. I'd just get one of those instead.
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Best answer by Keith N 17 November 2017, 21:24

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9 replies

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sparkymark75: You got it. The PLAY:1 will not pair with a Sonos One as surrounds. In this case, you may just want to grab a PLAY:1 to complete your 5.1 surround sound setup. Thanks for posting!
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sparkymark75: You got it. The PLAY:1 will not pair with a Sonos One as surrounds. In this case, you may just want to grab a PLAY:1 to complete your 5.1 surround sound setup. Thanks for posting!

Ah, that's a shame. Is that a hardware limitation or business decision? Is it something that may change in the future. I understand why you don't do it for different devices but I'm led to believe that as a speaker, the One and Play:1 are pretty much the same.
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While similar in appearance and sound, the Sonos One and PLAY:1 are very different internally. The similarities end after the basic shape of the devices. There are only two parts of the PLAY:1 that are the same as the Sonos One: the power cord and the base cap. And even that last one was slightly changed too.
I have a medium size living room. If i already have my surround sound setup, I would have to put an additional sonos one in living room? That sounds like overkill. The alternative is to buy two sonos one speakers and put them as my surrounds? Now i have two devices responding two alexa or one being underutilized by disabling the voice on one? This is definitely not very efficient options. I have my surround 5.1 set up in the living room and just bought two sonos one speakers. I wanted to have alexa in living room and one in the bedroom. I guess i will have to do without my surrounds in the living room and just have one alexa out there. Let me know if you guys come up with a better alternative. Enjoy your products. I get everything will not be perfect but this seems like It could of been better executed.Thanks.
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I have a medium size living room. If i already have my surround sound setup, I would have to put an additional sonos one in living room? That sounds like overkill. The alternative is to buy two sonos one speakers and put them as my surrounds? Now i have two devices responding two alexa or one being underutilized by disabling the voice on one? This is definitely not very efficient options. I have my surround 5.1 set up in the living room and just bought two sonos one speakers. I wanted to have alexa in living room and one in the bedroom. I guess i will have to do without my surrounds in the living room and just have one alexa out there. Let me know if you guys come up with a better alternative. Enjoy your products. I get everything will not be perfect but this seems like It could of been better executed.Thanks.

You could always buy an Echo for your living room to achieve Alexa functionality. You'd gain more functionality than is currently supported in the One.
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Sonos hasn't closed the door completely on the idea of the 2 being able to pair. However, as said above its not really a good idea.

nifoxke is right. Stick with 2 Play:1s (which are on sale for good prices right now) and just add an Echo Dot in the room with them ... you actually get a little more functionality.
Load SonoSequencr and all the problems are gone 😃
Load SonoSequencr and all the problems are gone :D

Have downloaded SonosSequencer. Can you explain how I would set up the mixed speakers for surrounds. It is not intuitive to me. Thank you.
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Load SonoSequencr and all the problems are gone :D

Have downloaded SonosSequencer. Can you explain how I would set up the mixed speakers for surrounds. It is not intuitive to me. Thank you.


indeed this part is not very intuitive !

- open Sonosequencr
- click 'Devices' at the bottom
- click the device to which you wish to attach your surrounds (i.e. Playbar/Playbase/Beam)
- click 'Config'
- here you can add/remove the speakers to be used as left/right surrounds