Sonos Play 1 updated review | Amazon Alexa Setup

[@williamsstevem]

Excellent update! Good work.

[@KevinRossRN]

Very much appreciated. Are you looking to pick up a Play 1... I assume?

[@williamsstevem]

@@KevinRossRN Actually I have a surround sound system (Beam, 2 Play:1s, Sub, Boost). I watched your original video on the Play:1 before I bought my first pair; then added the Beam and Sub and Boost. i am glad you updated the original video because I had some issues with some of the things mentioned (how Sonos streamed music). From time to time I rewatch some of my favorite videos, so this isn't the first time I viewed this video, just the first time I felt motivated enough to comment. Again, good work, and please make more videos about Sonos. Thanks!

[@KevinRossRN]

Well again, I really appreciate the comment. And, yes, there was a lot that changed from my original video, and actually a few things that I was misinformed on, but with failure comes learning. That sounds like a great set up, and I have a feeling I'll put more Sonos content out. Keep being awesome and enjoying those speakers. 👊🔉

[@williamsstevem]

@@KevinRossRN Thanks -- I'll be watching. --Steve

[@RollYourRock]

Info starts @ 1:48

[@NathanHallGadgetsGreatness]

When the music hits you just right, bro you gotta DANCE!! Great video. I have a Play 1 and a Sonos One. Can't wait to get them set up! Thanks for the tutorial!

[@KevinRossRN]

Awesome. And yes, the mood does hit me and I just can't stop myself. Hope you enjoy your setup. I've had these for five years and they still rock. Let me know how the setup goes. 👊

[@ManCan1203]

I have two Sonos Play 1 speakers. I am in India. Earlier, certain services were not available in my country, so I could not integrate them with Alexa Dot. The Alexa skill it seems was not available. There was a 3rd party app but it was a bit iffy. I'll now check this😅 out again and revert. Meanwhile, thank you for restoring my faith in SONOS.

[@KevinRossRN]

I’ll be interested to hear whether you’re able to get this working where you are.

[@dawnatanasio4871]

Great vid. Covered all my questions. Thanks!

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks 🙏 Happy to have helped.

[@drjaykorsen]

OK, great video. So I just bought a pair of Sonos Play 1. I was under the impression that I didn't need anything but the speakers to stream music in the office with the app on my phone but I was told that I need a Sonos Bridge that you talked about in the other video to make it work properly wirelessly from my phone with the app. What do you think would be the optimal setup with my two Play 1 speakers (and stands) in a very large open office (25 x 30 feet)?

[@KevinRossRN]

Actually, this was the correction to that other video. When that video went live, about a week later Sonos got rid of the bridge. No bridge needed my friend. You are good to go to enjoy. This video just discussed the ability to pair with an Alexa, which just adds some features, but also not necessary.

[@drjaykorsen]

@@KevinRossRN Yes, I called Sonos and they said that my Play 1 pair of speakers didn't need a bridge and would work on the S2 app unless they were more than 50 feet apart with a weak wifi signal. So, I'm just going to set them up in the office with just the app. Thanks again.

[@KevinRossRN]

Yep, I use mine wirelessly without the bridge and it’s been just fine. Still have them in rotation after all these years.

[@shrimboi8909]

I have two play 1 grouped with my playbar and subwoofer. Playbar is connected to tv via optical. TV is plugged to my PC via HDMI. I can verify that I have surround sound on all speakers when using KZbin, Plex, bluray player. Awesome sound!!!!

[@KevinRossRN]

That’s awesome to hear. My kid now uses these speakers and they’re still going strong. 🤘

[@bakelitsuisse7707]

Great video Kevin, thank you! My own setup is the Playbar, the sub and 2 Play 1 and the sound is astounding. Far better than some very known other brands out there... Still quite pricey, but worth the investment.

[@KevinRossRN]

That's awesome to hear. Agree that these sound great. A friend of mine has the same setup and it really fills the whole main floor living space.

[@stephenhamill8907]

Hi Kevin.looking for some help regarding a bluetooth turntable i've managed to connect to alexa,so my question is can i play my turntable through my sonos play 1 and if so can you explain what i have to do,cheers in advance

[@KevinRossRN]

Now this is definitely a unique question. So with the skills set in Alexa, this is just acting as the remote for Sonos to stream that music that it can already do on its own...However with this turntable setup I don't think this will work. I'd have to search to see if there is a specific skill for this, but I don't believe you'd be able to have the turntable go through the Alexa (as a bridge) and then beam that over to the Sonos, unfortunately. Let me dig around a little.

[@stephenhamill8907]

@@KevinRossRN cheers bud, appreciate your help 🍻

[@KevinRossRN]

You bet. I'm still looking. 👍

[@matthewgee7540]

I have an older Play:1 - I've recently bought a One SL and am saddened that I don't seem to be able to pair them to get surround sound from my Spotify account. is there no way to do this?

[@KevinRossRN]

So you're saying that in the Sonos app you can't pair them? But the app recognizes them both, correct?

[@matthewgee7540]

@@KevinRossRN I seem to be able to get them to play the same music at the same time, but it isn't surround sound as I thought it would be.

[@reyesben]

Nice video. So it almost seems better to get the play one and an echo dot (more functionality) rather than a Sonos One with Alexa built in. Is that correct?

[@KevinRossRN]

Well, that depends. The echo dot breathes some new life in the original Play 1's, however to answer your question further, I'm still using these and haven't "upgraded." There's still a couple extra features in the Sonos One, like Airplay as a built in functionality, as an example, but that's also something I don't use. The speakers themselves are pretty much the same. And, if you have a dot laying around, to me it's a no-brainer to save some cash... My opinion of course.

[@reyesben]

@@KevinRossRN I like saving cash. I almost never airplay music. I use it all the time for the TV however. thank you

[@KevinRossRN]

@@reyesben I'm with you on saving some cash. Best of luck with your final decision. 👊🔊🎶

[@callmeNeno]

Definitely considering buying the older Sonos; I want a speaker first over a smart speaker if that makes any sense. Loved your review & setup!

[@KevinRossRN]

Much appreciated! And yes, that does make sense. Good luck with your buying decision. Let me know how it works out.

[@paraspatel8263]

Is there a way of linking the speakers when playing music? For some reason it always plays it through the sonos one but doesn't play it through any of the other speakers despite selecting all the speakers as preferred. I tried setting up multi-room but that also doesn't work. Really annoying.

[@KevinRossRN]

You mean linking the Sonos speaker (Play 1) to another speaker that's not a Sonos speaker? Or are you having issues with two Sonos speakers not connecting to use either in the same room, or in different rooms?

[@spacefarerx]

Great review! I'm seriously thinking of getting one or two of these bad boys now.

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! I use them on the daily and they've held up quite well. Be sure to keep me posted on what you decide.

[@spacefarerx]

I've bought three Play 1's last week and I'm very happy with them. The Sound from these small speakers is amazing. Thinking of replacing my Amazon Echo with a Sonos One next.

[@williamsstevem]

Been a while... Was this an update? Good work.

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! Well, yes, this video was certainly quite a few years after the original one if that's what you're referring to. Still rocking these speakers though...How about you?

[@williamsstevem]

@@KevinRossRN Yes, same original 2 Play:1s, a Beam, a Sub, and three Ports. Maybe in a year or so a new TV, an Sonos Arc and a Gen 3 Sub.

[@KevinRossRN]

Wow! You are certainly invested in the system. Glad to hear these are still working out for you.

[@qccanales8610]

hey, nice vid, have you tried the sonos beam? i´m thinking on replacing my 5.1 AV reciever setup for a beam +2 ones. Tnks

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks. I do not, but my friend does and he loves the beam paired up with the Play ones. It's pretty awesome actually. Very full sound throughout the entire open floor plan. Not to mention the ease of streaming without any other hardware.

[@qccanales8610]

@@KevinRossRN Hey many thanks for the prompt response!

[@KevinRossRN]

@@qccanales8610 you bet... I appreciate you weighing in here 👊💥

[@glennwilliams9941]

One thing that I was hoping you’d answer is can you get Alexa’s voice to play through the play 1’s or is just the execution of commands that have your music or whatever play/stream? Thx

[@KevinRossRN]

Great question. Unfortunately, this feature doesn't seem to work on the Play 1's...you'd think that it would be possible 🤷‍♂️

[@richardlong3615]

I have recently bought an echo dot to control my sons speakers I set mine up as you did but when I tried to use it Alexa tells me my speakers are offline. I cant see how to bring them online - any thoughts?

[@KevinRossRN]

This is from a forum that a user reported the same issue, however it seems that these steps worked. There's three options: 1/ Duplicate device names - Alexa prefers that names for Devices, Groups and Scenes are unique, 1.1/ Please open up the Alexa App>Smart Home and make a note of any duplicate device names; 1.2/ You can then change them in the source app. e.g. Use the Sonos App to change the name of Sonos players. (I personally use the naming standard Room Name + Device type. e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot, Lounge Sonos, etc) 1.3/ Once you have changed any duplicate names then please In the Sonos app, select Settings>Room Settings and for each of the Sonos One's sign into 'Voice Services' and select 'Remove Amazon Alexa from this Room'; 1.4/ In the Alexa app, select the Alexa Icon in the centre of the row of Icons at the bottom of the screen and ask ‘Alexa, Discover Devices’. 1.5/ Here is a link to my naming standards: en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/best-practices-for-naming-of-devices-6819283/index1.html 2/ Some form of Account Linking or Authorization has not completed successfully. There are a number of causes for this and it's best to try these steps 1 at a time and test before moving on to the next step if the problem persists: 2.1/ Open the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and 'Disable' followed by 'Enable'; 2.2/ Ensure that you don't have multiple Amazon accounts logged into different Apps on your device, as this can confuse the Amazon Authorization. If yes, then please log out of the other accounts and then complete step 2.1 again; 2.3/ If the problem still persists, please logout of all Amazon accounts then select the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and 'Disable. Now power down all Sonos devices for 10 secs, allowing for any wired devices to boot before booting the remaining Sonos players. Now log back into the Alexa App>Skills>Sonos and 'Enable' 3/ If the problem persists then an entire reset of the Authorization & Account Linking process is required: 3.1/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills>Sonos and then 'Disable'; 3.2 In the Alexa app, select ‘Devices>All Devices'. Now select each Sonos Device in turn and click the Trash Can in the top right of the screen; 3.3/ In the Sonos app, select Settings>Room Settings and for each of the Sonos One's sign into 'Voice Services' and select 'Remove Amazon Alexa from this Room'; 3.4/ If you have any wired Sonos devices, please power down for 10 secs and then switch on and wait for it to boot; 3.5/ Now power down all other Sonos Players for 10 secs then switch them back on and wait for them to boot; 3.6/ In the Sonos app, Select Manage>Add a player or sub' and add the Sonos One's again. This will complete the set-up process again; 3.7/ In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills and ensure the Sonos skill is 'Enabled', if not please 'Enable'; 3.8/ In the Alexa app, select the Alexa Icon in the centre of the row of Icons at the bottom of the screen and ask ‘Alexa, Discover Devices’. Ensure that your Sonos One's are displayed correctly and not shown as 'Off Line'. 3.9/ Also check one last time that there are no devices with the same name. Remember, if there is a need to rename any then you'll need to carry out step 3.8 again. Let me know if any of this works. I haven't had this issue, but curious to see if this resolves what's going on.

[@MNNocete]

Good informative video! My question, is it possible to use Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick remote controller which has Alexa, to communicate with Sonos Play 1?

[@KevinRossRN]

Happy to help. Yes, using the FireTV stick (with the remote) does work. Hold down the microphone on the remote and just say stream (whatever music service) in the office, or living room, or wherever your speaker is.

[@martfermart]

Well done, now my question is Can I use the sonos play1 for other skills for example “asking for the weather “ or “tell me a joke” all this through the sonos play 1 speaker with the echo dot next to it? Thanks

[@KevinRossRN]

Thank you! So that's a great question. When you select the Play 1 as the preferred speaker, it will then play music back through those speakers. However, if you ask about weather or some other command, it will still play through the echo dot. Hoping for an update myself on this skill.

[@leopold9999]

can you do another one? "10 years Later"

[@KevinRossRN]

Ha! I’m still using these.

[@louishendricks3rd801]

Great video, but is it possible to actually use Apple TV with Sonos play1?

[@KevinRossRN]

Thanks! You'd need to go with a Sonos One that has Airplay support or something like the Playbar. You'd be tied up in a crazy workaround that probably wouldn't give you what you needed with the Play 1...unfortunately.

[@louishendricks3rd801]

Kevin Ross LOL I already own two Play1’s and I was looking for a workaround until my new tv arrived as my old one lost sound for some reason. Thanks for the advise tho.

[@KevinRossRN]

@@louishendricks3rd801 OH man! Wish I could offer better advice... I've just not been able to get it to work. Bummer. 👊

[@ameliafernandes8640]

Do you know if we can use 2 and connect to a smart tv (to create a sound surround)? Thank you

[@KevinRossRN]

Appreciate you reaching out. Honestly, as a standalone solution it wouldn't be feasible. You'd want to start here: amzn.to/2LXAXin and then build something out, which you could pair the Sonos speakers to. A little extra $, yes, but it's really where you'll need to start.

[@sahil.shivii]

can alexa stream the bluetooth music sent to it by phone.. to the sonos play 1?

[@KevinRossRN]

So Alexa and/or your phone become the remote, which would be on the same network... So, if you're asking Alexa to say stream Pandora or Spotify from your phone, it's still using the Sonos app to connect to the speaker... If you have more details or specifics I'll try to answer them as I'm not sure if this is the exact question you had.

[@sahil.shivii]

I use my echo dot as a bluetooth speaker to play local media stored on my phone. Can that music go to sonos via echo dot.

[@KevinRossRN]

So this is one area where the Airplay compatibility of the Sonos One (not the Play 1) is needed. The Sonos app allows for streaming from a media server (NAS or Computer), which didn't use to be the case years ago. However with the media server functionality, this is "exclusive" to those types of devices mentioned above, so not a smartphone. The Sonos One however does have Alexa built into it, but what you'd really be doing is streaming through AirPlay 2 functionality of that speaker. So, my recommendation would be to look at the Sonos One if streaming locally stored (on your phone) media is what you're trying to stream.

[@sahil.shivii]

@@KevinRossRN thank you.. that clears my query :)

[@KevinRossRN]

Great! Happy to help. And best of luck with whatever you decide my friend. 🎧🔈

[@rafal1509]

hi, can you turn off and on that sonos play 1 via alexa command ?? also can you put sound up and down via alexa command ?? thanks

[@KevinRossRN]

Yes, you can stop the play via Alexa. The Sonos is basically in a standby mode... Essentially, so it's not really turned "off" in a traditional sense of a switch. You can increase/decrease the volume via the Alexa... You'd just say "Alexa, turn the volume up in the office." Do you currently have a Play 1?

[@rafal1509]

@@KevinRossRN yes i know i am asking if you can put in to stand by mode , like i have bose and if i play sound in living room and i am in the bedroom i can say alexa turn off bose than bose in living room going to stand by mode basically turn off sound and 2 wiestion can you say alexa vol on sonos 50% or volume level 5

[@KevinRossRN]

@@rafal1509 So an example use case that may answer your question. I have Sonos on all levels... "Alexa, stream Pandora in the office..." Let's say I leave the office and head downstairs. "Alexa, pause the office." "Alexa, stream Spotify in the basement" I can switch between these two no problem, and even stream different stations on Pandora on different speakers. It doesn't recognize "standby" but will pause the station and then you can go back to it later and resume if you want. As far as volume, it's numeric from 0-10. So, it would be "Alexa, turn volume up in office to 4"

[@TheKurtLyon]

Great vid. Thanks, huge Sonos fan and just getting into Alexa and looking at options.

[@KevinRossRN]

Nice! We still use this setup on the daily. My pleasure to help. 👊💥

[@zonier]

Great Video, I'm using a pair of play1 in the bedroom and a home cinéma with play bar, sub and a pair of play1 in living room. now, I will install an amazone dot on my system. Thanks for your help.

[@KevinRossRN]

now that sounds like you've got quite the cool set up there. Glad to be of help to you, feel free to keep me posted on how things go with setting up the echo Dot.

[@PrincessJackson5]

How do you set it up without Echo?

[@KevinRossRN]

Download the Sonos app for your phone, or your computer. Everything gets set up (step-by-step) inside of the app. Very intuitive actually.

[@georgesemple8136]

thanks

[@KevinRossRN]

And thank you. 🤙

[@itsjustmemarie3315]

Slick intro and nice dance moves 😂!

[@KevinRossRN]

Thinking about hitting the 🍀later

[@mikeyd5486]

You forgot to show the sonos working at the end!

[@KevinRossRN]

Actually, I did have Alexa stream to the speaker at around 14:30...if you didn't catch it, feel free to check it out. Do you have a Play 1 or looking to get your hands on one?

[@NathanHallGadgetsGreatness]

"ALL the comments" LOL!! They get brutal down there in the comments, do they not? LOL!

[@KevinRossRN]

Yes they do. Indeed 😉

[@e630fnr]

Prepare for 16' of useless time wasting babbling for 30" worth of how to setup the speaker with Alexa!

[@KevinRossRN]

For the challenged attention span, TikTok is down the hall and to the left. 👈

[@e630fnr]

@@KevinRossRN So, KZbin is nonsense chattering...OoooK sir!

[@KevinRossRN]

Well, some of it is, however it goes back to the dwindling attention span. “Review” is literally in the title of the video. If it was just about the Alexa setup then maybe the argument would have more weight. Although, if I had a fragile ego, then I wouldn’t be creating on the platform. So that being said, you are very much entitled to your opinion and more than welcome to find what you’re looking for either here, or on another channel. Have an awesome day 🤘

[@e630fnr]

@@KevinRossRN Sure, 2' max for this review content and another say 1' for the Alexa setup tops! Rest 13' is talking up a storm! Have a good one!