Sonos One Review: The Best Smart Speaker For You

Sonos One Review: The Best Smart Speaker For You

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Sonos is a well-known brand and considered a pioneer in providing the wireless home sound system. It is a brand of speakers, smart speakers, wireless speakers, home theatres, and everything else that enhances your multi-room music experience.

There is a variety of Sonos speakers in the market made to suit all your sound quality needs. Sonos One is one of them. Let’s see what makes this Sonos speaker the best smart speaker.

Further reading: What is Sonos? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Wireless Sound System

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What Is The Sonos One?

Sonos One is a smart speaker. It is the very first Sonos speakers that can be voice-controlled, just like Amazon Echo smart speakers.

Everything Amazon speakers can do with Alexa, Sonos One can do too. Since Sonos speakers are mostly wireless, Sonos One also follows a suite that can connect to other speakers in your home to provide a multi-room music experience.

Sonos One is almost similar to its predecessor Sonos Play:1 except that it includes an extra brain and far-field microphones that make it a smart speaker as well.

It not only takes voice commands from Alexa but from Google Assistant as well, making it a notch higher than other smart speakers.

What Can Sonos One Do?

You can do a lot with Sonos One as you expect from it for the price you pay. Sonos One is power-packed with brilliant sound quality that already makes it above most of the Amazon and other brand speakers as well.

But there’s more to it than just being a superior sound quality smart speaker. Here is everything you can do with Sonos One:

Voice Control

The main highlight of Sonos One is its ability to answer all your voice commands. You can voice control Sonos One from both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant apps.

Sonos One has built-in Alexa and Google Assistant that will let you play music hands-free through your voice commands instantly. You can also ask for the latest news, set alarms, reminders, and everything else, and receive prompt answers in return.

This makes Sonos One a hands-free smart speaker. You only have to open your Google Assistant or Alexa app to connect to Sonos One. Once it’s connected, you can just voice command to play songs of your choice without having to touch the speaker.

Stereo Sounds With Sonos

When the sounds come through two channels, it’s called a stereo sound. Stereo sound is always helpful in filling the room or house will music all around.

When two Sonos One are paired together, they can provide stereo sound that is more crisp, clear, and detailed. You can even pair Sonos One with other Sonos speakers like Playbase, Playbar, or Beam to create a home theatre experience right away.

Compatible With Apple Airplay 2

With Apple Airplay 2 compatibility, Sonos One meets your instant music cravings by playing songs that are available on your Apple devices.

If you are not a fan of streaming music services and like to play songs from your own music collection, Apple Airplay 2 compatibility with Sonos is undoubtedly for you.

How To Use Airplay 2 With Sonos- livingspeaker 02

Further reading: How To Use Airplay 2 With Sonos?

Play Music Song Streaming Services

One can also play songs or listen to audiobooks on Sonos One as you can connect it to your home wi-fi network for uninterrupted wireless streaming.

There is a lot more you can do when your Sonos One is connected to the internet that is related to audio content.

How To Set Up Your Sonos One Speaker?

Setting up Sonos One is very similar to setting up any other smart speakers like Amazon Echo.

Here is the step by step guide on how you can set up your Sonos One speaker for the first time.

  • Start by plugging your Sonos One into the wall plug using the power cord you get with it. Sonos One has to be kept plugged in at all times for it to work.
  • After plugging it in, wait for a minute before the speaker is powered up and until you see a green flashing light on the control panel of the speaker.
  • Make sure after this point; you have a Sonos app downloaded on your smartphone or tablet.
  • Now, open the Sonos app and keep following the on-screen app instructions to set up your Sonos One speaker.
  • If Sonos One is not your first Sonos speaker, at this stage, you just have to open your Sonos app and add Sonos One to your existing Sonos system.
  • For this, tap on More> Settings> Add a player or Sub. If you are using the desktop version of the Sonos app, go to Manage <enu to add a play or SUB.
  • Once the speaker is set up, it’s time to connect it with a voice control assistant that can be other Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant through their apps respectively.

See more: How To Set Up Sonos Speakers (All Versions)

How Do Alexa And Google Assistant Work With Sonos One?

As Sonos One has an inbuilt voice control feature of Alexa and Google Assistant, it makes it very easy for Alexa or Google Assistant to work with Sonos One.

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Moreover, it also provides clearer and fast responses from the voice assistant too.

Setting Up Alexa On Sonos One

  • First, open the Sonos app and find ‘Add Amazon Alexa’ on the Browse tab.
  • Now, tap on ‘Connect to Amazon account’ and login to your Amazon account or signup for one.
  • This is to set up basic Alexa, which lets you ask basic questions like “Alexa, what time it is?” or “Alexa, what is the date today?”. You can also check if your Sonos One is working properly with the Alexa commands by trying one of these questions out.
  • To enable Alexa skills and to make the most of Alexa’s responses, you need to download the Alexa app on your device.
  • Once done, open the Sonos app and tap on ‘Enable the Sonos Skill”. Alternatively, you can also go to the Alexa app and search for Sonos to enable the Sonos Alexa skill.
  • To start listening to music, open the Sonos app, and tap on ‘Verify music services on Alexa’. You can choose your favorite music streaming services now like Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, etc., to begin listening to music.

Setting Up Google Assistant On Sonos One

To set up Google Assistant on Sonos One, follow these steps on your Sonos app:

  • Open Sonos app and tap on Services> Voice> Add a Service> Google Assistant
  • Now, sign in to your Sonos app if you haven’t already.
  • Now, open the Google Assistant app, tap on Services> Music to set your default music service account. Add the same music services to your Sonos app as well.
  • After Google Assistant is set up, prompt your Sonos One to test if it is responding to the voice commands properly.

Play the music from your favorite music streaming services by saying something like, “Google, play my Spotify playlist.”

Sonos One vs Amazon Echo: What’s The Difference?

There are various significant differences you will see between Sonos One and Amazon Echo, which will also make you decide which of the two actually steal the show.

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See more: Can Echo And Sonos Play Together?

Here are the key differences between the two:

Design

As Echo comes in different variants that differ in shapes and sizes, the Echo provides more expansive options when it comes to design.

On the other hand, Sonos One has a solid build with a matte mesh all over the front body and tapered at the bottom. Sonos One has capacitive control buttons, whereas the Echo has physical buttons.

Even in size, Sonos One is a bit larger in size than some of the Echo variants. Also, Sonos One has a power cord hidden at the bottom of the speaker, whereas in Echo, you will find it in the back along with a 3.5mm audio jack, which is missing in Sonos One altogether.

Features

Echo has Alexa as a voice service, Sonos One has both Alexa and Google Assistant as voice services. Also, Google Assistant is a better voice service in some respects, like in providing information and knowledge.

Also, in the Echo, you can enjoy both calling and messaging, Sonos One provides none.

Both of the smart speakers favor multi-room audio. However, Sonos One also has stereo pairing as an extra feature. Also, Sonos One provides superior sound quality, which some of the Echo variants like Echo Dot’s various generations could not match up to due to their smaller size. But at the same time, you will have to pay a lot more for Sonos One than for Amazon Echo Dot.

Echo Studio and Echo Plus are two of the Echo speakers that can even be compared with Sonos One in terms of sound quality.

Sadly, Sonos One does not also offer Bluetooth service, unlike Echo. So, Sonos One cannot be used as a wired speaker as well as an external speaker.

Hardware

Sonos One is a powerful smart speaker when it comes to sound. It’s a speaker first and then a smart speaker, which makes it above par in terms of audio performance.

Whereas, Echo speakers are smart speakers first and thus better excel in voice command experience.

When it comes to hardware, Sonos One is fitted with one tweezer, one mid-woofer, two Class D digital amplifiers, and a far-field microphone that altogether helps in providing deep and rich bass, high frequency clear and crisp response, smart voice capture, and noise cancellation. Like Echo smart speakers, it also features Arbitration that ensures that the closest speaker kept before you will be awakened first to your voice commands.

Sonos One Review: The Best Smart Speaker For You

Should You Buy Sonos One?

If you are very particular about hearing great and powerful sound quality coming from the speakers, Sonos One should definitely be your pick.

If superior quality audio is your priority, the hefty price tag Sonos One comes with shouldn’t matter. Moreover, if you already have a Sonos system and would like to turn it into a multi-room audio system, a smart speaker like Sonos One is the right choice among the other Sonos speakers.

It now also supports Airplay 2 compatibility, which again makes it a win-win situation.

On the twin side, you may have to call off your decision if you wish it supported Bluetooth or Apple Music streaming.

The Most Common Sonos One Problems And How To Fix Them?

When two Sonos speakers are not playing in stereo

  • Make sure you have two “Sonos One” speakers to play them in stereo
  • Both of the speakers should be kept around 8 to 10 feet apart
  • Now open the Sonos app, and follow Settings> Room settings
  • Choose the two Sonos One speaker to be paired
  • Tap on ‘create stereo pair’ and do as the on-screen instructions say thereafter.

Having Issues Connecting Sonos One With Wifi Router

If Sonos one isn’t playing the music from the music streaming service you selected, make sure the device you will be using to stream music is connected to the same wifi network as your speaker.

If not, you will have to set your speaker again to the same network. If it still doesn’t work out, using an Ethernet cable to connect your speaker to the router is the best quick fix.

If You Are Unable To Connect To Sonos With Sonos App

Here are quick fixes to let your Sonos speaker be identified by the Sonos app.

  • Unplug and plug your speaker again.
  • Unplug and plug the router again
  • Sonos app device should be connected to the same wi-fi as Sonos speaker
  • Turn off the VPN connection
  • Check the ethernet cable if Sonos is wired to a router

Be it any Sonos One issue, if nothing seems to work out well, the last resort to fix the problem is by resetting your Sonos One speaker.

This solution fixes all the problems in most cases. Know how you can reset your Sonos One speaker by reading ahead.

How Do I Reset My Sonos One Speaker?

All Sonos products except Sonos Move follow the same procedure when resetting them. Resetting the Sonos product means making it anew by erasing all the Sonos data, be it music services saved on the Sonos app, registration information, or any content saved on the My Sonos app.

Here is the process:

  • First, unplug the power cord from the power outlet.
  • Simultaneously, press and hold down the Play/Pause button and reconnect the power plug to the outlet.
  • Keep holding the button until you see an orange and white flashing light.
  • Keep holding it until the light turns green. At this point, the process of resetting your Sonos One speaker completes.

It is now ready to be used by someone else if you are transferring its ownership.

Sonos One Review: The Best Smart Speaker For You

Sonos One FAQs

Does Sonos One have all Alexa features?

Sonos One may not have all the Alexa features like the ability to make calls or messaging. But it does support Alexa skills, Alexa routines, and much more.

Can I use Sonos One with my TV?

Sonos One can be used with your TV, not directly but via a soundbar. This can be done wirelessly with the help of the Sonos app. This means you can use them as the rear speaker for your TV.

Can I use Sonos One as a Bluetooth speaker?

No, Sonos One does not support Bluetooth. However, you can connect it with Wi-fi.

Can Sonos One listen to music stored in the iPhone and iPad?

Yes, you can listen to music stored on your iPhone and iPad through Sonos One with the help of Airplay 2. The only requirement is your Apple device should be iOS 11.4 or higher.

Can Sonos One play music with non-Apple Smart Tv?

No, Sonos One cannot play music with non-Apple Smart Tv but with other Sonos speakers like Playbar, Playbase, Beam, etc.

Can I play all of my iTunes playlists through the Sonos One speakers? And if I can, can I do it through my iPhone and iPad?

As Sonos One is now compatible with Airplay 2, you can listen to all your iTunes playlist through Sonos One speaker, even through your iPhone, iPad, or any other Apple devices that support Airplay 2.

As Sonos One is Airplay 2 compatible, it will help you pick up the audio stream and play it on old Sonos speakers.

Should you use Sonos One with your Apple TV?

Yes, you should use Sonos One with your Apple Tv not only to watch Tv shows and movies but also to listen to music, podcasts, radio stations, audiobooks.

Your Apple TV will automatically show you Sonos One as a speaker button if your Sonos One is connected to Airplay 2.

Conclusion

This was everything you would possibly want to know about Sonos One. If you are looking for a good Alexa and Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker and at the same time should have a powerful sound quality, this one it is.

Though a bit expensive, its sound quality is amazing, which you may found missing in most smart speakers. Above all, it supports Airplay 2 too.