When Amazon first launched the Amazon Echo, the speaker that kick-started the voice assistant revolution within the dwelling, there have been two most important criticisms that folks levelled on the new machine. 

The primary had been centered round Alexa, the voice assistant powering the machine. As a completely new service, Alexa launched with fairly restricted performance at first, and folks discovered it extra helpful as a novelty than a severe addition to their dwelling. 

The second was sound high quality. The unique Amazon Echo didn’t have the best sound to it, and was distinctly missing within the bass division. 

The intervening years have seen quite a few enhancements made on the primary level with the addition of numerous items of performance to the ecosystem, however now Sonos is right here to do what it may with the second criticism with its first Alexa-enabled good speaker, the Sonos One ($199 / £199 / AU$299). 

[Replace: Need a second Sonos One? This week Sonos is promoting two of the smart speakers for $349/£349, a financial savings of $50/£50 over shopping for them individually.]

The multi-room firm’s earlier audio system have proven that it is aware of a factor or two about packing spectacular sound into compact audio system, so on the very least we had been anticipating the Sonos One to supply a major enhance over the present Amazon Echo’s sound. (Which it has.)

However extra stunning was how nice the addition of Sonos’ multi-room ecosystem was, which works a way in the direction of filling the gaps left in Alexa’s ecosystem. 

And whereas Sonos has finished a implausible job with its Alexa debut, there’s nonetheless some work to be finished earlier than this speaker is characteristic full – Google Assistant isn’t due till subsequent yr. 

Design

Though the Sonos One’s design is broadly primarily based on the corporate’s current Play:1 good speaker, there have been quite a lot of enhancements made. 

On the highest you’ll discover a touch-sensitive floor that’s a fantastic deal sleeker than the Play:1’s trio of quantity and play/pause buttons. Swiping proper or left skips ahead and backwards by means of your present playlist, whereas tapping within the heart of the floor performs and pauses your music. Lastly, tapping the left and proper halves of the panel increase and decrease the quantity. 

It could be a easy collection of controls however, as has at all times been the best way with Sonos audio system, you’ll spend most of your time controlling them by way of the app. The bodily controls are good whenever you need to shortly skip a observe, however you’re unlikely to make use of them a lot, particularly now that voice management can be an possibility. 

To facilitate this voice management, Sonos has geared up the speaker with six inside microphones to permit it to listen to you drunkenly ask to play ‘Hey, Jude’ simply another time, and these are joined by kind of the identical guts because the Sonos Play:1; specifically its pair of Class-D amplifiers and a tweeter / mid-woofer driver combo. 

On the highest of the machine you’ve additionally obtained a power-indicating LED alongside a small gentle to let you realize when Alexa is listening. This second LED is hardwired to the microphones, and Sonos guarantees that the microphones can not hearken to you if it’s not illuminated.

Setup

Because of the mix of Amazon’s and Sonos’ companies, the setup of the Sonos One is a bit more concerned than your common Echo machine, however fortunately not horrifically so. 

The method includes putting in the Sonos and Alexa apps, and also you’ll have to signal into each your Sonos and Amazon accounts, in addition to every other music streaming companies that you simply’ll need to hearken to utilizing the speaker. 

You’ll even be inspired to undergo a ‘Trueplay Tuning’ course of, which requires you to stroll round your room along with your telephone as your speaker performs quite a lot of check sounds. Your telephone listens to how the speaker sounds in its atmosphere, and tunes its sound accordingly. 

After all, you can too manually alter the treble and bass ranges of your speaker when you have extra particular preferences, though we had been content material to depart them at their default ranges. 

You’ll additionally have to assign the Sonos One a room to will let you determine it from the Sonos app, and it’s right here that you simply’ll even have the flexibility to pair the Sonos One up with one other speaker to have them play music in stereo. Sadly you possibly can’t pair it with a Sonos Play:1, regardless of the similarities in form-factor. 

Sound high quality

Provided that it is a Sonos speaker, you gained’t be shocked to listen to that the Sonos One sounds fairly implausible. 

Throw Elegie by Mouse on the Keys on the speaker, and sound has actual punch and power to it. The tune’s kickdrum…nicely…has kick to it, and drives the power of the tune. It’s a powerful quantity of energy from such a small speaker. 

The speaker even offers admirably with extra difficult items of music. Silent Earthling by Three Trapped Tigers sounds clear and crisp, regardless of the a number of layers of devices circulating all through the tune. 

That mentioned, the speaker doesn’t supply the separation of a pair of stereo audio system with the best way the music is squashed right into a single channel, however it does a stable job at its measurement and value level, and naturally its capacity to be paired with extra Sonos audio system enhances its sound additional nonetheless. 

Alexa, the Sonos app and future developments

After all, a lot of what’s written above may even have been mentioned of the unique Play:1 when it was first launched again in 2013. The true story right here is about how voice management is built-in – it’s merely splendidly executed. 

Nearly, almost good.

Whereas at launch the performance appears somewhat extra restricted than we had been anticipating as a result of absence of its integration with Spotify, this has now been rectified by way of a software program replace. 

It is nice information, as Spotify is without doubt one of the extra common streaming companies on the market. Having the ability to merely request songs by utilizing your voice is way extra handy than having to dig into an app in your telephone. 

With Spotify now added, the Sonos One is an impressively featured multi-room speaker. It’s backed by the identical nice Sonos app that has seen steady enchancment and growth through the years, and now integrates with all main music streaming companies. 

In any other case the speaker acts just about as you’d anticipate an Alexa speaker to. It integrates with all the identical good dwelling merchandise, you possibly can ask it in regards to the climate, or simply have it inform you silly details and jokes. 

You too can, because of the just lately launched Sonos Alexa ability, use voice instructions to get music enjoying on different Sonos audio system all through your house. The ability continues to be in beta and is therefore somewhat buggy (it refused to play the radio on “kitchen speaker”, however was high-quality with “kitchen”), however when this sees a full launch it will likely be one other useful characteristic. 

And that’s not all. In 2018 Sonos has introduced that it’s bringing Google Assistant to the speaker along with Alexa. Particulars on how precisely this can work are at the moment slim (will we be capable of entry each, or will we’ve to select one from the app for instance), however this can have a number of benefits together with permitting you to sync the Sonos one with any Chromecast Audio-connected audio system in your house. 

We’ll hold this overview up to date as this performance will get added.

Remaining verdict

It feels as if the Sonos One may finally find yourself being the proper Alexa speaker. Basically it is because it’s underpinned by audio high quality that’s a step above what’s out there on Amazon’s present era of Echo , however it’s a speaker that additionally integrates fantastically nicely with the remainder of Sonos’s multi-room lineup. 

Sure, it was actually a disgrace that it launched with out assist for the most well-liked streaming service on the earth, Spotify, however kudos to Sonos for bringing out the replace in good time. The speaker is now simply as efficient as an Amazon Echo at enjoying your music, and sounds a lot better than Amazon’s personal speaker.  

With Google Assistant assist anticipated in 2018 and plenty of extra up to date to Alexa certain to come back through the years, the Sonos One is just going to get higher over time.