Sonos One Gen 2 The Powerful Smart Speaker with Alexa Built-In, Black

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Technical information

Brand Sonos

Colour Black

Model name Sonos One

Control methodVoice

Item weight 1.85 Kilograms

Speaker maximum output power 3.5 Watts

About this item

Start and control your music with your voice and Alexa is built right in

• Combine voice with the Sonos app to easily manage all your streaming services

• Connect wirelessly to other Sonos speakers to enjoy clear sound in any or every room

• Enjoy surprisingly rich sound from a compact speaker

• Second generation Sonos ONE with increased memory and updated processor

• Alexa built-in devices let you instantly connect to Alexa to play music, control your smart home, get information, news, weather, and more using just your voice.
  

Costumers Product Reviews

Pros

To look at, the Sonos One (Gen 2) is identical to the Sonos One, with the only difference being that it has “Gen 2” printed on the base. The changes are internal – it has an updated processor, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and increased memory. The BLE does NOT support Bluetooth streaming, it’s just used to temporarily communicate with your phone or tablet to simplify the first time setup process. The Gen 2 can be paired with a Sonos One for stereo playback but NOT a Sonos PLAY:1.

The build is superb. All black with built in Alexa, it’s reassuringly heavy with ‘invisible’ control buttons on the top. I’ve been using Sonos speakers for three years and out of the box, it took no longer than 5 minutes to add it to my existing set up, including activating Alexa, using the Sonos app. It really is straightforward even for a first time setup – just follow the app's instructions.

Other than basic commands ("skip", "volume up", "volume down", etc.) I don’t have much use for Alexa but it works exactly the same as any of Amazon’s Alexa devices and you can switch it Off or On at the press of a button on the top of the speaker. It's very responsive and you don't need to shout "Alexa!" to be heard.

I've set the Gen 2 up in my kitchen and when playing music on my stereo paired Sonos Ones which act as surrounds for my Sonos Beam, I can play the same music simultaneously on the Gen 2 or play something different.

There's been an inevitable price drop on the Sonos One but if you want the bang up to date Sonos, I definitely recommend investing a little bit more for the Gen 2. As Sonos add new services such as the (albeit for a long time) mooted "OK Google" support, the updated processor and extra memory should come in handy.

Often imitated but never bettered, if you want quality sound, first class functionally & compatibility and a good looking speaker, Sonos still leads the way.

If you're new to Sonos you might find the following of use:

I definitely recommend buying two Gen 2 speakers and pairing them together in stereo mode. Using one by itself is adequate but playback is in mono. Pairing two together gives you the sound quality equivalent to that of a very good mid-range amplifier and speaker setup. Unlike Bluetooth, I've never experienced a single dropout with Sonos. Music is seamlessly streamed over my Wi-Fi and it sounds fabulously clear.

In the Sonos app settings you can adjust the Bass, Treble and Balance and if you have Loudness toggled to 'On', it makes a very noticeable difference. If you have an Apple device or know someone who has one, a one time tuning using Trueplay (it’s only available in the iOS app) adds another uplift, albeit subtle.

The Sonos app is easy and intuitive to use and when installed on a device it acts like a remote control. It allows you to add 'Favourites' (playlists, songs, radio stations, artists, etc.), control room settings if you have multiple Sonos speakers, adjust the EQ, add or remove services, set alarms and all sorts of other things that you can tailor to your exact personal preference. I can also control playback using my Windows 10 PC and you can move from phone, tablet or PC - they display the same information when the Sonos app is opened.

The compatibility is astonishing - Amazon Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, TuneIn Radio, Audible, Bandcamp and loads of other services that I've never heard of. Some require you to have a paid subscription (i.e. Spotify Premium). You can also play music stored on a smartphone, tablet or network-attached storage.

I use Spotify, Bandcamp, Network-attached storage (with both MP3 and FLAC files), Google Play Music (I have a backup of my music on it), Amazon (where I have access to my Auto-rip music) and music stored on my Phone. Basically, I’m spoilt for choice when it comes to accessing my music and finding it is a breeze with the Sonos app. If I search for an Artist, Album, Track, etc. it will show all matches from the services I’ve added and also the device I’m using.

I don't own any Apple devices but like the Sonos One, it does support Apple Airplay 2. Press the Airplay icon in any apps that support it and select the Sonos speaker(s) you want to cast the sound to. You can also setup Siri for voice commands.

On my Android devices, in Google Play Music and Amazon Music, if I press on the Cast icon, I can choose which Sonos speaker(s) to cast to. I can also select which speaker(s) to play music on from within the Spotify app.

Finally, just like its predecessors, the Sonos One (Gen 2) does NOT have a 3.5mm input and it does NOT support Bluetooth playback. You CANNOT use it directly with a TV either. For that you’ll need either a Sonos Beam, Playbase or Playbar and a couple of Sonos One (Gen2) can be set up as surrounds.

Cons

Having recently purchased an Echo dot we decided we liked the alexia functionality but the echo dot is not designed as a loud hi fidelity speaker so we looked for a larger more powerful higher quality smart speaker with built in Alexia. After some research it looked like the Sonos One gen2 was what we were looking for. It promised to be a great sounding smart speaker with the bonus on Alexia or Google assistant built in. Set up was a bit of a pain needing the sonos app, then integration to the alexia app and integration to spotify. The sound was instantly much better than the echo as you would expect but on reflection I wasn't blown away by the sound, to me it wasn't as 'amazing' as some reviews claimed. A few initial issues with the clocks and timers not working which was solved with some searching on google and playing around with settings in the apps. Then about a week into ownership the speaker suddenly wouldn't play music via voice control stating "the music service is off line" which it wasn't. Sonos and Amazon help couldn't solve the problem so Amazon dutifully sent us another Sonos One the next day which is great service. On set-up of this second Sonos there were problems straight away with the various apps not talking to each other resulting again in a speaker that worked well as a speaker but Alexa wouldn't work or play music. Prior to setting up this Sonos I had deleted all other devices from the app and also uninstalled all Sonos and alexia apps to avoid any conflicts. We also tried installing the google assistant as the smart voice control but this also failed to work as it should. After hours of messing around with apps, settings and google and youtube searches for a possible fix we gave up and send both Sonos One speakers back to amazon as there are clearly not working as they should.

For me the clue is in the title 'smart' speaker. This is not as 'smart as it should be. Set up was a real pain as was getting all the apps to talk to each other. There is clearly something wrong with the alexia and google assistant support. To conclude I would say its a decent speaker but a terrible 'smart' speaker. If Alexia or google assistant is needed look elsewhere as I am. I've just ordered the Echo Studio which should be everything I need as long as the sound is up to that of the Sonos which looks very promising at the moment!

Get your smart speakers on Amazon click here https://amzn.to/3nGDbBU