I am a 70 year old struggling to keep up with technology because, well it's important. Like many my ability to check out new tech with the systems administrator or a Millennial colleague came to an abrupt end along with my final paycheck. Since I think it's important that you know the perspective with which a review is written let me briefly tell you what this Sonos One was meant to replace.
Our basic music needs were being met by a 10 year old Sony "shelf system"; a radio tuned only to the local classical music station with a CD player that no longer worked. We have access to Amazon music and recently bought a little Bluetooth speaker that worked very nicely. The downside here is that my wife has no notion of how to use the app to make Amazon music work. We have Sirius XM in the car, love the variety and often wished we could get that at home.
Based on the specs and reviews it looked like Sonos One had the potential to be our new best music friend.
Out of the box the set up was VERY easy. I dread the day when I buy a new piece of tech and have no clue how to make it work. That was not a problem for this guy. Download the app and follow the simple steps. The only exception here is in a tuning process that involves waving your iPhone while you walk around the room. It kept failing, telling me I was making too much noise. My wife actually has this same complaint and, as with my marriage the app eventually suggested we just move on.
The Sonos app connected seamlessly with Amazon Music. We had discovered that Sirius XM now offered an app based streaming version of their service which also connected easily with a little switching back and forth between the apps. And the biggest bonus, our local classical music station is among the many radio stations that can be added.
The sound is spectacular. Keep that perspective thing in mind. We are obviously not audiophiles but to our aging ears the Sonos is a huge upgrade over what we had and fills our room with deep, rich sound.
The Alexa thing was our biggest surprise as both wife and I were skeptical and had put Alexa in the broad category of "things we will never have."
Alexa's default play for us will be something from Amazon Music. The more specific your request the better. There's a bit of learning curve in finding what gets Alexa's motor running. For example, after a number of fails we looked at the app and noticed that our local classical music station was titled Classical Public Radio. That worked and now my wife can get her old friend playing at 6am without using any apps. In the interest of fairness I must say that Alexa does not seem to recognize Sirius XM and even told me it was not installed. Of course all of the music can be accessed without problem on the app.
I have asked Alexa the time; asked her to set an alarm and to tell me a joke. I even told her I loved her. "That's sweet" was her response. I've read here that the Alexa function is not great on the Sonos, but again that depends on your needs and perspective.
The Sonos One with Alexa gets the Double Senior Discount Seal of Approval from this household.
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