Rating 4.25/5
Sonos One (Gen 2) Review
Sonos one (Gen 2) is the first smart speaker from the company that comes with both Google assistant and Alexa. Sonos One offers wireless multiroom speaker system, better sound quality at its price, foolproof applications, and seamless integration of digital assistants such as Alexa and Google. It comes as a package and probably this is the reason why many consider Sonos One as one of best smart speakers in the market.
Sonos One is easy to set up. One has to download the app onto a smart device and the app helps setting up the system very easily. Once the setup is done, your other smart devices can be easily setup with the Sonos. The smart speaker comes in many colours including yellow, green, light gray, pink, red, black and white.
Sonos One Key features
- Stereo pairing
- Multiroom speaker system
- Choice between Google assistant and Alexa
- Superior sound quality
- Humidity resistant
- Two drivers, each with its own class D amplifier
Sonos One (Gen 2) Pros and Cons
Design
The Sonos One is heavy, weighing around 1.85 kilograms. Sonos one is rounded rectangular in shape, and the body of the smart speaker is wrapped around with a plastic mesh fabric design, which doesn’t feel cheap, and it’s smooth to touch. At the back, all Sonos devices come with Ethernet ports where you can directly connect to your internet cable.
At the top of the sonos device you will have a touch sensitive surface, which includes some control keys to play music, control volume, and mute microphone. Swiping to the right plays the next song and swiping to the left takes you back to the previous song. That’s a creative way of using limited space and controls. These physical controls are good when you want to quickly skip a track. Well, if you have voice control, you probably do not use the surface controls so often.
Sonos has equipped the speaker with six internal far field microphones that pick voices accurately. Another great feature is that the smart speaker reduces the volume once it picks up the hotword (Google or Alexa) instead of completely stopping the music. The volume goes up once the command is taken.
Sonos One needs to be hooked up to a power supply since it does not come with a battery.
Sonos One (Gen 2) Features
Sound quality :
Sonos One is known for its pretty good sound quality. The device has two class D digital amplifiers perfectly tuned to match the speakers’ drivers and the acoustic architecture. Sonos One Review, Sonos one also has one tweeter, which creates a crisp and high frequency response. The woofer ensures that you hear the precise playback of mid range vocal frequencies, with a rich bass. Adjustable bands and treble lets you customize your sound by individual room or group of rooms.
The sound in the device is directional, this is because the speakers in the design are facing forward. Sonos One is just an updated version of the Sonos Play:1, which is acoustically similar. The Sonos One, like the Play:1, is a terrific sounding audio device.
The depth of the sound is adorable in Sonos One. When you play the audio, a medium sized room is easily filled, and even when you increase the volume to 80%, it still provides a distortionless sound wave signal that is crispy and qualitative.
Music:
Sonos One Review: The Sonos app system is best in the business, combining all your music services and libraries, including different users’ accounts with the same service, into one searchable place.
Anyone with Sonos app on their phone can control the music on the Sonos One smart speaker, including guests connected to your wifi network. Think about having guest control during parties. Wouldn’t it be cool if your guests have access to your smart speaker system? For those who use Spotify, you can also control Sonos One from your Spotify app using Connect, making it easy to continue your personal playlist on the smart speaker.
You can command the smart speaker through your voice to play any track, album or playlist from Spotify or Amazon Music. You can also skip, pause or shuffle tracks, adjust the volume levels, and ask what’s currently playing. As it is powered by Alexa, it works very well. If you have more than one music service, you can specify which one you want.
If you want the entertainment in more than one room, especially during parties, Sonos got it covered for you. Its multiroom audio capability is one of the best. You can have two Sonos speakers in different rooms, and they play the same song exactly in sync with each other. So you feel the audio is coming from one speaker.
you can use a combination of the app and voice at any time, such as queuing up a playlist from Apple Music via the app and then skipping through the tracks via voice. Some exceptions include lack of support for Spotify’s Radio and Podcasts features via voice.
Sonos One is also humidity resistant to operate in high-humidity areas, such as in a bathroom with a running shower. Sonos has a good understanding of what customers want.
Voice assistant :
Having a voice assistant is the biggest change over the first generation for Sonos devices- Play1. You can connect the Sonos One to your Amazon account, and use the Alexa voice assistant. Once the Amazon account is linked, it almost acts like Amazon Echo, like an Amazon Echo on a different device. Now, the same is not true for Google assistant in Sonos.
Google assistant is not as fully integrated as Alexa, but enough for your listening needs. If you are an expert smart system user, then you would need Alexa instead of Google assistant. This is not Sonos fault. Google needs to give that flexibility in its API for companies like Sonos to fully utilize its capabilities.
One example where Google fails is that you cannot cast your audio to the Sonos One through any of the Google applications such as YouTube Music. You can always say ‘Hey Google, play some music on YouTube music’ but not cast music directly from the app. In case of Spotify, you can directly open the Spotify app and cast music to the Sonos One. Same is the case with the iPhone where you can directly use AirPlay. For YT Music to work (without voice command), you need to first set it up in the Sonos app on your smartphone.
For setting up the Sonos One to use Alexa, you just need to tap the Alexa option and sign in to your Amazon account. As per Sonos One Review, For Google Assistant, you need to tap the Google Assistant option then go through a few extra steps in the Google Home app to set the speaker up. You can only use one voice assistant at a time. It is not much difficult to switch between them.
We find both Alexa and Google Assistant to be powerful and useful voice assistants with many helpful features. Both can provide general information and answer questions about weather, sports, unit conversions, translations, play streaming music from a variety of services, and control smart home devices. Just say their respective wake-up phrases “Alexa” and “OK Google”, and ask your question or give a command to get started.
Sonos One Stereo connection
Sonos One offers excellent stereo pairing capability, expanding its sound characteristics and producing excellent audio quality and immersive experience. Refer Sonos One Review
You can connect stereo to stream music and more. Easily expand your sound system to more rooms and enjoy music, podcasts, audiobooks, and internet radio with your audio equipment.
Open the Sonos app for iOS and Android. From the Settings tab, tap System. Under Products, tap one of the speakers you’d like to use in your stereo pair. Tap Set Up Stereo Pair and follow the in-app instructions.
Sonos One Gen 2 Final verdict
Sonos One is a worthy and superior upgrade to Play:1. It has all Play:1’s excellent features and performance, with the added benefit of a smart speaker system using Alexa or Google Assistant. Sonos One offers excellent multi room speaker system and Stereo pairing capabilities. The sound quality is far better than the Amazon Echo and the Google Home. The device is not cheap. However, if you want a world class smart speaker system with no compromises on the menu, Sonos One comes with a full package that addresses all your needs.
Also, check out our top 10 smart speakers for 2021