J JamesGames.com Sonos One first impressions....
 

Sonos One first impressions....

What have you done to my Alexa?
A JamesGames  Review!
By: James Oppenheim | Created: 2017-11-04 15:14:20 | (Updated: 0000-00-00 00:00:00)

Even though I review a lot of hardware, I haven't had an experience as bad as setting up the Sonos One since Windows 95.  Back in the day it wasn't uncommon to install a piece of hardware or software on a system and have the whole system get taken down.  You'd spend hours on tech support only to finish with: "You're going to have to reinstall from scratch".

 Well, back to the future.
 
Let me digress a moment and say that I love Alexa in all her forms.  I have a dot and a tap, and they both work nearly flawlessly.  They "get" me.  They understand me, even when I'm lying in bed, kinda groggy.  And, I understand Alexa.  Adding a new one to my home network has been as simple as following the prompts.  
 
I have my lights, my tv, stereo, and even my air purifier on Alexa.  Zero problems.  Until Sonos One entered my life.
 
The deboxing experience was great.  The device looks nice in an "Apple-white" sort of way.
 
I followed the instructions, and when asked what room this unit was going to be in I selected "living room".  I think that was the start of my problems, because I already had an Alexa "something" (I'm still not sure what) in my list of devices.  Sonos didn't complain, and neither did the Alexa app.  However, I think this duplicate naming may have been the root of my problem.  
 
Next thing I know,  while I could listen to music through the Sonos, I ccould no longer control the lights as I used to by saying "Alexa, turn off the lights in the living room".
 
Then, for a while, Alexa could turn off the lights, but when I said "Alexa, play Howard 100 in the living room" it wouldn't/couldn't.  It kept me in a loop trying to enable/disable the device and/or the SiriusXM skill for about an hour.  
 
So I try about a dozen different steps, by myself and then with an Amazon Tech, trying to uninstall the Living Room Sonos from the system.  They don't know much about Sonos One, so they point me back to Sonos for help.
 
At some point we tried renaming the "living room" to "den", and then "den sonos".  Now I can Talk to the Sonos One, but even when it says it is playing music through it, nothing happens.  
 
I've invested about four or five hours troubleshooting at this point.  I can't remove "den sonos" from Alexa, the music won't play, SiriusXM won't play.  My working system has gone from error free to a hit-or-miss, mostly miss experience.
 
I've checked on the Sonos "community" because Sonos has no tech support phone line open on the weekends.  That is, for a product of this type, just amazing.  When am I most apt to use Sonos (and hence run into problems) than on the weekend when I'm at home?
 
Anyway, it seems a lot of people on-line are complaining of similar buggy software.  
 
I've written to Sonos.  Will keep you informed.
 
- details -
Price:
$ 199.00  
Manufacturer:
Sonos