Things that work and don't work with Airplay, Alexa, Siri and Sonos
by Volker Weber
This will be a living document until we figured it all out.
Sonos:
- You can build a stereo pair with two Play:1, Play:3, Play:5 (both generations), One. You cannot mix different speakers in a stereo pair, not even Play:1 and One.
- You can add a pair of Play:1, Play:3, Play:5 (2nd gen), One as Rear Channels to three home theater speakers: Playbar, Playbase, Beam. A Connect:Amp with two shelf speakers can also be set up as Rear Channel, but you won't be able to use TruePlay Tuning.
- You can add a SUB to any Sonos speaker.
- You can group and ungroup any of these players and combinations.
- If music is playing on any Sonos player, you can group/ungroup a different Sonos player by pressing and holding the play/pause button.
Alexa and Sonos:
- You can speak to two Sonos speakers: One and Beam.
- If you create a stereo pair with two One, you can speak to both of them. Reminders and timers are controlled on a per-device basis. You may want to mute one of the microphones.
- If a pair of Sonos One is configured as Rear Channels to Playbar or Playbase, you can still speak to them.
Airplay 2 and Sonos:
- You can send sound via AirPlay 2 to four Sonos speakers: Play:5 (2nd gen), PlayBase, One, Beam.
- You can group/ungroup other Sonos player in your household with a Sonos player that is currently receiving sound via AirPlay.
- Your Airplay-compatible speakers show up on Apple devices as Airplay targets without further configuration.
- A stereo pair of Play:5 (2nd gen) or One will show up as a single Airplay target.
- Play:5 (2nd gen) or One configured as Rear Channels to a home theatre speaker disappear from Airplay. They do not make a Playbar into an Airplay target.
Siri and Sonos:
- You cannot speak to Siri on any Sonos player.
- You can tell Siri on Apple devices to direct sound to the AirPlay-compatible Sonos players: Play:5 (2nd gen), PlayBase, One, Beam
- Your Airplay-compatible speakers have to be added to your Apple Home, so that they become available to Siri.
Comments
Excellent idea to document this! Much appreciated!
You cannot use AirPlay 2 with Sonos One speakers when they are configured as rear speakers with a PlayBar.
Kann man jetzt eigentlich einen airplay2 fähigen Sonos Spieler ohne wlan, bzw. ohne Sonos-net betreiben?
Man kann. Aber warum sollte man das tun?
> You can add a pair of the speakers above as Rear Channels ...
... except Play:5 1st gen
> Man kann. Aber warum sollte man das tun?
Mir würde eine Gartenparty einfallen, wo kein WLAN vorhanden ist oder wo es zumindest nicht mehr hinkommt …
Danke, Volker. Korrigiert.
Chris, das geht nicht. Irgendeine Netzverbindung braucht Sonos. Wenn nicht Wlan, dann Ethernet.
Re: AirPlay 2 and Sonos:
„You can group/ungroup other Sonos player in your household with a Sonos player that is currently receiving sound via AirPlay.“
What about if I have set up a group BEFORE using AirPlay? E.g. I have paired my One with my PlayBar, but do not listen to anything. Does the One still show up as AirPlay target and if I use it, both of the players will play the music? (This would be one reason to consider buying a One - I have a large setup, but none of my players is supporting AirPlay.)
Thanks,
Jonas
Yes, you can. There is a setting in the Sonos controller that will either split the group before playing from Airplay to avoid blasting from a speaker that is meant to remain silent. The default is to keep the group as it is and start playing from all speakers in the group.
I have grouped my bathroom One with my bedroom Playbar++. I don't care if music is playing in both rooms or only one of them.
