Sonos One (Gen 2)

amazon Sonos One (Gen 2) reviews

The second-generation Sonos One is a versatile wireless speaker with great sound quality, multi-room audio support, and your choice of Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice control.

While Amazon’s Alexa was once only available on Echo devices, and the Google Assistant was limited to certain Android phones, popular voice assistants are now ubiquitous. The Sonos One is one such device where you’ll find both. The $199 smart wireless speaker is similarly effective as the $149 Sonos Play, with the added benefit of a microphone array lets you use it with a voice assistant. It trumps other smart speakers in this price range, like the Amazon Echo and Google Home.

Advantages

Powerful noise cancellation for the price

Great sound performance

It can be used in passive mode with cable or wired mode with ANC enabled

User-adjustable EQ

Disadvantage

Very good noise cancellation, but not top

Sones One generation 1 vs. generation 2

Sonos recently updated the One with a faster processor and more memory and support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). BLE is only used to set up the speaker, and Bluetooth audio streaming is not available on this new model, which the company is calling Sonos One Gen 2.

According to Sonos, the new processor and additional memory currently don’t represent any new features or noticeable performance changes between the original Gen 2 and One, now known as the Sonos One Gen 1. But the enhancements This level may enable new features specific to future speaker updates. The Sonos One Gen 1 is still available from Sonos alongside the Gen 2 version, at a discounted price of $169. Since the two speakers are very similar and no features have been announced specifically for Gen 2, we assume neither of the two versions is identical in terms of the experience you will get from either.

Design

At first glance, the One can be easily confused with the Play: 1. It has the same design as the coffee can, measuring 6.3 x 4.7 x 4.7 inches (HWD) in a nearly square cylinder. The speaker comes in either black or white, with a grille running almost entirely around the sides. On top is a solid, smooth lid that adds nearly an inch of height through the grille. The edges of the grille stop at the back, leaving room for a wide and solid strip that houses the Ethernet port and settings button. The power connector plugs into the bottom, in a recess with a channel that allows the cable to run out the back, below the Ethernet port.

Although the One shares a similar configuration with the Play:1, its physical controls are completely different. Instead of a contoured top with mechanical buttons for playback and volume, the One uses a completely flat top with touch controls. A play/pause icon is in the middle, flanked by two four-dot icons on either side. These icons are the One’s touch controls, allowing you to play/pause and adjust the volume by tapping or skip tracks by swiping. An indicator light is above the play/pause icon, with a smaller microphone status light above it. The microphone icon above allows you to mute the microphone when you don’t want the voice assistant to hear.

Multi-room audio

Like all other Sonos speakers, the One supports multi-room, whole-family music playback via the Sonos app. The company has built the most powerful and widely supported proprietary multi-room music platform on the market, but the speaker also offers other, more open options. The Sonos app works with over 50 different music streaming services, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify. You can also play music stored locally on your smartphone, tablet, or computer (Sonos Controller software is available on Android, iOS, Mac, and PC).

That broad support should cover all your music needs, eliminating the lack of Bluetooth or any of the One’s wired audio connections. If Sonos’ list of supported apps isn’t enough, you also have two other wireless options. If you’re an Apple user, the speaker supports AirPlay 2. Sonos One will also act as a Google Cast-compatible speaker if Google Assistant is enabled.

All three systems can handle multi-room, multi-speaker setups. However, if you want to add non-voice Sonos speakers like the Play:5 to the mix, you should use Sonos or AirPlay; Google Cast only works with Sonos’ voice assistant speakers when set up to use the Google Assistant. Sonos’ private multi-room system also supports stereo pairs and home theater configurations with multiple channels. Allowing you to connect two One speakers to your Sonos Beam, Playbar, or Playbase to act as audio satellites arch, same as Play: 1.

Choose your Voice Assistant

The One’s biggest change from Play:1 and its main selling point compared to other Sonos speakers is the support for voice assistants. At launch, you can connect the One to your Amazon account and use the Alexa voice assistant, allowing you to treat it as an Amazon Echo. Thanks to a recent update, you can also choose to connect your Google account and use the Google Assistant, treating the speaker like a Google Home.

To set up Sonos One to use Alexa, tap the Alexa option and sign in to your Amazon account. For the Google Assistant, you need to tap on the Google Assistant option, then do some additional configuration steps in the Google Home app to set up the speaker as both a Google Assistant and a Google Cast device. You can only use one voice assistant at a time. It’s not hard to switch between them, but it’s inconvenient enough that you’ll probably only want to use mainly one.

We find both Alexa and Google Assistant to be useful and powerful voice assistants with many useful features. Both can provide general information and answer questions about weather, sports, unit conversions, translations, streaming music from various services, and control of smart home devices. Just say their respective wake phrases (“Alexa” and “OK Google”) and ask a question or give your command to get started.

Alexa has a slight edge on third-party voice control skills and supports a wider selection of smart home devices. Google Assistant works slightly better than Alexa at understanding natural voices and following sequences of commands and questions. Ultimately, which voice assistant you should use will be a matter of preference, what smart home devices you have, and whether you use Amazon Prime Music or Google Play Music. Of course, if you want to customize your voice assistant’s voice, Google Assistant offers many options, including John Legend, while Alexa only has her unique female voice.

where can you get a Sonos One (Gen 2) online

Sonos One (Gen 2) Two Room Set Voice Controlled Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa Built in (2-Pack White): Buy it now

Sonos One (Gen 2) – Voice Controlled Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa Built-in – Black: Buy it now

Sound performance

The One can get quite large for its size, but you shouldn’t expect a powerful low-end configuration to break out of its small frame. It easily outperforms similarly priced voice assistant speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home and stands firmly against its predecessor, the Play: 1. The slightly larger speakers can become a bit of a stretch. Louder, and some like JLab Block Party, even support multi-room playback, but those alternatives lack voice assistant support.

Speakers had a little trouble with our bass test, “Silent Shout” by The Knife. The bass synthesizer notes and the drums hit a bit distorted at the highest volume levels, causing roughness in the ideal, stable sounds. That is similar to what we’ve heard with Play:1, and you can get around it by turning the volume dial slightly. To One’s credit, it produces some substantial sub-bass rumble.

Yes ‘”Roundabout” for excellent sound on the Sonos One, demonstrating the sonic character of the speaker. The lows and highs are slightly enhanced, which gives the electric bass some good punch and presence while allowing the texture of the guitar strings to show through. The vocalists stand clearly at the front of the mix, ensuring that every aspect of the dense track captures your attention. The highs are pushed up perhaps a bit too much, which adds life to the guitar but pushes the lower frequencies back a bit more than they should.

KMFDM’s “Ultra” sound is truly energetic on the One about dense mixes and powerful high-frequency response. The guitar shredding is somewhat prominent, but the cacophonous industrial bass is still present, and the vocals hissing and growling are represented.

Erasure’s “Love Chain” is very well represented here. Drums have much presence, with a good amount of poppy pops typical with an ’80s backbeat. Synths and vocals are clear and clean, standing out in the mix without overpowering the vocal’s drums, allowing all the elements of the song to come together in the ideal mixed synthpop bliss.

Conclusion

The Sonos One is a worthy and superior upgrade over the Play: 1. It has all the great features and performance of the Play: 1, with the added benefit of your choice of Alexa and Assistant Google controller, and it sounds much better than the Amazon Echo and Google Home. The Marshall Stanmore II Voice and Google Home Max are both larger and more powerful Google Assistant-equipped speakers, but they both cost twice as much as the Sonos One. Meanwhile, the Sonos Beam offers the same streaming support and voice assistant selection in a soundbar form factor. However, in the $200 range, the Sonos One is easily the most versatile voice assistant speaker available.

Advantages

Multi-room audio with flexible surround and stereo configurations.

Powerful sound for its size.

Offers both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants.

AirPlay support.

Disadvantage

The sound may distort at maximum volume.

No Bluetooth connection or wired audio.