Sonos has made the ultimate smart speaker for music lovers
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- Sonos' new smart speaker, called the Sonos One, is the company's first model with Amazon's Alexa built in.
- By combining the intelligence of an Echo with the audio quality Sonos is known for, this is the best-sounding Alexa-enabled speaker you can get right now.
- If music is something you take seriously, or you've been meaning to start a smart home and/or Sonos speaker collection, this is the best way to accomplish both.
If the original Echo had one problem, it was its weak speaker. Amazon realized this around the same time that Sonos saw the transition people were making from connected speakers — a category it dominates, for good reason — to smart speakers.
The result: Amazon built an Echo with a better speaker inside, and Sonos built a new entry-level speaker with Alexa inside. I was recently sent the new Sonos One speaker to test, and I think it's the perfect smart home gadget for music lovers.
What makes the Sonos One so great is that it combines the best parts of a Sonos PLAY:1 and Amazon Echo without introducing any friction. If you know what Sonos speakers sound like, you'll know what to expect in terms of audio quality. It's generally very good, and an improvement over the PLAY:1, which is the only other Sonos speaker I've spent any time with.
I listened to music from a few different genres and services, and the One handled everything very well. It's still a mono speaker, so don't expect stereo separation (unless you buy two), but I was impressed at how balanced songs sounded. The bass is a little on the powerful side, but if you find it overwhelming, there's always the option to tweak the EQ digitally.
The One is also controlled using the same Sonos app fans of the platform have been using for years, and includes the same streaming service integrations. If you have a network of Sonos speakers in your house already, the One will integrate with them once it's set up.
On the Alexa side, if you've ever used an Amazon Echo, you'll know what to expect with the One, too. You can use it to control smart home accessories, integrate with third-party services through new skills, and answer questions whether they're simple or complex. Like an Echo, everything related to the One's smart home integrations is set up and maintained through the Alexa app.
In my testing, the One was able to do everything my Echo Plus could without any problems. Some have reported the One is less responsive because it doesn't have the same mic array as an Echo, but that wasn't my experience.
The Sonos One is as much of an Echo as one made by Amazon, so if you've been interested in starting a smart home and a Sonos speaker collection, you can accomplish both at once with this speaker. That's especially true now that the One can play songs from your Spotify library through Alexa voice commands.
If listening to music is something you do passively, you'll probably be satisfied with the second generation Echo. For people who take it more seriously though, the Sonos One is the smart home speaker I'd recommend hands down.