Jim says he's a bit of a luddite, but he's discovered the Sonos Amp with Klipsh speakers, and it's just plain nice. Leo says the nice thing about the Sonos is that you can control it with your phone and stream from any music service. So you can listen to just about anything ever recorded.
Jeffrey got a mesh router and he's having issues with his Sonos home theater system. Leo says that it's always a challenge to use Sonos with mesh, but he can get it done. Keeping the Sonos in Boost mode and updating his firmware will help. Leo has a few links to read up on:
Mike would like to be able to control multiple speakers in an open house with his iPhone. Is that doable? Leo says that the key is keeping all the speakers in sync. Sonos was the first to do it right with multi-room sound. All speakers are completely wireless and can be put into party mode, where all are playing the same music in sync. Sonos isn't cheap though.
Ricky has Sonos, and after a recent update, he can't get his Sonos speakers to play in party mode. Leo says that may be due to it choosing a speaker to act as the main portal. Leo has had similar issues, and he solved it with a boosted Wi-Fi device. A recent update was supposed to fix all that. The more likely issue, though, could be plain old congestion. Everything has Wi-Fi now, and as a result, it causes rush hour. Leo recommends un-pairing everything.
Should he use LastPass on his phone? Does he need the app? Leo says that the app is just a convenience, but it's not really necessary. Android will autofill apps with LastPass, iOS not so much.
Manny also wants to know if Sonos will adopt Dolby Atmos at Home as a standard. Leo says they haven't. Atmos has that upward firing speaker design for the home, but so far, Sonos hasn't adopted it.
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Peter has a Sonos wireless home theater and he's having some interference issues. Leo says that Sonos uses its own spectrum, and he can select standard WiFi instead. But chances are, he's running into plain old congestion as other home theater and Wi-Fi units are taking up the bandwidth. If he can, he should move it over to the 5GHz channel instead. He'll have to re-pair them, but it'll be worth it. It could also be an issue with Sonos' new 8.1 firmware update. Both Leo and Doctor Mom are experiencing the same thing, so there's something going on.
Doctor Mom has managed to add her Sonos to the Amazon Echo by installing the Sonos Skill and letting it discover them in the devices section. It does have limitations, though. It can't play Spotify or Audible. The Echo will also immediately turn off all the speakers when it wakes up. The Sonos skill isn't really ready for prime time just yet. That's why she recommends getting the Vaux External Speaker for the Echo Dot, because you can drop the Dot right into it.
This week Google announced a ton of new products, including a new Google Home and a donut sized version of Google Home (called the Mini) that Leo says may be better than Amazon Echo. Though Leo says that Amazon has a huge lead, in the long run, Google may have the advantage. Meanwhile, Amazon did get a shot in the arm this week with the announcement that Sonos will partner with Amazon to bring connectivity of Sonos to the Amazon Echo. But that may be short-lived since Sonos plans to work with Google and Apple as well.
Manny has an LG 4K TV and Blu-ray player. But when he uses the web browser, he gets a message that it's out of date. Leo says that's not surprising and he doesn't think he can solve that issue since browsers in Blu-ray Players aren't updated all that much. Manny should try using the browser in his SmarTV. It uses WebOS and that's supposed to be update-able. At least it should be updated more often than his Blu-ray.
Steve is visually impaired and he wants to know if he can use the Amazon Echo to control his Sonos stereo system. Leo says yes! You can set it to the auxiliary input and then you can use the Echo to control it. That's the way to do it. The Apple Home Pod will also be able to do it in December. Go for the DOT though. Leo has his DOT connected to his and it works great.
