4 Reasons to NOT buy a Sonos Play to use with an Echo

So early, I mean early Black Friday I ventured out to find a better speaker solution for my Amazon Echo. It's Ok, but it would greatly benefit from a better speaker.

I went to Best Buy and tried every Bluetooth speaker they had in the store. Meh. Some were OK but none sounded great.

Then I found the Sonos Play . (affiliate link, thanks) Wow, it sounded really great. I had read that the marriage of Alexa and Sonos in the Sonos Play had some problems in not be able to duplicate all the Echo's commands so that would not work for me. 

So given that it was on sale for 25% off at just $149.99 I figured what the heck!

The Good

Unboxing
Beautifully done experience. The packing was top notch. That's it. All I got.


The Bad (the promised 4 reasons)


What! No Aux in? Nuf said

Setup
To call it an almost nightmarish experience would be a vast understatement. Multiple sign up attempts, logging into both for Sonos and Alexa. It's required to:

• Download the Sonos app
• Create a new password for that
• Connect it to the network
• Log into Alexa
• Enable Sonos Skill
• Connect your Sonos
• Enable all the music platforms on the Sonos
• Set up ROOM for the Sonos name

Dam those Skills

To use it you need to say. Alexa, play Christmas music on Pandora in the Living Room. An extra thing to remember and say that would make me and my family nuts. 

The Sound

Well, this is where I finally said enough. It sounded good enough but not good enough to endure the shortcomings. Mostly the issue around adding the final command for what room to play in. Uggg. 

That's it. Back to PC Richards and Sons it goes. Note I bought it there because they close on Thanksgiving. I admire that. 

Have a great holiday. Next step is shopping for a new bluetooth speaker, or maybe I'll try the new Echo.