The play-off

Alexa isn’t just for Amazon’s Echo range any more: Sonos has nabbed the voice assistant for the latest addition to its mighty multiroom speaker clan

efore the Echo came along, Sonos had this whole smart speaker game on lock. It did multiroom better than anyone else, could source your music from pretty much anywhere, and had a great app that tied the whole experience together.

Then, a tech-packed tube turned out to be one of the greatest gadget inventions we’d seen in years. All of a sudden we could turn up the heating

Bwhile tucked up in bed or check just how late our train into work was running without grabbing our phone. The best part of all? Our significant other’s incessant ’50s doo-wop obsession could be quickly nixed just by hollering “Stop!”

Smarten up

A gauntlet had been well and truly laid down, and so Sonos has responded with the One. Essentially a Play:1 with added voice smarts from Amazon’s own Alexa, the One promises to be just like an Echo… only much better for music. Which, let’s face it, is what most people use theirs for.

Of course, it will also do all the good stuff that Sonos kit first became famed for – all of which should make it the smart speaker to end all smart speakers. So how does the Sonos One stack up to the new Amazon Echo Plus?