Alexa Parade Continues With Play-Fi, Sonos Smart Speakers Shipping This Week

The Phorus-branded product is positioned at the higher end of the smart speaker space. The Alexa-compatible Phorus speaker -- housing a 30-watt-per-channel amplifier with DTS Sound post processing, two 65mm neodymium full-range transducers and a pair of four-inch bass radiators -- supports hi-res audio, DTS said. The line-out has variable volume output control and a Wolfson high-resolution digital-to-analog converter.

DTS is pushing multiroom capability and ecosystem compatibility with the PS10, noting it can connect to the market base of more than 200 Play-Fi-enabled products to create an “Alexa-powered whole-home audio system.” In a multiroom setup, users can set up Play-Fi products using Android, iOS and Kindle apps, and when Play-Fi speakers are grouped together, music plays simultaneously to the group, with playback controlled by Alexa, it said. Household members also can use the Phorus app for individual listening, separate from what’s playing elsewhere, and they can control the system using an Apple Watch or Android Wear device.

A physical differentiator of the Phorus PS10 is the addition of one-touch music station presets, said DTS Play-Fi General Manager Dannie Lau. On whether having physical buttons counteracts the purpose of voice control, DTS spokesman Jordan Miller emailed us that each of the PS10’s interfaces -- voice, app and on-device -- has distinct advantages that complement each other. “Voice excels when your hands are full or you know exactly what music you're looking for,” Miller said.

On-device controls serve users well when they’re nearby and looking for “instant gratification,” Miller said. For example, “you could have your Pandora Bruce Springsteen station start up within a second using a preset,” he said. “Using your voice you would utter, ‘Alexa, play Bruce Springsteen on iHeartRadio,’" and after a second or so, Alexa would respond: "‘Now playing you Bruce Springsteen station on iHeartRadio,’" with music starting a second later, he said. “It’s faster than starting an app but not nearly as fast as a preset.”

Physical controls also can be faster for volume control and play/pause, he said, citing the need to mute a speaker quickly when a phone call comes in. “It’s nice to be able to stop your music instantly at the push of a button rather than talking to your speaker as you're answering the phone.” The interfaces can complement each other, so you can start your music by voice and later pause it by tapping a button, he said.

The Phorus PS10 supports playback through Airplay and Spotify Connect and sports a 3.5mm input for connecting an analog source that can be played through other Play-Fi speakers wirelessly. Its line-level “audiophile grade” output connects to audio components, the company said. The PS10 will support Amazon's Connected Speaker application programming interface with a future firmware update, enabling the speaker to select and control music playback on all DTS Play-Fi enabled speakers throughout the home, DTS said.

On plans for Google Assistant, Miller said DTS has studied all the voice platforms and launched with Alexa because of its “distinct lead in this space” and its “pull from our partners.” The Play-Fi platform can support multiple assistants simultaneously, and “you'll hear more from us in this regard,” he said.

On our question on plans for Alexa skills for Play-Fi, Miller said DTS has worked with Amazon over the past year to integrate Play-Fi with Alexa, and it has a shortcut for a play command. “Traditional skills force users to learn a new vocabulary to use Alexa with their products,” he said, “so rather than having users say, ‘Alexa, ask Play-Fi to play Bruce Springsteen in the office,’" a user will be able to omit Play-Fi and just say: "‘Play Bruce Springsteen in the office,’" he said. DTS’ backend integration with Alexa lets the service know how to stream to DTS Play-Fi speakers directly, he said.

The Phorus’ out-of-the-box support for Spotify gives it a leg up on Sonos, which will begin shipping its Alexa-based speaker, the Sonos One, Tuesday. Sonos users can stream Spotify through conventional Sonos speakers, but Alexa control isn't yet available for Spotify. The Sonos support page for Alexa integration has a callout for Spotify subscribers: “Spotify users: We’ve heard from you and are working hard to bring you the ability to ask Alexa to play Spotify music on your Sonos speakers as quickly as we can.” A Sonos chat representative told us the company hopes Spotify will be fully supported with Alexa in November “if all goes well.”

Before the announcement of the Sonos One, the company released a software update making its Play:1 speaker controllable via Alexa. In our experience with controlling a Sonos Play:1 via Alexa, we found voice control to be hit or miss. We have a Spotify subscription, not Amazon’s premium on-demand music service, so our requests were rewarded only when we asked for a song that’s in Amazon’s Prime Music catalog. We also were thwarted by syntax. We asked for “Autumn” by George Winston one day and it played, but the next day Alexa told us she couldn’t find it. The Sonos rep pointed us to the support page with specific commands for guidance.

We asked the rep if there's a benefit to upgrading to a Sonos One ($199) from a Play:1. The Alexa experience “will be virtually the same” with the Sonos One capable of doing everything that a regular Alexa device does, he said. Multiroom capability won’t be the same, he said. “What you won’t be able to do though is sync Amazon Alexa devices with Sonos speakers, they will talk to each other but not be able to be grouped to play the same music!” An Amazon Dot, for instance, wouldn’t be able to be grouped with a Sonos One or Play:1 speaker, he said. “It will still be able to command your other Sonos products,” he said, “so if you told the Dot to play Pandora on the Play:1 or Sonos One it will work.”