Sonos One SL review
A smart speaker without voice control? The horror … or … rejoice! There are those that love Alexa, and have Amazon’s voice assistant, Siri or the Google Assistant control their home’s music, lights and much more. However, there are people for whom the very idea of a voice assistant on the latest and greatest Sonos speaker is a deal-breaker. Cue the Sonos One SL, a Sonos One (Gen 2) without an always-on microphone, and so without Alexa, or any other voice-activated helper. In effect, it’s a direct replacement for the Sonos Play:1 . If you think that makes the Sonos One SL a retro device, understand that there are three big reasons why the Sonos One SL exists and will do well. The first is privacy. If we’d been told a decade ago that by now we would all be actively purchasing gadgets with always-on, networked microphones to sprinkle around our homes, no-one would have believed it. For those who don’t want voice assistants anywhere near them, the Sonos One SL is a welcome product...