Sonos announces the Sonos One, a self-contained, Alexa-connected speaker

The Sonos One is a new speaker designed from the ground-up for voice interaction via Alexa. The speaker is similar to the current home speakers Sonos sells but six internal microphones allow you to speak to the speaker without extra voice control hardware. Pre-orders are starting now for $199. Today’s new speakers will ship soon.

The system uses echo-cancellation tech to hear you over the music and the six internal microphones will be able to hear you from anywhere in the room. Sonos isn’t reinventing the wheel here. The Amazon Echo and Google Home also features multiple microphones and a rounded design to hear you loud and clear.

The Sonos One will support AirPlay 2 when it launches next year. Google Assistant is also coming later.

The speaker will allow you to say things like “Pause music,” “Play track in living room,” and “Play playlist Harcdore” and Sonos will react. If you have an Amazon Echo, these interactions probably sound familiar. But this is something new for Sonos fans.