Skip to main content

Onkyo receivers make themselves at home with new ‘Works with Sonos’ integration

If you recently bought a higher-end Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer, or Pioneer Elite receiver and wished you could integrate it with your Sonos wireless multiroom system, you just got your wish. Following the announcement of the Sonos Beam, Onkyo has rolled out a firmware update that brings “Works with Sonos” certification to a number of models from the above brands, enabling them to work with Sonos systems.

Certified models integrate seamlessly with the Sonos platform, letting you treat your hi-fi or home theater system as another component in your Sonos system. Once your firmware is updated, you’ll be able to stream music directly from the Sonos app to your receiver, and even control things like volume directly from the app.

The ability to treat your receiver as part of your Sonos system isn’t the only new functionality that supported receivers are getting as part of the update. As Sonos has recently added voice control via Amazon Alexa, you’ll be able to use limited voice control functionality on your receiver as well. Given the nature of Sonos’ voice control, you likely won’t be able to control every aspect of the receiver with your voice, but it will still come in handy. Some receivers from Onkyo brands already feature Google Assistant support via Google Home, so this won’t be brand new functionality for them, but if you’d rather control everything via your Sonos system, this will be a welcome addition.

For Onkyo, receivers that can add the new functionality via the firmware update are the TX-NR585, TX-NR686, TX-RZ630, TX-RZ730, TX-NR787, TX-RZ830, TX-RZ920, TX-8270, TX-RZ1100, TX-RZ3100, PR-RZ5100, and TX-8260. Eligible Pioneer models are the ELITE SC-LX901, ELITE SC-LX801, ELITE SC-LX701, ELITE VSX-LX503, ELITE VSX-LX303, ELITE VSX-LX103, and the Pioneer VSX-933. For Integra, eligible models are the DRX-3.2, DRX-4.2, DRX-5.2, DRX-7.1, DRX-R1.1, DRC-R1.1, DTM-7, DTM-6, DRX-7, DRX-R1, and the DRC-R1.

The firmware updates are available now for every brand. To find out more about the update and instructions on how to update, see the Onkyo website, Pioneer website, or Integra website for details. If this news has you looking to buy a receiver, take a look at our buying guide, as well as our list of the best A/V receivers available right now.

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Sonos problems? A new Wi-Fi router might be the answer
Sonos Era 100, close up on logo and indicator light.

It's 6 p.m. on Saturday, right before guests are set to arrive for dinner. That's when it always seems to happen. That's when my network of Sonos speakers decides that it won't play my daughter's carefully curated playlist for the evening. It's often accompanied by my wife staring at her phone in a mix of confusion and anger, and yelling (at no one in particular, but c'mon, it's me), "Where is the dining room speaker? It was there a minute ago, and now it's gone!"

Sound familiar? Sonos might be the best thing to happen to home audio since the invention of the CD. But for every time you marvel at the godlike power it bestows upon you as you instantly flood your entire house with the new Metallica album, there can be just as many occasions when the word Sonos hisses from your mouth like an angry snake.

Read more
Sonos’ new search feature needs work
An iPhone 14 displaying the Sonos app search feature, sitting in front of a Sonos Roam speaker.

Shortly after Sonos showed off its new wireless speakers -- the Era 100 and Era 300 -- the company quietly released a new version of the search feature that’s built into the Sonos app. Sonos says the new version (which is slowly rolling out) is a better overall search experience. And yet, it's a big departure from its normal search, which is now called "classic search," and I think it’s still very much a work in progress.

Sonos says that for now, the classic search isn't going away. But come April 25, everyone will have access to the new search. Here's what you can expect when you use it.
A service-first, service-only approach

Read more
Bluetooth on Sonos’ new Era speakers isn’t what you think – it’s better
Sonos Era 300 close-up of Bluetooth button.

When Sonos recently debuted its two newest wireless speakers -- the Era 100 and Era 300 -- it broke with years of precedence by adding Bluetooth, a connection option that has never been offered on the company’s non-portable speakers. At the time, I thought Bluetooth on an Era speaker worked the same way as it does on the Sonos Move. I was wrong.

It turns out, the Era speakers use Bluetooth in tandem with their Wi-Fi connections, as opposed to the Move, which treats Bluetooth as a completely separate mode. That has some profound implications for what you can do with one of the new Era speakers within a Sonos system, as well as a few caveats about what you can’t do.

Read more