Sonos and Alexa - My Library

Oh, and by the way, your skill was obsolete the day it required to run a server on a PC. I thought that stuff went away with the demise of Squeezebox.

Why bring up Squeezebox again?

You do accept that the latest Sonos - Alexa development depends on a hell-of-a-lot of backend infrastructure (all of which can go awol) compared to a 25 usd raspberry pi? And over which the end-user has absolutely no control whatsoever.

Your high-level of 'support' commitment over the last couple of weeks attempting to gloss-over the evident problems with the Sonos-Alexa integration suggests it's no longer the simple 'plug'n'play solution you suggest it is, compared to the 'obsolete' squeezebox .

Not glossing over anything. Voice control for local music was expected by me and others, and regardless of the reasons, it is a disappointment. Spotify is late, Sonos did not meet even the vague promise that they would support at least every music service Amazon supports. That is a fail on release, regardless of how soon it comes. Audible has been a disaster, definitely a fail. The One is buggy, but it is a beta, I will forgive that.

In summary, Sonos is probably too dependent on the APIs and/or SDKs that Amazon is releasing, but in my opinion that is better than a local server or any other home grown stuff. It is pretty early in the development of marrying voice control with 3rd party hardware requiring anything more sophisticated than "Alexa, turn on the dining room lights". I also know the growing pains that result from this type of coordination between two different companies with very different goals. So I am willing to have some patience. As always, your mileage may vary.

One last thing: Support has been terrible since the decision to cut budget and rely instead on websites and social media. It may be the single most apparent cultural change in the history of the company, and it is a glaring one. Support used to be a highlight; attentive, fast, knowledgeable, and available. No offense to the great Sonos techs who labor here, but the formerly great support has suffered lately. I don't blame the staff at all, but there has definitely been some upper level decision to let support languish, and it does not reflect positively.

But even given all that, it is still better than Squeezebox. 😉

We all have our personal preferences.

Better or worse? They are different.

We all have our personal preferences.

Better or worse? They are different.

Wow, that's all you have for a reply to my dissing of Sonos after the blasting you gave me? Gee, being an accused Sonos apologist isn't what it used to be. ;)

As to being better, I prefer a company that actually exists to one which does not. I dare say most would.

Not glossing over anything. Voice control for local music was expected by me and others, and regardless of the reasons, it is a disappointment. Spotify is late, Sonos did not meet even the vague promise that they would support at least every music service Amazon supports. That is a fail on release, regardless of how soon it comes. Audible has been a disaster, definitely a fail. The One is buggy, but it is a beta, I will forgive that.

In summary, Sonos is probably too dependent on the APIs and/or SDKs that Amazon is releasing, but in my opinion that is better than a local server or any other home grown stuff. It is pretty early in the development of marrying voice control with 3rd party hardware requiring anything more sophisticated than "Alexa, turn on the dining room lights". I also know the growing pains that result from this type of coordination between two different companies with very different goals. So I am willing to have some patience. As always, your mileage may vary.

One last thing: Support has been terrible since the decision to cut budget and rely instead on websites and social media. It may be the single most apparent cultural change in the history of the company, and it is a glaring one. Support used to be a highlight; attentive, fast, knowledgeable, and available. No offense to the great Sonos techs who labor here, but the formerly great support has suffered lately. I don't blame the staff at all, but there has definitely been some upper level decision to let support languish, and it does not reflect positively.

But even given all that, it is still better than Squeezebox. ;)

I think jgatie has been hacked, he said something against Sonos :P

Personally, I preferred my Squeezebox's. The boom was amazing and the Radio had a battery to power it!!! Come on Sonos, have you heard of batteries??

I think jgatie has been hacked, he said something against Sonos :P

Personally, I preferred my Squeezebox's. The boom was amazing and the Radio had a battery to power it!!! Come on Sonos, have you heard of batteries??

Not hacked at all. If you view my posts, they are often heavy on facts, light on opinion or emotion. I view stuff like this very objectively. I do not consider "promises" or "expectations" from faceless corporations to be the same as from my loved ones or friends, nor do I hold them to the same ideals. I paid Sonos for the hardware and functionality at the date and time of purchase, there was no "till death do us part" in that transaction. So anything else is gravy, and I approach my judgment of any enhanced capabilities as such. Many may see that as making excuses for Sonos, but I truly try to keep emotion out of it. However, when asked or challenged (as in this thread) I am not unwilling to give my unvarnished opinion (not that I ever varnish it, I just never give it). If only those who give opinions more willingly would admit to the facts as easily. ;)

Also, the day I rant at a company for "letting me down" or "not fulfilling promises" like I would if a significant other divorced me or my kids lied to me is the day I seek heavy therapy. Sad to say, I've seen more hyperbolic emotions out of posters here over a silly UI change than I recently heard from a close friend over their spouse cheating on them. My opinion is if a company lets me down to the point I get that worked up, I sell them on e-bay and never look back. Life is too short and full of actual let-downs to lament more than a couple seconds over the performance of your luxury multi-room music system. Maybe the fact I have so little emotional investment is the reason I can actually sit back and enjoy the music. As always, YMMV.