Goodbye Sonos, and thanks!


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We purchased our first Sonos product in 2009. Since that first purchase, we acquired a couple Play:5s, a couple Play:1s, a Sub, and a Bridge, among other items. We really enjoyed the Sonos gear over the last decade, both the quality of the gear and the audio performance.

We’re moving to a smaller property in the near future and no longer have the same need for multi-room audio. Plus, not all our gear was compatible with the new S2 protocol. So it seemed a good time to sell our equipment before the S1 components fell further in value. We did so last month, and all items sold quickly on eBay.

As we move to our post-Sonos lives, I just wanted to say thanks to the Sonos staff for their great products, great innovation and great support. I’m sure your customers will enjoy the new S2.

All the best.

 


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14 replies

To add: I have many S1 products that continue to work fine and I see no reason to sell. Neither do I see a reason to buy any Sonos in the future with the many options now available, many cheaper than Sonos that work just as well, with S2 of zero interest to me. And it will be nice to not have to run upgrades every month for what is just a music system, fundamentally.

I echo the sentiments expressed, but in a slightly different context.

I own a ‘legacy’ Player 5 that I was happy with until earlier this year.

When Sonos announced initially all old Sonos products would become obsolete naturally there was a backlash resulting in S1 & S2 controllers.

The S1 is supposed to handle all the legacy equipment with perhaps some limited function,

The problem I have discovered is that the S1 isn't compatible with any devices used to play Sonos.

In releasing S1 the developers upgraded beyond revision 10.4 leaving me with no PC, tablet or mobile phone that can control my speaker. 

OK my options are upgrade the speaker NO WAY as if they did this once they will certainly do it again.

Upgrade one of my devices to android 7 or above.

Buy a Bose speaker which I have so goodbye Sonos.

 

I did find a site to download 10.4 and installed it to find my speaker but then Sonos automatic forced upgrade kicked in and overwrote it with S1 that doesn't work on my devices!  Very frustrating and I cannot understand a company being so ruthless and considerate of existing customers.

I own a ‘legacy’ Player 5 that I was happy with until earlier this year.

When Sonos announced initially all old Sonos products would become obsolete naturally there was a backlash resulting in S1 & S2 controllers.

The S1 is supposed to handle all the legacy equipment with perhaps some limited function,

The problem I have discovered is that the S1 isn't compatible with any devices used to play Sonos.

In releasing S1 the developers upgraded beyond revision 10.4 leaving me with no PC, tablet or mobile phone that can control my speaker. 

OK my options are upgrade the speaker NO WAY as if they did this once they will certainly do it again.

Upgrade one of my devices to android 7 or above.

Buy a Bose speaker which I have so goodbye Sonos.

 

I did find a site to download 10.4 and installed it to find my speaker but then Sonos automatic forced upgrade kicked in and overwrote it with S1 that doesn't work on my devices!  Very frustrating and I cannot understand a company being so ruthless and considerate of existing customers.

 You have some incorrect assumptions here.    First S1 isn’t limited function.  No functionality was removed from the system before the split to S1 and S2.  S1 simply will not get any new functionality, although it still has more than the Sonos app did when you bought your play:5.

Second you’re assuming that app requirements are different between S1 and S2. They are not.  Your believe that you could have upgraded S2 to get around app OS requirements is incorrect.  Sonos generally drops support for an OS when the OS itself is no longer supported.

Third, you’re assumption that Sonos could do a S1/S2 split again.  Yes, they can, but it was done for hardware limitations, something that isn’t a problem for the existing units, nor likely to be anytime soon.  It clearly was not popular, so it’s not something they will want to do.

Fourth, your assumption that Bose is going to provide better support for multiroom audio.  They already completely dropped their original line of speakers and started over, with no compatibility between the two lines at all.

 

Good answer , Danny.  Stating what @Fourcarrz  got right would have made for a shorter answer.  Er, no, in fact that would have meant no answer at all.

I own a ‘legacy’ Player 5 that I was happy with until earlier this year.

When Sonos announced initially all old Sonos products would become obsolete naturally there was a backlash resulting in S1 & S2 controllers.

The S1 is supposed to handle all the legacy equipment with perhaps some limited function,

The problem I have discovered is that the S1 isn't compatible with any devices used to play Sonos.

In releasing S1 the developers upgraded beyond revision 10.4 leaving me with no PC, tablet or mobile phone that can control my speaker. 

OK my options are upgrade the speaker NO WAY as if they did this once they will certainly do it again.

Upgrade one of my devices to android 7 or above.

Buy a Bose speaker which I have so goodbye Sonos.

 

I did find a site to download 10.4 and installed it to find my speaker but then Sonos automatic forced upgrade kicked in and overwrote it with S1 that doesn't work on my devices!  Very frustrating and I cannot understand a company being so ruthless and considerate of existing customers.

 You have some incorrect assumptions here.    First S1 isn’t limited function.  No functionality was removed from the system before the split to S1 and S2.  S1 simply will not get any new functionality, although it still has more than the Sonos app did when you bought your play:5.

Second your assuming that app requirements are different between S1 and S2. They are not.  Your believe that you could have upgraded S2 to get around app OS requirements is incorrect.  Sonos generally drops support for an OS when the OS itself is no longer supported.

Third, you’re assumption that Sonos could do a S1/S2 split again.  Yes, they can, but it was done for hardware limitations, something that isn’t a problem for the existing units, nor likely to be anytime soon.  It clearly was not popular, so it’s not something they will want to do.

Fourth, your assumption that Bose is going to provide better support for multiroom audio.  The already completely dropped their original line of speakers and started over, with no compatibility between the two lines at all.

 

Surely you’re missing his point, which is that ‘upgrading’ to S1 means that he loses access via his controllers, which are probably off of the latest supported list. I have the same issue here, where I wouldn’t mind moving to S1, but doing so would obsolete the Kindle Fire that I bought less than a coupe of years ago. Not everyone changes all their devices every couple of years - and personally I think that it’s an incredible waste of the world’s resources. 

Surely you’re missing his point, which is that ‘upgrading’ to S1 means that he loses access via his controllers, which are probably off of the latest supported list. I have the same issue here, where I wouldn’t mind moving to S1, but doing so would obsolete the Kindle Fire that I bought less than a coupe of years ago. Not everyone changes all their devices every couple of years - and personally I think that it’s an incredible waste of the world’s resources. 

 

I get that point and addressed it.  Sonos drops support for an OS when the OS isn’t supported.  It’s not related to S1/S2 change over at all, as it’s happened in the past and will happen in the future.  I could be wrong on this, but I think one of the reason Sonos drops support, besides the likely smaller number of users on the OS, is because of security concerns, which would normally be handled by the OS...that are no longer handled.

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Surely you’re missing his point, which is that ‘upgrading’ to S1 means that he loses access via his controllers, which are probably off of the latest supported list

+1 and everything that followed gaslit his entire post.

Surely you’re missing his point, which is that ‘upgrading’ to S1 means that he loses access via his controllers, which are probably off of the latest supported list

+1 and everything that followed gaslit his entire post.

 

Did you mean ‘gaslighted’?  Even so, doesn’t make any sense. How do you gaslight a post, since gaslighting is ‘ intentionally makes someone doubt their memories or perception of reality’.  Maybe there’s some urban dictionary definition I’m not aware of.

Threats to buy Bose are hysterical.  Sonos obsoleted individual units that were designed over a decade ago that hadn’t been sold in a half decade, and still allowed you to use them with newer devices via S1 software.  Bose obsoleted an entire lineup that was still being sold right up to the day it was dropped, replacing them with an entirely new line up incompatible with the old.  

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Sounds like that guy was using it as a single speaker.  I would never buy a Bose speaker, but

it makes sense that this poster would buy an inferior product that seemingly meets their needs better. But maybe I'm reading too much into it.

 

Just to clarify.

I haven't tried S1 or S2 because when they were introduced suddenly my three devices for controlling Sonos were no longer supported.

I had to download S1 because its automatic with no choice then found that I couldn't connect to my legacy player 5.

Sonos support told me that S1 had some functionality limited not me.

Sonos support didn’t tell me that my devices were the problem they just sent me round in circles switching off/on/resetting etc.  I later read the minimum spec for S1 is android 5 which my mobile is but it still wont connect telling me to upgrade software.

I was very happy with my single Sonos which played through the controller version 10.4.

I am not at all being hysterical threatening to buy Bose equipment I have bought another one to join the two I already have plus all the other audio devices strategically distributed around the house and garden. I don't need or want a one system shared in all rooms I just want my single Sonos to work but that will have to wait until I upgrade my mobile.

I later read the minimum spec for S1 is android 5 which my mobile is but it still wont connect telling me to upgrade software.

No. The requirement for both S1 and S2 is Android 7.0 or later. 

Android 5 is unsupported by Google. Its last release was over 5 years ago.

Direct copy from the Sonos website

 

Unsupported OS versions with limited functionality

The following OS versions are no longer actively supported, but can still be used to control some commonly used features of the Sonos S1 Controller. If your OS is older than the versions listed below, you will need to update the OS to continue using Sonos.
 

  • iOS 10
  • Android 5 and 6
  • Fire OS 5

 

I am not at all being hysterical threatening to buy Bose equipment I have bought another one to join the two I already have plus all the other audio devices strategically distributed around the house and garden. I don't need or want a one system shared in all rooms I just want my single Sonos to work but that will have to wait until I upgrade my mobile.

 

Threatening to buy Bose instead of Sonos implies you trust Bose to not do the things Sonos has done to lose your support.  The facts are Sonos sort of abandoned units designed over a decade ago, yet still support them and allow them to work with newer equipment, whereas Bose abandoned units that were designed a couple years ago, sold up to the very day they were abandoned, and are completely incompatible with the new units.  In that context, backing Bose as the better company is indeed ridiculous.

As to your apps not working with older OS versions, every manufacturer has these problems, including Bose.  Insisting on keeping older mobile devices that are no longer being supported by the OS manufacturer themselves is an exercise in frustration/futility.