I want to write this as positivly as possible. Think of it as constructive criticism rather than just a negative rant.
When I first bought some Sonos gear some time ago (website says it was registered in 2017 but I know I’ve had it longer). I was excited. It was a big purchase for me, it seemed geared a bit more for an audiophile than I actually am but I bought it because I wanted to have great sound throughout my house. Some of the tech set up was challenging - I had to get a NAS drive to store my music so it was always accessible. At the time that was another substantial cost I wasn't bargaining on. Eventaully I got my system working well and it served its purpose which was playing music, throughout the house on well made, good sounding spakers.
But then...they started changing. My I pod dock was no longer supported, I had to replace my Bridge with a Boost. Updates for the app telling me half my system was being bricked. You all know that story.
For all the changes Sonos has made - none have really benefited me. I have a separate Dolby system for my TV and Movies, I am not interested in Alexa or Google Home listening devices. Despite my NAS drive dieing a year ago I still have access to lots of music because I pay for a monthly service but not all my rare or local music can be found there. I like podcasts but (as far as I know) the app doesn't allow me to subscribe to podcasts or save the ones I like - I can save an individual episode but thats not what I mean. I am currently trying to get Stitcher working again, Its been weeks I’ve had to use the very much less impressive “TuneIn” app to find stuff. Even very popular podcasts like WTF don't come up on that?!? The app has barely evolved over the years. Opportunities for it to become more intutitve, to suggest music I might like based on my listening preferences, being able to make playlists easier or even having Sonos Radio come up in searches. These are things that line up with my reasons for buying Sonos.
So what am I getting with all these upgrades? dead before their time speakers that I can upgrade with a merger 15% credit for uses I don't even want. Yes, I can stay with the S1 controller - I know. but already its having bug issues (the Stitcher example) and I keep being prompted to upgrade to S2. If I do, some of my equipment become bricks, some just work the same but for how long? I've been faithful to Sonos for years ( I know I've had my system long before 2017). I’ve encouraged friends to buy it but now, I'm starting to look around for other systems that just play music really, really well. I'm 50, not a tech guy, not impressed by technology simply because it's there (I can turn my own lights on and off thank you very much) I know there are lots of people on these forums who are not so different than I am. What are you people thinking? Am I in the wrong snack bracket and should just dust off my old component stereo and wired speakers?
I’d love to hear peoples thoughts.
Jason