A gaping hole in your product line. Outside. The struggle is real.

  • 19 April 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 923 views

OK, seriously now. I love my Sonos System.

I have it literally (almost) everywhere. 3 Playbars, 3 Subs, 2 Play 5's, 3 Play 3's, and about a dozen Play 1's - and a couple of Alexa pucks besides. I am a Sonos Beta tester and refer Sonos to anyone who will listen (pun intended).

#BrandLoyalty, #SonosRocks

I have a large covered Florida lanai, pool, outdoor kitchen, TV, fire pit - the whole deal. Well, half the deal anyway because I am still dragging a Play 5 outside and plugging it in every time I go out there. #AnnoyedAF.

You keep introducing new stuff - Play 1's with Alexa built in, Play 1's with new colors, now a turn-table.

But what gives on an outdoor speaker?

I will guarantee you that there are more people who want an outdoor speaker than there are people who still have vinyl albums in their garage/basement/attic/anywhere.

AND - PLEASE - before you start responding - Please don't tell me to connect a Sonos amp to some other company's inferior "almost as good as" speakers.

If I wanted speakers from another company I wouldn't have spent almost $10,000 on Sonos speakers and put them literally everywhere in my home - well almost - not outside obviously.

Why would I throw some inferior speakers into the mix?

How difficult could it possibly be to stop painting Play 1's for a minute and make a darn outdoor speaker? Bose does it - other companies do it - why can't you?

Do you need a hand? Are you short staffed? Or short sighted? I know for a fact that an outdoor speaker would fly off the shelf, so let's get this going, ok?

Is there a plan to introduce an outdoor speaker in the future?

#Waiting

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8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi Charles, thanks for the support and we're so glad you're happy with Sonos! We generally don't talk about hardware releases for the future, so I can't give you a thumbs up or down on the outdoor speaker question, but I'll make sure to pass along your interest and voice to our development team. Have a good one and we'll see you around!
There are a couple of major issues - first to design an effective weatherproof cover for all the electronics needed and second, allow a safe way to wire external speakers to mains power for people that have such power available outdoors in the first place.

And to then get significant share in a market well served by Connect/Connect Amp + third party speakers, to justify the development spend. And said speakers sound just as good as Sonos does indoors.

I would not hold my breath, notwithstanding the standard response; these requests aren't new and have not been met for years now, almost certainly for the aforesaid reasons.

The other companies make passive external speakers and/or those with a battery built in that negates the need for mains power outdoors. Who makes speakers that can be left outside that need mains power?
Don’t forget the potential issue of WiFi coverage outside. With a weatherproof speaker, many people might put them outside of the WiFi signal, and then complain.
Good point; which is why the battery powered outdoor speaker market is based on bluetooth connections from the music source. Another Sonos no-no, bluetooth. And with a dedicated to music source device and a streaming service subscription that allows songs to be downloaded for offline listening to the device, this works rather well, with the device being just as useful in a car too.

I believe that this application/market has overtaken or bypassed Sonos and it is now too late to join that party.

Between these solutions and the ones based on passive speakers driven by a Connect Amp, there is little space left for Sonos outdoor speaker sales to justify development spend.
Userlevel 7
Badge +17
I read somewhere, the "outdoor speaker" development team were let go in the redundancies, after working on it for 2 years. So if any of that is true, probably never.
Here is the only article that I have ever read that mentions sonos working on an outdoor speaker but it says the idea was shelved. I’m also heavily invested in sonos but would love an outdoor option. I wish they would let us know if they never plan on doing anything outdoor.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailyherald.com/amp-article/20160903/business/160909696/
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
If you have a Sonos device with a line-out connection just add a Bluetooth transmitter and link it to your Bluetooth speaker outside. The sound probably won't be in sync with your other Sonos speakers but when outside the house that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
"AND - PLEASE - Please don't tell me to connect a Sonos amp to some other company's inferior speakers"

Why not? The Connect AMP is pretty decent and it's not like Sonos are the only company who make decent speakers. If quality was the concern I'd go for a Connect AMP and some speakers even if Sonos had a dedicated product for that space. And as one of those "turntable people" who loves the Line-In feature (and wishes for a Sonos device that had more than one Line in, S/PDIF etc) I'd happily add another Line-In to my setup.

Not that I don't think an outdoor/portable Sonos makes sense. I just don't think quality of sound is why I'd buy it. If Sonos had something along the lines of a battery powered Google Home Mini for a fraction of the price of the One? Just as something I could pick up and put in places I don't have Sonos coverage when needed? I'd buy that in an instant.