Hi geoffA,

We created the Trade Up program with our long-time, loyal customers in mind so that they can have a way to take advantage of our newest product offerings and experiences. We also wanted to offer customers a responsible way to trade in products, through our recycling program and be able to get newer devices with better performance or features. This is an option for people interested in getting the latest and greatest, or who might want to change up their systems (as you could trade in a Connect for example for a discount on any device, such as a Play:5 gen2).

We are also committed to supporting all Sonos products for as long as we are able.

Ryan,

Thanks for that, does not really answer the question but I guess that would be difficult. As I said I think the trade offer is good but when you have an amount of kit that you built up over a period of time it’s a lot of money to find in one hit.

Geoff

I completely understand. That last sentence is really the best I can say to such an open ended question. It’s nearly impossible to tell what might happen against the eventuality of “at some point”. We’ll be doing the best we can to keep these devices operating for as long as possible, but the first generation players were made 15 years ago, and a lot has changed since then, and lost more will change in the future. 

So I guess it turns out that you did know! 

Ryan,

Let me ask you a perhaps more relevant question. Like most users I bought my Sonos system over a period of time. I am now faced with a very large unforeseen cost to upgrade my system which I would obviously like to spread over a longer period.

How long will the trade in offer be in place?

Geoff

I just got an email today saying all 5 of my Sonos components are going to stop getting updates in May.

Do you think customers deserve more notice than that?

In the past, staff has said that there is no planned end date for the trade in program.  I haven’t seen that changed in any way today.

However, I don’t think your plan will work regardless.  If you continue to operate a legacy device in your system, then the version of your entire system will be locked, and you will not be able to add any new devices till you remove the legacy devices.  So you would not be able to continue to use legacy devices will periodically adding in new devices.   What you could do is hold off on changing anything untill you have the budge realy to purchase replacements.  Also, you do not need to do like for like replacements.  You could replace a Connect:Amp with a pair of Sonos Ones for example, which would be much cheaper than a single Sonos amp.

Actually, Ryan S said in the main thread that you will be able to add new hardware to systems using legacy software. 

It’s sneaky that they talk about this being old technology when they were selling it two years ago (when I bought the speaker they declared obsolete today). And I can’t see, using their website, how much it would cost to trade up to something other than what is being replaced. For example, I’d like to replace one of my about to be dead amps with a speaker, but they won’t tell me how much it will cost until I agree to let it die. Very underhanded.

What did you buy two years ago that they are declaring Legacy?

The website doesn’t show the discount but you can use Google, for example looking at a $199 Sonos One just enter:

“30 percent of 199”

Nothing.  The youngest legacy devices were last manufactured in 2015.

Apologies--bought just under 5 years ago from a dealer (just found the receipt). I guess 5 years for high-end stereo equipment is end of life.

Why are you discussing end of life? That did happen to the CR-100 and Dock but moving to Legacy status isn’t EOL and they should continue to be supported and work for local functions and streaming unless a Sonos partner decides to not support the older software.

It’s my understanding that the discontinued devices will not only no longer have their software updated, but also that the entire system will no longer have its software updated. And I think they also said you couldn’t update the controller software on your devices either. It’s not technically ‘end of life’, but it’s not really what I’d call ‘supported’ either. At least they aren’t bricked, and will continue to ‘work’.

If you have old and new gear that you want to update you could always split the system into two. Maybe as simple as adding a travel router.

What I recall (faintly) is the controller updates would support legacy gear. Likely, as they aren’t memory limited like the Sonos devices.

This is most certainly EOL by most definitions, across industries and would fit each of my previous employers’ definitions and our IT practices succinctly, both internally and externally. “Legacy”, “EOL”, “Deprecation”, “Depreciation scheduled” etc etc. They all amount to a piece of equipment and/or software that is no longer fit for redeployment and is often pulled from a working environment, and taking measure to segregate a network, or rather create a new silo’d one by means of an additional router is certainly removing it from the environment.
I mention this only because I’m seeing a bit of dissent by way of semantics and minutiae… It isn’t helpful. Solutions are, but correcting folks just for correcting them is not. It is of course not necessarily the practical or realistic end of usefulness to the owner, but it is “product end of life”.