I’ve been a Sonos user for five years. I’m the type who rarely fiddles with something that works and, until two months ago, my system has worked well. I’m not going to beef about the app “upgrade” here. Many others have done so very eloquently.
The Boost has always been a part of my system. However, while troubleshooting the recent app issues I learned that the Boost is no longer sold. I’d like to know why, as well as whether and how I should decommission it.
Thanks in advance.
Hi
The ‘goodness’ of the average Wi-Fi router—including those provided by ISPs—has steadily improved over time, all but eliminating the advantage of SonosNet in most cases. As fewer people use SonosNet, fewer still are interested in a Boost.
If your Boost is working for you, offhand I’d stick with it. If you’re in the mood to experiment with a “regular W-Fi configuration,” first verify the strength of your Wi-Fi signal around your home. If you’ve got good strong Wi-Fi everywhere, you can quite likely make the switch and retire your Boost.
There seems to be plenty of evidence that Sonos has been moving away from using Sonosnet - a number of recent and current products don’t use it.
There seem to be some circumstances in which a Boost doesn’t help at all, and it can make wireless network performance worse. I had a stable network (using a Boost) until I added a Move, and that just seemed to screw the whole thing up for anything hi-res (though it was still OK for low-bitrate MP3s). So I removed the Boost and put in a 3-node mesh, which got things stable again.
But I understand your point - why change if the wifi side of your system is performing OK? If you have no problems other than the new app, I’d be inclined to leave it as it is!
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