Sonos is forcing people to buy new hardware as they've broken the Connect:Amp and they refuse to fix it

B
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Hi,

 

I'm recreating this thread, as the discussion wasn't finished, but it was locked. I also wanted to make it obvious this is a Sonos issue, not a client environment issue.

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/components-and-architectural-228999/connect-amp-keeps-dropping-out-audio-6885634/index2.html

 

I've been following this for a while because I've been having the same issues, and when I spoke to support they said the connect amp can't cope with modern software and that I should upgrade to the amp, which is clearly unacceptable.

 

This has been confirmed by people in that original thread who have been told the same thing.

 

BillJanzen

“FWIW, these issues seem to have occured after the June 2023 software update to S2 version 15.5. Interestingly, there is an alert posted in the release notes of the 15.6 update released July 25, 2023 about adjusting how older Sonos products use their internal memory. See below (copied from https://support.sonos.com/en-ca/article/release-notes-for-sonos-s2):  Alerts:      With this update, we’ve adjusted how some of our older Sonos products are using their internal memory. Because of this change, updates for Play:1, Play:3, Boost, Connect, Connect:Amp, and Sub (Gen 1 and 2) will take longer to complete than before. The reset process for these products will also take more time to complete after this update.”

 

BillJanzen

“We continue to have intermittent drop-outs on all 4 of our Connect:Amp devices, so here’s my update after 1.5 hours on the phone with Sonos today. They said the diagnostics for one of the Connect:Amp devices the chose to investigate showed multiple major alerts, including:      Cannot allocate memory to full status     Write failed     Player crashed: out of memory     OOM Killer  These items all sound like they are related to memory issues with the older Connect:Amp product, as Big Bull mentioned in his previous post.”

 

Big Bull:

“Ok latest is I powered down 3 of my 4 units and just had the one I use most running hard wired to the router through my switch and it still gave dropouts so I sent 2 diagnostics to Sonos and they said : 

------------------ 

Thanks, so on this one in specific I can see the audio interruptions are caused because the product basically is old, and it is reaching its capabilities, there are some things that can be done to try to reduce the impact of this, but if it continues this product will need to be replaced with the upgrade program. 

------------------- 

I am being advised to replace any affected units with the Sonos Amp which can be costly.”

 

Birchan

“  Same problem, 4 AMP of which two lose sound...  SONOS did a wrong analysis and accidentally said that there were memory failures in some of the units. But since they only give a 2-year warranty, mine was 2.5 years too old. How can SONOS sell products that obviously have manufacturing problems and then say that they can replace them with a 30% discount on new ones? Wonder if Tesla would sell cars that stop working after 2 years and say, sorry you have to buy a new car every two years because the warranty has expired. So bad from SONOS so I will be discontinuing my SONOS system and switching to BOSE...  “

 

For context, in my situation I have a connect amp, connected via ethernet with WiFi off, and I started to get regular drop outs around June. It's incredibly annoying, the audio will drop out for a few seconds before continuing, if other speakers are grouped they will carry on fine.

 

It's absolutely 100% not a network issue. When I was debugging it, I briefly made the connect amp the only wired device and turned on WiFi, and other speakers in my house worked perfectly at all times. I've also reserved IP addresses, and I ran a ping monitor on it to check for any network dropouts. There were none. I've put the system back now, so the connect amp has its WiFi off.

 

So it seems to me that Sonos have released a firmware update that the connect amp cannot handle, and rather than take responsibility for it, they're just fobbing people off telling them to buy expensive new hardware to solve the problem, not even with any substantial discount. It's unacceptable. This connect amp worked perfectly before June.

 

Sonos needs to release a new update that solves the issue, or give people affected substantial discounts on replacement amps, and formally announce that the connect amp is end of life. Currently people with issues on this forum are being unintentionally gaslighted by well meaning people who don't know that this issue exists. Sonos cannot say the connect amp is supported when they've released a broken update.

 

People need to know about this issue, I've seen loads of topics about this issue and people get fobbed off with network issues, which is absolutely not the case, at all. Big Bull proved this by doing a replacement to amps which solved his issue.

Corry P 4 months ago

Hi @britcowboy et al,

Thank you all for your information both in this topic and the other one mentioned (which we have reopened as it was automatically closed by mistake).

Our engineers are currently investigating this with the highest priority.

We thank you for your patience while we work through this, we'll keep you updated with any news that we can share.

Thank you.

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261 replies

B
Userlevel 4
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Disagree regarding your first comment.  If someone is complaining about network drop outs with their Connect:Amp, it’s most likely to be a network.  At the very least, network issues should be eliminated before assuming it’s a hardware problem.

 

The trouble is that what could be a firmware issue is being dismissed (quite rudely in some cases) by forum members as a network issue because the symptoms look the same and network issues are the most common source of problems.

 

 

The vast majority of times, these are network problems, despite people claiming that they know there is nothing wrong with theirr network.  I guess I’m understanding a bit of skepticism when we see these claims.  As far as them being rude, this your first day on the internet?  😀  The thread title sort of set the tone, even if OP didn’t mean to imply that Sonos was intentionally causing the issue.

 

It’s only when we get Sonos Help involved that they can discount network issues and interrogate the offending connect amp units to show that there is a memory issue.

 

Yes, because only Sonos has the tools to properly diagnose the issue.

 

 

However, there is no willingness on Sonos’ part to solve this problem - and this is for hardware which was only discontinued four years ago. The message now is to buy new hardware. But how long will that be good for? Another four years? I don’t have the wherewithal to be spending $1,500 (after 15% upgrade discount) on a couple of Sonos Amps every four years.

My rollback to S1 has been glitch free for the last ten hours so here’s hoping that I just saved $1,500.

However, people who have to stick to S2 for other reasons won’t be so fortunate.

 

Sonos tends to be quite about these issues.  We don’t know the scope of the problem, in terms of how many units are impacted and how/if the issue can be fixed.  We can’t assume that silence means their just ignoring the issue, as that has not been the case before.  I’m sure some would just like to role back the change, but if the change brought in a new feature, or fixed a bigger issue, that’s not a viable option.

 

Yes the thread title was deliberately provokative in order to get attention from Sonos etc and to make it obvious this isn’t a normal support thread, this is a thread raising an issue with the Sonos device itself.

I understand that a lot of times the network is a factor, but when there’s a pattern here of a particular SKU having a similar issue, it’s probably more likely that the issue is with the device itself and not the environment.

Also this is exactly the issue, Sonos SHOULD NOT BE quiet about these issues, these are expensive products and we deserve updates, this isn’t the right way to run a software business. Most days I’m having cut outs with this device, and it’s incredibly annoying

jgatie

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up.  It’s certainly been tried before. 

S
Userlevel 1

Joined the community to add another customer to the “was working perfectly until summer 23 and having to face reality of unnecessary and expensive upgrade.”

Hosted a large holiday party and guests kept asking me why the music kept coming on and off.  :( 

jgatie

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”.  Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

melvimbe

Joined the community to add another customer to the “was working perfectly until summer 23 and having to face reality of unnecessary and expensive upgrade.”

Hosted a large holiday party and guests kept asking me why the music kept coming on and off.  :( 

 

  If you haven’t already done so, I’d contact Sonos support to eliminate the possibility that it’s a network issue.  If it is hardware, that Sonos will be aware of another person with this issue.

Danny
A
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And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”.  Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up.  It’s certainly been tried before. 

Your cynicism knows no bounds. You probably think the moon landings were faked too.🤣

Just because we’re at 20 posters and counting when you earlier claimed only two reported instances of this problem 😎

You’ll be checking IP addresses next 😉

S
Userlevel 1

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”.  Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

Yikes!  What’s going on in this community…. Can confirm, I am a real person, with a real problem that is going to cost me real money and time to fix.  I had no reason to go through the effort to sign up for an account because, crucially - I had no reason to.  This system has worked flawlessly since 2018.  So here I am, adding my voice to what appears to be a handful of others, frustrated that we have a new problem occurring with strikingly similar timelines, symptoms, and frustrations.  

jgatie

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”.  Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up.  It’s certainly been tried before. 

Your cynicism knows no bounds. You probably think the moon landings were faked too.🤣

Just because we’re at 20 posters and counting when you earlier claimed only two reported instances of this problem 😎

You’ll be checking IP addresses next 😉

 

I 100% know we landed on the moon.  Several times, in fact.  I've even seen the laser reflector we left up there reflecting back a signal.  I also 100% know forums are rife with manipulation, sock puppets, and jury rigged polls.  It's how Windows phone threads dominated this forum while never cracking 2% of the market, or how we are constantly getting brand new posters who know the entire history of this forum, and have the exact same posting style as an oft banned poster going back decades.

And I don't need to check IP addresses.  The mods do that.

J

I am unable to speak to previous "fake" accounts. I found this thread (the previous one actually) in an attempt to diagnose my problem via a Google search. I may make a separate thread in an effort to ask specific questions without derailing this discussion.

 

JD

B
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up.  It’s certainly been tried before. 

Quite an accusation against me… This appears to be a problem, and I want to see it fixed, for everyone.

I don't get your hostility

B
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

And here come the “me too” register and post once “accounts”.  Yeah, that’s never been seen before either. 🙄

I’m beginning to think this entire thread is a bit of over the top theatrics trying to get Sonos to replace a couple units for free just to get a few posters to shut up.  It’s certainly been tried before. 

Your cynicism knows no bounds. You probably think the moon landings were faked too.🤣

Just because we’re at 20 posters and counting when you earlier claimed only two reported instances of this problem 😎

You’ll be checking IP addresses next 😉

 

I 100% know we landed on the moon.  Several times, in fact.  I've even seen the laser reflector we left up there reflecting back a signal.  I also 100% know forums are rife with manipulation, sock puppets, and jury rigged polls.  It's how Windows phone threads dominated this forum while never cracking 2% of the market, or how we are constantly getting brand new posters who know the entire history of this forum, and have the exact same posting style as an oft banned poster going back decades.

And I don't need to check IP addresses.  The mods do that

I don't understand why you feel the need to be Sonos’ defender.. They've notably been absent in this thread so far, let them speak for themselves. It just comes across as brown nosing. We're all Sonos customers here, I don't want Sonos to fail, as I've spent a lot of money with them, I want them to succeed. I don't understand your cynicism. This is the sort of toxic behaviour that puts people off forums. I was only lurking in that other thread, I only became involved when I saw it had been closed, despite no resolution. Maybe you should try being more welcoming, or maybe take a break from the Internet, it's not healthy for you being so invested in an issue you're not even having, and defending a multi million pound corporation.

 

Also the mods are welcome to check IP addresses, these other accounts aren't me, if that's what you're implying.

B
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For the doubters that doubt this is a real problem, I found this thread with this response by Sonos.

https://en.community.sonos.com/components-and-architectural-228999/connect-amp-zp120-spotify-connect-pauses-and-restarts-6886060?postid=16682180#post16682180

Thanks for the diagnostics. It appears your Connect:AMP is having problems with playing Spotify - this can happen with some of our older products as they run out of internal resources. There are some mitigation steps that can be taken, but as they generally consist of getting other products to perform certain tasks, these are not available to you on your one unit system. You also already have Crossfade disabled, which is another mitigation step (if your Spotify app has Crossfade enabled, please disable it) and have tried ethernet without success.  Therefore, I can only suggest that you avoid using Spotify, iHeart Radio or NRK Radio from now on, with that particular unit, or replace the unit with a more modern alternative (an Amp); Spotify seems to be one of the more difficult services for these affected units to play. As you have only just obtained your Connect:AMP, I have to assume this is the reason it’s previous owner sold it in the first place.  However, if playback is more reliable when using the Sonos app rather than the Spotify app, I recommend you do so, though I rather suspect you will find it behaves roughly the same once you use it more often.  If you have an old phone/tablet that has a 3.5mm headphone jack, you could connect it to the Line-in of your Connect:AMP and use it as a Spotify source in the meantime, though this will mean you’d have to go to that device to change/control the music in any way. You’d need a stereo RCA to stereo 3.5mm stereo jack cable to do so.  I hope this helps, though I realise it’s not the answer you were looking for.

 

Personally I don't think this response is good enough. If these devices are no longer able to playback common services, then this is a major regression. These devices used to be able to do this, and downgrading to S1 seems to fix the issue, so it seems to be a software issue which Sonos are refusing to fix. Telling customers to just buy a new device is not good enough.

 

Sonos defenders, how can you defend this? This is indefensible. This product isn't being sold, but it's not marked as EOL unlike earlier Connect AMPs which didn't survive the S2 upgrade. Sonos needs to undo the changes it made to memory in the summer update so we can use our existing hardware. If you defend this, the time will come when Sonos does something that bites you, and we won't be here to support you..

K

If you have an old phone/tablet that has a 3.5mm headphone jack, you could connect it to the Line-in of your Connect:AMP and use it as a Spotify source in the meantime, though this will mean you’d have to go to that device to change/control the music in any way. You’d need a stereo RCA to stereo 3.5mm stereo jack cable to do so. 

Interesting to see Sonos suggesting this - it echoes what I have said here in the past, except that I recommend using the cheapest Echo you can find that has a audio out jack that will do this better than what an old phone will. The Echo front end is stable for music play, and your sound quality will remain unchanged because that remains in the domain of the Connect Amp and downstream speakers wired to it. Even if you use a cheap and now obsolete Echo Dot.

I am doing this for three years now...to get voice control where it does not make business sense for Sonos to invest in infrastructure to offer Alexa integration in my country. And, with Show units, to get very useful album art for what is playing.

B
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If you have an old phone/tablet that has a 3.5mm headphone jack, you could connect it to the Line-in of your Connect:AMP and use it as a Spotify source in the meantime, though this will mean you’d have to go to that device to change/control the music in any way. You’d need a stereo RCA to stereo 3.5mm stereo jack cable to do so. 

Interesting to see Sonos suggesting this - it echoes what I have said here in the past, except that I recommend using the cheapest Echo you can find that has a audio out jack that will do this better than what an old phone will. The Echo front end is stable for music play, and your sound quality will remain unchanged because that remains in the domain of the Connect Amp and downstream speakers wired to it. Even if you use a cheap and now obsolete Echo Dot.

I am doing this for three years now...

While this could be a good option for some, for me it's not an option, I want to use my Sonos device as part of my Sonos ecosystem, not have the complexity of running another system in front of it due to a software issue Sonos won't fix.

K

While this could be a good option for some, for me it's not an option, I want to use my Sonos device as part of my Sonos ecosystem, not have the complexity of running another system in front of it due to a software issue Sonos won't fix.

Either you or another here said that they have just the one unit that will be reverted to S1, the rest remaining on S2. Running via an Echo front end is not much different than running two Sonos systems, under S1 and S2. 

In my case, all my Sonos zones run on wired to line in Echo units, so it is all one system; even grouped play is done via Alexa groups.

K

 

Thanks for the diagnostics. It appears your Connect:AMP is having problems with playing Spotify - this can happen with some of our older products as they run out of internal resources

If Sonos has indeed said the quoted, realistically speaking, you will get nothing more to address your issue and need to invent your own workarounds if you wish to keep using the Connect Amp.

Assuming that your issue is not due to network glitches.

buzz

Buy once, free support forever is a difficult business model. This is made more complicated by new phone/pad/computer systems removing support required by older hardware. In some cases if the manufacturer does not update its software, apps will be dropped from App stores, resulting in the company quickly becoming irrelevant — taking free support forever down with it.

A
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Buy once, free support forever is a difficult business model. This is made more complicated by new phone/pad/computer systems removing support required by older hardware. In some cases if the manufacturer does not update its software, apps will be dropped from App stores, resulting in the company quickly becoming irrelevant — taking free support forever down with it.

Nobody is asking for free support forever. Simply free support which lasts longer than four years after the product is discontinued. The lack of support for connect amp doesn’t really jive with Sonos’ claimed Product Sustainability objectives;

”designing for longevity with internet-connected devices means focusing on hardware and software… 

…we keep product software updated with bug fixes and security patches for many years.”

I guess four years counts as ‘many’ but that’s in strict observance of the definition rather than the spirit of a product which has not yet been declared EoL but has been rendered unusable by Sonos’ own software updates. 
 

K

 The lack of support for connect amp doesn’t really jive with Sonos’ claimed Product Sustainability objectives;

”designing for longevity with internet-connected devices means focusing on hardware and software… 

…we keep product software updated with bug fixes and security patches for many years.”

 

To be fair to Sonos, if they made a mistake, it is that of declaring Connect Amp that is a design more than a decade old, to be S2 compatible.

B
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Buy once, free support forever is a difficult business model. This is made more complicated by new phone/pad/computer systems removing support required by older hardware. In some cases if the manufacturer does not update its software, apps will be dropped from App stores, resulting in the company quickly becoming irrelevant — taking free support forever down with it.

Okay? But that is the business model Sonos have chosen - so they have to honour it.

B
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 The lack of support for connect amp doesn’t really jive with Sonos’ claimed Product Sustainability objectives;

”designing for longevity with internet-connected devices means focusing on hardware and software… 

…we keep product software updated with bug fixes and security patches for many years.”

 

To be fair to Sonos, if they made a mistake, it is that of declaring Connect Amp that is a design more than a decade old, to be S2 compatible.

Well Gen 1 of the Connect Amp wasn’t S2 compatible, whereas Gen 2 was. They then can’t gimp Gen 2 within a couple of years of that upgrade.

Ken_Griffiths

 The lack of support for connect amp doesn’t really jive with Sonos’ claimed Product Sustainability objectives;

”designing for longevity with internet-connected devices means focusing on hardware and software… 

…we keep product software updated with bug fixes and security patches for many years.”

 

To be fair to Sonos, if they made a mistake, it is that of declaring Connect Amp that is a design more than a decade old, to be S2 compatible.

Well Gen 1 of the Connect Amp wasn’t S2 compatible, whereas Gen 2 was. They then can’t gimp Gen 2 within a couple of years of that upgrade.

Didn’t Sonos say at the time of the S1/S2 split that their intention was to support their products upto 5 years after date of last manufacture? My thoughts are the Connect Amp (gen2) must be approaching the 5 year time period, but I’m not sure of the precise month/year the new Amp took over🤔? It seems a long time ago now though since the Sonos Amp was first launched.

melvimbe

Sonos defenders, how can you defend this? This is indefensible. This product isn't being sold, but it's not marked as EOL unlike earlier Connect AMPs which didn't survive the S2 upgrade. Sonos needs to undo the changes it made to memory in the summer update so we can use our existing hardware. If you defend this, the time will come when Sonos does something that bites you, and we won't be here to support you..

 

Really?  You posted 3 years ago to complain about the S1/S2 changes, and posted nothing till now when you have another complaint.  You’re really going to claim you will be there to support others when there are issues that don’t impact you directly?  And who is this ‘we’ you claim to speak for?  The theatrics are silly.

Danny
B
Userlevel 4
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Sonos defenders, how can you defend this? This is indefensible. This product isn't being sold, but it's not marked as EOL unlike earlier Connect AMPs which didn't survive the S2 upgrade. Sonos needs to undo the changes it made to memory in the summer update so we can use our existing hardware. If you defend this, the time will come when Sonos does something that bites you, and we won't be here to support you..

 

Really?  You posted 3 years ago to complain about the S1/S2 changes, and posted nothing till now when you have another complaint.  You’re really going to claim you will be there to support others when there are issues that don’t impact you directly?  And who is this ‘we’ you claim to speak for?  The theatrics are silly.

Firstly, I love the fact you’re going through my post history to find dirt on me, well done. And secondly, I don’t come onto this forum that often, but I do follow Sonos news, I followed the story about the Arc, which didn’t exacly need my help by the time I found out about it. However something I’d never do is hang around a company forum telling people their issues with the companies product aren’t valid, and that the company can do no wrong - that’s pretty sad behaviour imo

I just went back and looked at my old posts, and who was I responding to then? Oh yes, melvimbe and jgatie, who were defending Sonos then as well...

A
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The irony is that very few of the Establishment on here actually have connect amps in their systems. 
So rather than offer help, they’ve decided to throw libellous accusations from the peanut gallery. 
 

I’m nearly 36 hours into the rollback to S1 and the amps and apps have been stable and responsive. 

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