Roam - another catastrophic strategic mistake

How exactly is the Roam messing up your system?

FYI… the Roam is only compatible with the S2 app.

You can't have a mixture of S1 and S2 components, because there are no such things. S1 and S2 are systems and if you have an S1 system then the Roam cannot join it.

I don’t have the energy to explain it to you but I refer you to the worldwide fury that Sonos caused when the S2 controller was launched, and Sonos’ subsequent rowing back on its original plans.

No punishment, no cash grab, no nefarious anything.  New devices have to run S2, they cannot be added to S1 because S1 was retired before the Roam even existed.  As clearly stated when the S1/S2 split occurred, in order to add new features (like the shiny new Roam device), you need to be running S2, because S1 devices can’t fit any new features in their small 32 MB storage and RAM.  Pretty logical if you think about it.  

Though I do find it interesting that one who stated Sonos has had a “Gerald Ratner” moment is right back buying their newest offering a scant year later.  

Why can’t the S2 controller be used to control the older Sonos products?  I understand that the older products can’t have new features added to them; I’m perfectly happy for them to run in exactly the way they do now.  Having bought Sonos when it first came out (a free iPod came with my first components to use as the controller), I’m now so disappointed with this company.

Because the components are being “controlled” by their firmware, the Sonos app is just a remote for the system.

Has nothing to do with the controller.  The system consists of two parts, the controller app(s) and the device firmware, and the system needs to be running the same version (S1/S2) on each device/controller or they can’t communicate with each other.  S1 devices cannot run the S2 firmware because they have limited resources, and the S2 firmware is too big due to the new features. 

And it is the firmware that does all the work, the controller just sends commands and displays results.  Everything else; playing music, grouping rooms, synching between rooms, accessing services, indexing a library, storing a playlist, adding a new device, etc. are all done by the firmware.  And if the S1 firmware doesn’t know what a Roam is, it can’t be expected to add a Roam to the system. 

Sonos products first launched in 2005. The iOS controller app didn’t appear until 2008.

Unless you’re referring to the so-called “Russian iPod” aka the CR100? That was never free, though it was included in bundles with ZonePlayers.

I remember the CR100 (‘Russian iPod’ is a good description) but I did get an Apple iPod with one of the Zone Players that I bought - I’d never seen one before.  I think I’m just from an era when we expected things to last.  The Hi-Fi separates I bought in the early 1970s sounded just as good when I changed them for Sonos.  And if I wanted a new cassette player or when CDs came out, I bought the relevant player and plugged it in.  There was no faffing around with which system it has to be connected to.  Simpler times!

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