Airplay 2 - Only for the new Sonos One

Hey Sonos, here's something to think about while you continue to fumble around with Airplay support (I've been asking for this since the day after I bought my $2000 system on 7/9/16—Playbar, Sub, & Play1s): If you don't support last gen gear with a firmware update, I'll be sending this garbage back to you in a body bag—complete with a toe tag. Your apps have been a complete train wreck since day one. To this day, I still cannot access all my iTunes playlists—especially those pointing to Apple Music content. If I were you, I'd think this one through very carefully because this is a make or break decision for your future in the wireless speaker space.

I received a Sonos e-mail today, titled, "You asked. We listened"—rrrrrrriiiiiigggggggghhhhhhttt. You wasted my time, yet again, by sending me another app interface improvement e-mail instead of addressing the elephant that's been in the room for a long time: Airplay support! If you had truly listened to "valuable customer feedback", you'd have released Airplay support over a year ago!

A little melodramatic, aren't we? And I'm not sure Sonos would mind getting back $2000 of gear for free that they can then refurb and use for warranty replacement.

No I think he wanted it a year ago.

No I think he wanted it a year ago.


Gee, remember when Airplay 1 was a "make or break decision" for Sonos' future? Turns out Airplay 1 failed, and now Apple can't even make Airplay 2 as good as Sonos, even when they try to copy Sonos architecture With the Homepod coming out with no multi-room sync via Airplay 2, I'm pretty sure Sonos' future in the wireless speaker space is pretty secure.

And as far as we know the Sonos One is the only capable speaker. For airplay2

Airplay has to play everything via the controlling device. It also re-encodes everything sent through it degrading quality.

Due to airplay having to download everything to phone/controller then compressing and sending back over wifi .... it is very prone to dropouts.

Compared to Sonos (or Chromecast when actually casting) which tells the speaker where to locate the stream and the speaker pulls directly from source.

I believe Airplay2 will still have the downloading to device etc. of airplay ... however apple has said it will buffer so as to not drop out like old airplay would do as you walked around house. Hopefully the codec is better as well so it doesn't degrade the audio quality like old airplay.

Or you can’t read my post above that

I did a/b comparisons in my neighbors creation with airplay input and Sonos input. Same songs Sonos casting was 100% better quality.

Airplay has to play everything via the controlling device. It also re-encodes everything sent through it degrading quality.

Due to airplay having to download everything to phone/controller then compressing and sending back over wifi .... it is very prone to dropouts.

Compared to Sonos (or Chromecast when actually casting) which tells the speaker where to locate the stream and the speaker pulls directly from source.

I believe Airplay2 will still have the downloading to device etc. of airplay ... however apple has said it will buffer so as to not drop out like old airplay would do as you walked around house. Hopefully the codec is better as well so it doesn't degrade the audio quality like old airplay.

The compression used by airplay 1 is lossless as long as the source stream is less than or equal to cd quality. Only pro audio formats would see any degradation.

I’m quite disappointed wth the SONOS policy of the last few months. Firstly I discovered that the new interaction with Audible, long awaited, is not working in my country (and yet my country has both SONOS and Audible services), now I understand AirPlay 2 will only be available for new spekers. I wonder why! AirPlay 2 is only a matter of software updates; no hardware, no chips, no other stuff. Is this the way SONOS treat “old” customers (assuming that someone who bought a new speaker only two years ago may be considered an “old customer”)? Why didn’t SONOS make AirPlay 2 available for everyone? I bought SONOS, paying more than 100 euros more than any competitor, because they promised always updated devices. What has become of that promise? Will SONOS give any reason to their “old” customers?

Really disappointed in the announcement. While I understand Play 5 gen 1 being excluded, it seems to me that Any currently sold device should be supported. What about the Boost? There should be a reasonable way for people who have invested significant $ in sonos to be able to get Airplay2 without purchasing a new speaker.

Well, actually the original airplay was implemented on access point technology (airport express). Now I don't pretend to know what processing power will actually be needed for airplay 2 but I'll hold my position that some other entrypoint should be made available for folks who have invested big money in their systems. I have no need for another speaker but would like to have some option that doesn't involve buying another speaker.

I imagine the limitation is more memory related then processing related.

Perhaps I was unclear. I did not say I wanted it backported to my speakers, although that would be nice. I believe there should be a way to provide airplay 2 support without purchasing another speaker. That could mean porting to the Boost, or upgrading the Connect. I am uninterested in any “smart” speaker, and have no need for a playbase or Play5.