I’d also be interested in this answer Stanley, as I also had an iPod Touch 6th Gen which is no longer supported.

Will be interested to see folks advice :) 

I’d really urge you not to buy an electronic device to one time tune your speakers. Surely you know somebody you can bribe with tea and cake to come round and do it for you?

I tend to stay just back from the leading edge because this is cheaper. Another approach is to go for the leading edge, then use it as a trade-in for the next leading edge. This maximizes the trade-in value. It’s hard to exactly predict the year over year cost advantage of this approach. Many times there are attractive prices for last year’s model just after “new improved, get the latest!” has been brought out and before trade-in value declines too much.

You might want to look into TouchControl with your new iPad. With some JavaScript programming pretty much your imagination is the limit as to what you can control. I’m speculating, but with enough effort, I think that you could develop a SONOS controller that would be similar in features to the SONOS App. I doubt that it would be practical to include setup functions.

Overall I’m impatient with pokey user interfaces and this is a reason for me to gravitate toward the later, higher end units because they are faster.

FWIW: I’m not an Apple fanboy, I need the iPad for business and it’s my only Apple product. I did have an iTouch that I used for SONOS control.

I tend to move things around and reshuffle Sonos as a result, or I get a new one and move the old down the room chain, so it isn’t going to be a one time thing, probably average a couple times per year. I also like to experiment a bit trying to improve my results and that can be several re-tuning sessions across a few days.

Most of the folks I know have flip-phones or ancient Android or Apple phones. I had hoped for the grand-kids option but the local ones are Android users. Of the few friend possibilities, I don’t know them well enough to ask they install an app they have never heard of and let me play with their phone long enough to tweak all my rooms.

If folks can borrow an Apple often enough to meet their needs it is sure the smart option. Not only cheap but you don’t have the “oopsie, you are obsolete” issue and cost.

Every other self-tuning device I own has an included microphone and doesn’t require me to keep buying or borrowing a currently supported and far too expensive third-party device. A $50 - $100 USB mike would have saved me money already, more when I buy my replacement and even more when I have to replace the replacement. Sure wish Sonos would look into this option.

I also used my iPod touch several times over the past 6 months of ownership, as I moved things around a bit and also bought a couple of new speakers. I did like that fact I could re-jig my stuff and just re-do the Trueplay if I wanted to. I got the iPod second hand at a cheap price and luckily have just sold it for just £10 less than I paid for it so not too bad. Will miss having it though as it was my little Trueplay device. 

It wouldn’t surprise me if eventually Sonos comes up with another solution to Trueplay, as it seems iDevices will continue to be released once or twice a year (or thereabouts) for a good many years still to come and it must be quite a costly exercise having to calibrate each different Apple product - I did wonder if the Roam microphones might somehow be utilised in some way to gather room data, which in turn could be ‘translated’ and applied to a selected Sonos ‘room’, to maybe help reduce costs?

I guess these things though are always much easier said, than done.

I agree @Ken_Griffiths - I honestly didn’t think about the iPod I had becoming useless for Trueplay so easily (silly of me I guess)

Wish they could come up with another solution

While I’m not sure how practical this scheme might be, it would be possible to present a phone/pad at a properly equipped store/center and have it calibrated. There would be an investment for the calibration equipment and fees for each procedure along with arguments over who should support this effort. Current iDevice users would grumble that this capability had always been free. There would be an argument that retail stores should support this as an excuse to have bodies come through the store, especially if the SONOS purchase was online, but this is only a one time per phone/pad activity. It would be logical to present the phone/pad to retail staff at the time of a SONOS purchase, but this does not factor well in a pandemic riddled world.

If a small little dongle could be produced and sold on a large enough scale, it could probably be priced in the $50.00 range, but would SONOS owners feel that this was fair for something that had been free?

Enquiring minds want to know.

What’s this strange concept: a “retail store”?

I don’t think I’ve been near anything like that, at least for electronics purchases, in years.

With my old Marantz a free microphone (wired) was supplied with the receiver.

Yes, Sony did the same/similar thing with their HT receivers too - a simple case of placing the supplied (wired) mic at the ‘sweet spot’ (only) and then going through the tuning process. The attached image shows the sort of mic used by their devices.

I had a couple of those Sony devices. I think the first thing I lost was that little microphone, only to turn up years later in some obscure place when I was moving. And trying to figure out “what *is* this thing”?

Except for the inexpensive junk, included (wired) microphones are common these days for home theater receivers. Since it’s likely that the microprocessors used include the capability anyway, the manufacturer might as well include the microphone and a little preamp on the board. It’s a cheap trick, likely a major part of the expense is licensing fees.

I have to say the notion of supplying one time or even no time (I’ve had several of these and never used them) use items is something that now makes me utterly depressed.

I’d rather Sonos had a way of sending somebody with a calibrated mic/controller (iPhone) to a customers house where they didn’t have an appropriate device for Trueplay.

A good retailer could do this for you. But not many people buy their stuff at shops anymore. And it would be even more expensive as supplying a microphone.

If the unit was purchased from and installed by a retailer, certainly they could Trueplay at that time, however, if you move the unit or swap surrounds, the original Trueplay is no longer valid.

Don’t forget the current Arc situation where a Sonos update requires you run TruePlay again.

Anyway, I found a nice “like new” 8th Gen 32 GB iPad on eBay and ordered it. Spouse made it clear that was coming out of my “Buy more Sonos” budget that I was looking at getting another speaker with. Oh well, maybe next year.

Anyway, I found a nice “like new” 8th Gen 32 GB iPad on eBay and ordered it. Spouse made it clear that was coming out of my “Buy more Sonos” budget that I was looking at getting another speaker with. Oh well, maybe next year.

Hi @Stanley_4 , I found a refurbished 7th Gen iPad (could not quite afford the , which I should get today. How are you finding your iPad? I’m hoping to get a fair bit of use out of mine as my only iOS product as I can use it for trueplay, as my controller and of course, for going onto the web when I don’t want to use my main laptop or my small phone screen. 

I’m finding it a real aggravation after my old Touch, far too big and clunky to easily wave around the room, kinda needs both hands to keep from risking dropping it.

Only difference in operation I’ve seen is it doesn’t like to tune my tiny bathroom. Not sure if that is an iPad issue or the new firmware. I’ll bring that up with Sonos at some point.

Mine new one, like the old, will come out of the box and get charged and updated every three months (depending on how the battery looks) as I have no other use for an Apple device.

Hi @Stanley_4 . I recently bought the same thing - iPad 8th gen 32gb and it doesn’t support Trueplay. What am I missing? What iPad os are you running? 14.6 or 15.6? 

It’s not clear in the FAQ whose software they are talking about, when they say ‘Make sure you’re on the latest software version before following the steps below.’, but I’d think it’s safe to say both Sonos and Apple’s. 

Sonos Trueplay usually uses the most current iOS ‘general release’ software, which is now at v15.6. That’s what I use with my iPhone to Trueplay the rooms here. So you likely just need to update your iPad.

Yep, had to update the iPad to Apple’s latest to get TruePlay to work.

Two years ago I bought a cheap iphone 5 just for trueplay. It worked perfectly until this week when I needed to re-install my surround speakers  And yep I got the “this device no longer has the OS to support this function. I am positive that a large company like Sonos could if it really wanted to, sort this problem out for all its customers. After all these speakers are not cheap. So now I am looking for a cheap!! iphone device Simply so I can use it maybe once or twice a year. It is a bloody joke. And no I do not know anyone that owns a new apple product so I cannot invite anyone over or lend me their iphone. Come on Sonos sort this out.

I would be interested to know what an official “Sonos Trueplay Device” would cost, what a great ad on accessory. Team up with a manufacturer (SONY, Teac, etc) who know how to make handheld sound units and bypass Apple/Android altogether. Must be a nightmare dealing with Apple/Android updates. My real interest in something like this is because all microphones in phones/tablets are poor quality at best. They have very limited frequency range and sure aren’t linear when dealing with the full frequency range we can hear. As for the best microphone in a Apple device, I would think buying the cheapest working unit and pairing it to a plug in microphone (sennheiser, etc.) would yield far more accurate tuning results. Dialing in sound to room acoustics is incredibly complicated and a very expensive thing to do properly.