Sonos S2

The new S2 app no longer persistently shows the elapsed and remaining time for the track being played. It does show the progress bar but the times appear when the track starts and then disappear after a couple of seconds. Same thing if you touch the screen while a track is playing - times re-appear, then quickly fade.

I really dislike this - I like to be be able to see at least the time remaining without having to continuously be tapping the screen. Very annoying. A step backwards by Sonos here.

Hi Kumar, the first part is just an observation that the split isn't just a ‘Split your systems and carry on as before - but with them unable to link to each other.’ decision.

Effectively you start with all speakers running S1 (11.2) and then tell it which speakers you want to keep as part of S1.  Instead of splitting them off as a separate system with a separate App with its settings intact, it resets them all - but still ends up running the same software it did before the reset. A way of carrying on as before would have been good - especially if you have more than one speaker staying  on S1 (factory resets always a last resort but never really an issue if you had more than one speaker as the reset one had the setting reapplied when it was added again).

I haven't done the split as I have no reason to yet and the loss of the persistent time bar function is another form over function decision I could do without.

Also, my ‘in' to Sonosnet is my Connect and that is only S1 compliant.  I don't know how the change process would handle that - would I then lose connection to all speakers and then be asked to put a cable into another one (not easy atm) or ask me to resort to a WiFi setup.

And yes, it's local Sonos Playlists (the ones we have no proper way of backing up) that are lost.

Cheers.

Yes - well put. S2 is really disappointing and underwhelming.

It does indeed seem as if the main change has been an interface designed by the brand police of the marketing department.

The removal tools just resets the legacy players to factory settings. There’s nothing to stop you doing a manual factory reset on some S2-compatible players in addition. Do this before updating them to S2.

You can then set them all up together as a separate S1 system.

The assumption is that users will want to move forward with S2, but they can if they want split off any S1-only units and set up a fresh system for those.

There’s nothing to stop a user doing it the other way round: manually factory reset a few S2-compatible units, make a new system of those, and update it to S2. 

Either way, a clean new system gets created, empty of playlists, service accounts, etc. It’s a question of which system is more important in terms of the retention of playlists etc.

I agree; one system needing a rebuilding of local playlists is a downer and it does not make sense to users to have to choose between systems for this information to be retained. And even if this is some strategy to discourage split systems, there should be clear warning of this tripwire before it explodes.

Other setting losses are probably not of great consequence - but many of my Sonos playlists have over 2000 tracks in them and I would not happy if I had to rebuild these. I would be even less happy if I discovered this after a wipe out.

Yes, it sounds like you have done a simple upgrade from S1 to S2?

The issue is that if you need to split your system because some of your devices are not compatible with S2, you first of all update everything to the new S1 software, then decide which ones are not going to be a part of S2 and they are then all removed and Factory reset - losing all of their settings, Playlists etc.  You are not left with quite the split system with them behaving as before but not able to be linked - you need to make a decision on which is more important and reset the other.

My Play 5 Gen 1 is in a room where Grouping is not that important anymore - but listening to all the music  and Sonos Playlists, Favourites etc, that I currently do still is.

This doesn’t work. You end up with an S1 controller that complains that the S2 units are “incompatible”, and an S2 controller that complains that the S1 units “need update”.

I expect the Sonos response to be that 95 percent of the user base does not use NAS anymore, and of the diminishing by the day percentage of those that do, a very small number will be interested in split systems. Of which an even smaller number will have large playlists. And are therefore not worth the trouble.

You know what they say: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

One can conceive of a way a system (household) could be divided in two whilst leaving such things as playlists intact. It’s just software after all.

Putting it into practice in a supportable fashion is of course a different matter, with policy and resource implications.

FWIW I’d also hoped Sonos would have provided a household splitting tool.

Hi. I’m happy and content staying with S1 so that I can use my 2 legacy 5’s with my 2 Play 3’s  and 2 play 1’s. When the 5’s become incompatible I’m ready to buy 2 Gen 3 Fives and move the whole thing up to S2. My only concern is that at that time everybody else with legacy 5’s will be doing the same thing, which may cause a run on new Fives and a waiting period to get them. For that reason it has crossed my mind to buy the new Fives now and beat the rush.

Any of you smart guys think that’s a legitimate concern or am I crazy?

I agree with @Kumar that a run on Fives at some future point is not worth worrying about.

The only thing i would add is that, IMO, the gen 2 Play:5 was/is a vast improvement on the gen 1 (and by all accounts the Five is similar acoustically to the gen 2).  If the budget is there, i would consider getting them now and enjoying them.  If you order from Sonos and don’t share my view on the difference in audio quality, you could return them.