The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it

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T
Userlevel 3
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Sage commentary about recent events and the path forward by a guy I respect Leo LaPorte, The Tech Guy.  Watch video at timeline: 56:30 thru 1:05:30

https://twit.tv/shows/the-tech-guy/episodes/1663?autostart=false

Speaks for itself.

 

chickentender

UPDATE TO MY PAST DIAGRAM
Hybrid Bluesound/Sonos - Phono/Receiver Setup 2.0

I thought this was worth a quick re-sketch. It now replaces how I had everything wired yesterday (posted one page back on Page.9)....

I’m really not certain why this didn’t dawn on me long ago to wire everything this way utilizing my receiver’s tape input/output jacks… but better late than never. It occured to me staring at my underutilized Marantz that there was a better way, and this entirely removes the previous TOSLINK-->RCA converter I’d been using. Instead I simply route the receiver’s tape output to the Connect’s RCA-IN and then pass the Connect RCA-OUT right back to the receiver RCA Tape-IN. Easy. All I need to do is turn on the receiver’s Tape-Monitor switch to listen to the Connect’s output instead of the Node-2i AUX source (eliminating sync problems when the Sonos is grouped with the other Sonos zones, as before).

This has the added benefit of also passing any EQ adjustments I make to the Node-2i source signal on the receiver right over to the Connect (and out to the zone speakers, in turn), as well as eliminating the signal degradation (very slight, but present) I was experiencing with the optical/analog converter.

And, as an added bonus (and this is where I seriously kicked myself for not even recognizing what I’d done until I started diagramming this again!!) I can now send my phono output to the other Sonos zones as well this way, also without sync delay! And the setup is clean and tidy. Seriously happy this evening.

 

melvimbe

And hopefully Ryan might get the go-ahead to share a bit of information sooner than May… if for no other reason than to tamp the firestarters a bit (and admittedly I fanned some flame in the first day or so) in these weeks coming. Methinks they doth protest too much.

Just to avoid confusion - whose sincerity are you doubting? Sonos or the firestarters?

Isn’t a matter of sincerity to me. I was talking about the main “clarification” thread and the firestorm there. As Majik mentioned, there are some in there seemingly concerned more about fire-fanning than about solving problems and getting good information. They’re free to. I meant that some more forthcoming  detail from Sonos sooner than later could go a long way in dousing the flame.
… or perhaps not. 

 

I’d rather see Sonos take more time to make sure the information they share is solid with no chance of changing between now and May.  Since this isn’t just about policy, but how the changes they are promising (the two separate systems and how they are controlled) are technical in nature, I’d want them to be able to go through some test runs and make sure the can deliver first.

Danny
J
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I’ve read so many posts today I’m numb and can’t remember who said what ,when and in which order - so please forgive me airing my views which may repeat what others have said on this and other threads.

 

I’m on locked-down v8.4 to preserve the use of my 5 or 6 remaining CR100s - each costing more than a netbook when i bought them. I started my Sonos system with a NAS in 2005/6 and it’s grown massively with a BlueSound Vault 2i serving as my NAS since last summer. A random offer from Plex for a lifetime subscription for about £72 saw me add Plex (shame the Plex server won’t run on my Vault so I have to leave a laptop on which runs Sonos Desktop Controller just fine) and Tidal through their discounted Plex affiliation.  The only real change is the higher resolution of music that I rip and now stream.

I’d love for Sonos’s legacy software to preserve all of this with no risk to updating to a later version which would kill off my CR100s.  As I still buy CDs and value the way my system worked all those years ago, I’d happily give up all the recent enhancements - most of which would be available through the BluOS and Plex combination anyway.  The line-in on my Play 5 (Gen 1) gives further flexibility for Echo connection etc.

Is it too much to ask that we continue to use our systems the way we used to without fear of the software perpetually trying to update itself. Running 2 separate Sonos systems concurrently and having to remember which Android device connects to which router/Sonos network - and whether it should or shouldn’t apply app updates gives me enough of a headache.  Somehow the simplicity of my 4 button one box ripping/playing Brennan B7 seems very appealing.  I might even use those nice Sonos bookshelf speakers that came with my ZP100s all those years ago and which will work regardless of any Sonos software updates.

 

Thanks to everyone who has offered the advice along the way to get me to where my legacy system is now.

18 zones, 29 devices and counting
melvimbe

We’ve updated some articles around this topic and I know many of you in this thread are interested in what it looks like to have a split system, so here’s an article here on Using separate S1 and S2 Sonos systems.
 

Would it not have been a good idea to have emailed all customers?

I would imagine lots will have given up with sonos and these forums for lack of any official comments/updates?

 

It does come across as rather strange to email bad news to customers, and let media outlets dish out the good news.

Danny
A
Userlevel 2

What’s truly crazy is that the new feature they’re screwing us all over for is voice control, and I don’t even want that in my system - I’d actively disable it.  Do they really think people want to scream at their Sonos gear to change songs or search while playing something?  They already got the home automation crowd upset at them for buying Snips and then shutting it down.  Now they’re doing their best to get all their existing customers boycotting them by forcing Snips into all the audio playback equipment in market, and that’s how we get here, today.

 

I know I can’t continue to recommend Sonos gear anymore, and I’m not buying new equipment for existing systems, either.  If they’re going to play this game, buying Alexa or Google smart speakers is far less expensive.  We’ll see how Sonos stock does after they actually EOL existing equipment.

 

Once my existing systems stop working, I’ll be going back to old-school multi-zone amplifier setups, and just tack on generic dumb wireless speakers for where I can’t wire.  Such a shame...

Ken_Griffiths

I just personally see things differently ...and to standstill too long now would mean to stifle any technological innovation… we would still be using vhs video tapes if we all adopted a legacy system. I’m sorry, but you can keep your vinyl and audio cassette tapes.. I’m well past those things. At least let those that want to, race ahead. Thinking about it, Sonos is providing us here with the opportunity to standstill or innovate. So it’s perhaps the best announcement we ALL could have wished for anyway.🤔 

Like the great innovation of 3D TV !  How many are they selling these day of this type ? 

...ha ha that made me LOL,👍 At least I have a sense of humour too, which is more than I can say for a few others around here. Thanks for the smile and I’m pleased to say I didn’t buy a 3D TV.. I bought two Play 5’s instead and definitely no regrets there. 👍

R
Userlevel 5
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@Ryan S thank you for the response, not entirely happy but then who is right now.

I will make the observation that an awful lot is waiting on statements coming in May. This lack of clarity is continuing to make  the situation worse 

 

Ryan S
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. I'm not impacted this time, but it is likely I will be next time, and the time after, how many separate systems might need to be managed? When the next products go legacy they can't go down to this Mays codebase without loosing functionality, so Sonos needs to then support 3 versions, original legacy, new legacy and modern. Which means either 3 systems, or the legacy sytem supporting 2 different software versions, something they say they can't do today. There are some big implications to either Sonos or their customer base which they need to answer or things will only get worse

That is an excellent point! I have some thoughts, but this is definitely one for @Ryan S to answer . Whose nerves must be close to getting shot...Sonos needs to think of spelling him every few days for r&r before he is told, as Henry V told his soldiers at Agincourt...once more into the breach my friend...if he is to last even till just May:-)

It’s a great question, but I can’t answer it. We haven’t shared all of the details of how the current legacy process is happening. Let’s get through May first before we start worrying about unannounced things. If you haven’t heard it yet @RedSonos, we are committed to supporting Sonos speakers with software updates for at least five years after we’ve stopped selling them. We’ve got a track record of much longer, as all of the devices going into legacy now were designed at least a decade ago and some of them we stopped selling around 10 years ago. They aren’t getting moved to legacy because they’re old, it’s because their hardware can't keep up with the software demands of the future, all of the modern devices are quite capable of handling those needs. 

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
2000Z3M
Userlevel 3

Those who are planning to freeze their mixed Legacy / Modern Sonos systems might want to take a look at Roon:  https://roonlabs.com

I tried it for a year when they were in the early stages of implementing Sonos hardware integration; while Roon is an amazing personal music library tool, at the time, the Sonos interface still needed work, it’s also not free @ $119 per year.  

After the recent Sonos “Your System Requires Attention” fiasco, I started looking at how to best move forward and revisited Roon. 

I setup a Roon “Core” server installation on my OpenMediaVault NAS this afternoon; it was easy to enable all of my Sonos zones and I was up and running very quickly.  Unless Sonos dramatically changes course, I have decided that any Sonos hardware failures will be replaced with “not Sonos”; Roon can accommodate a mix of hardware.

Roon is now my music and zone controller.  Sonos updates have been turned off at the app layer as well as blocked at my router.  Port 4444 on all Sonos devices is locked down; and electrons no longer travel between my network and update.sonos.com, msmetrics.ws.sonos.com, and ms-metrics-test.ws.sonos.com.  So far so good.

A

Could test with a play 5 as well I guess but I don't have one of those either.  It may help prove whether a connection to sonos software is required for even it most basic function.

I don’t have any bricked units, but I’ve been running Sonos kit locked off for a while now, purely for local streaming. I’ve also left the system locked from updates off whilst allowing internet streaming, and that works OK.

Yesterday I was streaming music from my NAS to a Play 5 using a Chromecast Audio into the line-in - works fine. However, since Sonos enforced the log-in side of things, it seems to me (I could be wrong) that they are now holding more settings at account level, rather than locally. For example, there’s a setting on the devices for max volume, which I would have just held locally. However, AFAICS the device now has to be able to access the internet for this to work, otherwise it doesn’t ‘stick’. Consequently, I’ve set it back to the usual 100% - just in case. I have no intention of keep opening my system up just to make a minor change.

It would be interesting to know how a bricked unit would work, though...

chickentender

Things are looking up.

As mentioned previously, I ordered the Bluesound Node 2i and early this afternoon it arrived. To be perfectly honest, after setting up and adjusting and reconfiguring (though very little of it was to the Sonos side of things) I am, to put it bluntly, ridiculously happy with the way it is all shaping up. I”d for some time (quite some time… years) hoped to see a Connect upgrade, but when it came in the form of the current Port it was clear to me that was not what I was looking for. The Node 2i is everything I wanted it to be, with the exception of not being produced by Sonos (but that’s nearly a non-factor at this point).
For the past many years my modest setup is like this (before today) - I utilize the Connect as a soundbar replacement of sorts and route (for several television sets now, an analogue output has been a requirement for this) the TV’s analog/variable audio via 3.5mm stereo-mini to dual RCA analog input of the Connect. The Connect’s analog output runs to the AUX input of my old 70s Marantz 2235b receiver which in turn powers a pair of speakers (for the past 6 or so years, two Wharfedale Diamond 10.2 speakesr). The rest of my Sonos simply includes 3 additional speakers (two Play:1 units, and one original SOSOS ONE unit) at various locations around the house, one of which I frequent move to wherever it’s needed (currently in a stereo-pair with other Play:1 in my office).
Nearly everything I listen to travels via the Connect, and roughly 80% of the time my TV audio is ran this way (the other 20% simply via the TV’s internal speakers on some occasions), making it easy to put a ballgame on throughout the house, as well as listening sessions via the Sonos controller for music streaming services and streaming from my personal library housed on my NAS using SMB. It’s been possible to listen to my personal audio library via PLEX, which we use extensively for our ripped movies, but the sound quality from the services natively on the Connect was always better than when piped via the variable analog to the Sonos line-in. I’d long wished for higher sound quality possible, as well as further connection options for the Connect since it’s quite literally been the hub of everything. Well it’s role was just replaced.
The Node 2i is now in the position the connect occupied. Immediate benefits: it has analog input 3.5mm stereo as well as shared optical input (something Connect lacks, as well as Port surprisingly) with 3.5mm TOSLINK adapter, so I can now feed fixed line-level digital optical from the LG TV to it. It also supports IR learning so I can easily control volume functions of the Node 2i with the TV remote (another thing I’d always wanted from Connect). I’ve the analog stereo output from the Node connected to the Marantz receiver AUX input, just as the connect used to do. The quality of the DAC on the NODE is spectacular in comparison to the Connect and the difference was noticeable immediately (and I’ve yet to even play any MQA or 192/24 hi-res audio - just CD quality audio itself is far better better), with far more detail, separation etc. It’s palpable. Naturally the audio from TV is worlds better as well. The sound that the Node 2i can supply is worlds above the Connect, plain and simple, on all fronts. This also allows me to play streaming and local media via PLEX without the past drop in quality as compared to the native playback from the Node (BlueOS) itself. It’s just as good and in many ways a lot more convenient (we love our PLEX server).
I then took a spare optical/digital-to-analog converter I had lying around (this is where I do wish the Node has dual analog outputs fro simplicity but this is fine) and sent to it the optical output from the Node, which is then converted and then sent via RCA to the Sonos Connect’s LINE-IN. The RCA output from the Connect is finally sent to the good old Tape/2 monitor channel on the Marantz receiver.
So….. now all I need to do in order to have whole-house is to group how I want within Sonos controller and press play on the line-in, and switch the Marantz over two Tape-2 (this is in order to eliminate the slight sync differentiation between the Node and the Connect - it all needs to be routed via the Connect for whole-house syncing) and I’ve got music throughout the house again. There is a that same quality reduction present when listening via the downstream Connect from the Marantz as compared to directly from the Node, but if I have it playing throughout the house we’re usually doing some other activity, e.g. I’m not really just sitting and listening to the music closely. And when I do want to listen closely, I just go back to AUX for the Node’s direct signal.
This has gotten long but just wanted to share this use case. Sonos will still be used to some extent for playback in the other rooms individually for the time being, but proof-of-concept for using the Sonos network as merely a speaker network is a go in my house.
I’ll not even get into the many details I’m enjoying about the BlueOS interface, especially having so much control back at the desktop app version once again! Overall it’s been a damn good audio Sunday around here - and I’ve oddly the end-of-support announcement from Sonos to thank. :)
 

K

 

So in short, I’m not going to ditch Sonos entirely, in fact, I’m not really leaving at all. But I’m very much going to insulate myself from any future foul-ups, or indeed an entire implosion at Sonos (if by some miracle what’s going on right now doesn’t turn out to be a “Gerald Ratner”).

Neither am I; I can't afford to leave Sonos en masse. But I refuse to have to do this hoopla ever again because of Sonos or any other smart speaker maker. So, I will also have my migration plan to cheap throw away smart front ends, as Sonos hardware dies, wherever I need the smarts. Since I have the 3 legacy zones all blessed with line in jacks, I don’t even expect the kind of hiccups in streaming that you alluded to; even today these units have Echo Dots/Show wired to them that will work regardless of any Sonos issues in future.

What I do not want - and I can’t really see it happening - is a Sonos implosion that destroys these migration strategies.

R
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I’m going DigiOne Allo.  It’s a raspberry pi server.  Will have a large upfront cost for the software side to run things, but I gain non-proprietary and high res playback.  So I do win something out of it.

I think I was the first person to buy a Sonos. At least I feel like it.
K

 

Thanks Kumar,  that must have been lost in the morass of venting customers as I didn’t see that particular reply. 

 

Morass is right; I have seen the word cesspool also used. 

I happen to believe that the rants now are justified, with far less than the usual being poorly grounded this time. But there is a place for them, and my request to not bring them into this thread has been observed, something that is gratifying.

Moving on….

K

Further to the above, the CCA is an equally capable alternative to the Echo as a way to deliver a Sonos legacy/transition management plan. All that is needed are line in jacks and these are there on every Sonos legacy product at this time.

In future I think there will be more, not less options, notwithstanding the Sonos recourse to the courts to prevent this from happening.

And as it happens, there is something that the Echo has done that has left Sonos standing - constant flow of refreshed products that are easily replaced by virtue of being cheap. I started with the Dot wired to line in on Sonos, and have graduated to the Echo Show 5, that has a very cool display as well, that takes care of album art for music being played. All for my target price point for such front ends - at or below USD 50.

C
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The echo environment doesn't play locally stored music but I am getting more ok with that as well.  Just as Netflix has replaced my DVD viewing, streaming has replaced my local albums on my nas. 

 

It does if you install the MyMediaforAlexa skill ...

Majik

 

For what seems like forever, Sonos has maintained that “there is no science behind Hi Res”, which contains the 96/24 things referred to in the quote. And therefore Sonos will not incorporate that in its speakers. 

...

Now the Sonos quote above seems for the first time to be opening a window to the possibility of Hi Res Sonos speakers to be released after the legacy products are left behind in May. No more than a small opening to be sure, just a chink, but till now that window was firmly shut.

 

Bear in mind “hi res support” may not be the ability to render hi-res, but the ability to handle (and down-sample) hi-res formats. That would be an entirely reasonable thing to do if there were enough streaming sites and enough users with hires formats out there to justify catering to them.

And, frankly, t would probably be enough to satisfy the majority of the market, who seem to think that hi res formats will magically transform their moderately priced speakers used in an acoustically untreated living room in their noisy apartment into a high-end recording studio listening room).

;)

 

Cheers,

Keith

K

@Majik agreed and more:-). I have been saying for years over here that why does Sonos not bring in - to use the TV jargon - a HD Ready player that transcodes on the fly with a slightly higher buffer if needed and plays the music on HD files, that can then also be played in synch when grouped with present version players that are not HD Ready.

Every time I have been shouted down by the gurus here that this transcoding is a waste of resources and far better to downsample downloaded HD files offline as a one time effort and let these be used to serve Sonos. While correct from a engineering standpoint, this does not work for many customers who don't know how to do this downsampling, or don’t want to, but just want to be able to play their HD files and be able to drink that Kool-Aid. The use of which word should tell you that I agree with your second paragraph too.

pwt
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One can now keep hoping that more adverse reactions will lead to the next step - that for those that stay back, modern products in legacy systems will keep marching ahead, albeit with features that will not be available to the legacy products - but grouped multi room play across the entire system will be possible. If Sonos were to find a way to get to this place, there will be no legitimate reason for any complaints.

I sincerely hope this may happen. It seems that this should be technically feasible, but that Sonos is shying away from the effort involved in favor of freezing a system and pushing the Trade-up program. They may well decide that the bad publicity will hurt them more in the long run, then a decision to invest more resources into rethinking the software. I read on here once that each player model already downloads its own tailored image of the firmware, so though the firmware level is the same, it is not bit-for-bit identical on each device. I am not an IT developer, but it seems to me this could be a good starting point to think about also splitting firmware levels across devices without breaking the system.

What Kumar states above is how Sonos works today. For example, AirPlay 2 is only installed on newer devices.

You are correct that there is already support for device-specific firmware. What needs to be added is the ability to mix firmware versions within the same Sonos system, with the ability to accommodate differing protocols where this is required. This is 100% common practice in distributed software systems, most of which don’t have the luxury of lock-step updates.

4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port
melvimbe

I know I would feel much better about Sonos going forward if they created a reasonably cheap bridge device to do this.  

@MikeOinToronto

This echoes what someone in the vent thread has suggested as well:

The “box” attaches to both the legacy network and the update capable network. Call it “Bridge 2” 

What this box has to do - since legacy products are allegedly not capable of doing - is to receive music streams from one system and hand it off to the other. That’s it - a little WiFi dongle that is version less and therefore never to be upgraded; ideally it should go directly into a main socket.  And Sonos should give it away free to any account that has a split system registered to it. 

And instead of coming out and giving “n” number of reasons why this cannot be done, the direction should be towards making it happen. 

But the “can do” attitude seems to be missing from Sonos these days; but I have a solution that also gives me album art, so I really don't care any more.

 

@Kumar, the above vision of a cheap streamer is the sort of thing I was alluding to in my waffly earlier post up-thread:

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/the-sonos-brexit-and-pragmatic-ways-past-it-6836056/index11.html#post16400572

 

“Folks here are looking at using cheap stuff like Echos and Chromecasts that can be plugged into (older) Sonos speakers or other devices possessing line-in sockets, but in Sonos’ shoes I’d be looking at addressing this customer need themselves by offering their own low-cost streaming devices that can be connected to Sonos speaker networks, ie. not physically plugged in, so not requiring line-in sockets. As has been mentioned numerous times here already, Amazon & Google’s pricing has indicated the absurdity of Sonos’s pricing for its Connect/Port type devices.

 

 

Amazon and Google are able to charge such low prices for their products because they are not looking to make a profit from product sales.  They use their products to get you locked into their ecosystem, spending money on their services and increasing the value of the information they have about you and how you use tech.

 

Look at it this way.  If Echos suddenly branched off from the rest of Amazon and all their business lines, do you think echo dots would continue to be sold at such cheap prices?

 

 

 

NB an off-board Sonos streaming device of the type I imagine would need to be a fraction of that legacy pricing.

 

 

I seriously doubt it could be done cheaply.   There would be a significant cost to develop, test, and manufacture the streaming device you’re referring to.  And it would only have to worth to a very small market, those that have legacy devices and want to continue using them.  If Sonos did make the device you speak of more generic and usable with other products besides Sonos, then it would essentially be a cheap Port.  That would not only undercut the sales of the Port, but it would hurt the sales of all Sonos products.

 

This ‘vision’ has Sonos positioning itself as a vendor of high quality, durable networked speaker systems that insulates you from fast-changing Internet-facing tech for as long as possible. This ‘insulation’ enables you to spend freely on high quality speakers secure in the knowledge they will endure, while knowing there’s a means (at reasonable future expense) of addressing the aspects of the system (such as Internet-facing, streamers, voice) that’ll date more rapidly and have a shorter lifespan.”

 

 

I don’t  know that this fully fits the market, as I think a lot of customers will want to upgrade their speaker quality, not just the smarts behind it.  As an example,  it’s quite possible that the next version of the playbar won’t just be improved smarts but improved speakers as well.  At least I hope so.  Even then, people may want a new playbar just for a more modern looking speaker.

 

 

The idea being that once the on-board speaker “smart” tech (ie. Internet-facing streaming stuff, plus voice, airplay etc, all the stuff that’s in flux and requires more grunt.) is superseded, that functionality is offloaded to a new, cheap Sonos networked device/(devices) that performs those modern functions requiring the extra horsepower, while having the speakers continue to behave as dumb networked speakers having outsourced the rest of the “smarts” to the new device(s).

 

With that approach, you could probably squeeze another 2nd lifetime out of the speakers, and bridge legacy to modern. If there was a will. Which there isn’t!

 

I get your point and I’m not saying it’s a bad idea.  I just think you’re making a lot of assumptions regarding what consumers actually want and will pay for, as well as what can be manufactured and priced in such a way that can sustain an independent company like Sonos.  Maybe you’re correct and the numbers all work behind the scenes, but there are lots of reasons to think that it might not.

Danny
chickentender

I was under the impression that this was the “pragmatic” thread. Due respect to all, but it’s drifting back toward the swirling tempest.

Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.

 

exdirtfarmer
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

 

Yes, but that has been the case since 2005 so now same hands around the same balls, what's the difference? Yes, any legacy maintenance plan is and will always be at the mercy of Sonos, but short of throwing out all Sonos hardware what’s the choice? I would say wait till they actually squeeze out even this legacy plan before doing that, don’t do it in anticipation.

The difference is the hardware”s best before date has been set to expire in May.

There is no choice but to ride it out and beg for a software install tool to be delivered before the servers shutdown.

Then we can continue to use the hardware as it is and attempt to keep it all running even after the Servers stop delivering Legacy.  That day will come.

As an early adopter I have got a great deal of use from my 20 plus devices. It has been a great investment that I no longer want to rely on SONOS to keep running.

I will work towards building a backend that does not rely on Cloud Software to keep it running.  MULTI channel amps - wire - speakers, feed it with the disposable stuff for the services.

Like you say, Modular.  It may not be pretty to control but It will expire on my terms.

 

Powered by Firmware/Software 8.4 with Classic Blue Desktop Controller + CR100 + Ipod Dock + Homeseer 3 Sonos UPNP Plugin by dcorsus
K

More musings that will encourage folks with significant legacy components, but will leave Sonos alarmed, unless they are already thinking on these lines:

On page 5 of this thread I have posted a photo of one of my zones that has three clear layers of products that can be seen in it - the HiFi speaker from 2002, Connect Amp from 2012, and Echo Show 5 from 2019.

The way this came to be was in evolution like steps - Back when I bought the speakers, the system conceptually was a single layer one with all HiFi components in principle that could be bought from one company or different ones. In either case, a single layer conceptually.

When Sonos arrived at my home in 2011, it made for a second layer that squeezed out, by making them redundant, all the HiFi components except for the speakers. I sold them all; getting very good prices for the carefully used kit, because no part of it was obsolete in the sense a Connect Amp will be made obsolete. And once Sonos introduced speakers, people with no legacy HiFi kit to carry forward, were able use Sonos as the only layer - desirable from a convenience and often even appearance point of view - ask any wife that suffered the clutter of HiFi separates.

With the advent of Echo/Alexa in India in 2017, allied to the extreme tardiness of Sonos in releasing the Alexa Sonos integration in India (still to be released), I started accumulating Echo Dots for not much money. That culminated in the 2019 Echo Show 5 with a cool album art capable display that no Sonos unit has, plus all Echo features, that finally also made financial sense to me. So that got added on as the third layer in the system, connected to Line In jacks on the Connect Amp.

Here’s the thing now - how long before the Sonos layer gets squeezed out by the Echo interface that will evolve far more rapidly than any Sonos modern product, bearing down on Sonos from top and passive speakers at the bottom that will last a lifetime, resisting this downward pressure from below? Where, instead of the Connect Amp, the second layer was a more modular Connect+Amp? Why is Sonos even needed there - Echo on top and amp+passive speakers below. Or, buying new, active speakers, thus going back to a two layer system that does all that Sonos can, and more.

Sonos has issues as I see it, that will continue far beyond the successful management of the legacy event.

 

exdirtfarmer
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

 

The difference is the hardware”s best before date has been set to expire in May.

There is no choice but to ride it out and beg for a software install tool to be delivered before the servers shutdown.

Then we can continue to use the hardware as it is and attempt to keep it all running even after the Servers stop delivering Legacy.  That day will come.

 

 

We can beg till the cows come home, but what then? I would say it is safe to assume that it isn't happening, so what with that assumption in place? Why do some big bang now instead of doing it as/if/when that delivery stops?


We can only try. Based on the track record of SONOS, it probably won’t happen, but they have painted themselves in a bit of a corner, so it can’t hurt to bring the topic to attention again.

I won’t be doing any big bang thing here but I know that the clock is now ticking on my current $7000 multi zone audio delivery system.  It would be prudent to plan and budget for a rebuild in then next 3-5 years. The NEXT GENERATION SONOS will be assessed, but I think I will be running more speaker wire this time. I can’t afford to replace my entire system every 5-7years.

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