The Sonos release notes page hasn’t been updated since the release of Sonos S2, also known as version 12.0.

However, since that time, there have been several software updates to the app and the speakers, without any indication from the release notes page as to what these updates entailed.

We know from this forum post that update 12.0.1 implemented a partial fix to Sonos Arc bass issues. Where else is Sonos hiding this information on a sort of half-disclosure basis? Do we know what changed in 12.0.3, or the most recent 12.0.5?

I contacted Sonos Support to ask about this. The first agent said he would get back to me, and he never did. 3 weeks later, I contacted Sonos Support again and they informed me that they didn’t have any release notes to share, and that minor software updates don’t make it to the release notes page.

The agent insisted that Sonos makes no changes to audio settings, sound profile, or quality with software updates. Besides this being patently untrue (see the 12.0.1 update above) it is a good way to point out the problem of Sonos withholding this information from customers. Here I am, with a Sonos representative telling me nothing has changed, and yet with every update we see countless posts on Reddit and elsewhere insisting that something has changed. I believe 12.0.3 was said to increase the bass levels in Sonos One. A recent reddit thread insists that the Arc’s bass response has improved a lot on 12.0.5.

This contradicts what the Sonos agent told me this morning.

Is it real? Is it a placebo? These questions can be answered by providing the actual release notes for every update.

For a company that prides itself on audio quality, Sonos needs to be giving customers confidence as to when (or not) changes are made that alter the sound quality of our devices.

Somewhere, inside Sonos’ software engineering team, is a list of bugs and features that have yet to be fixed or developed. In any competent development environment, these bugs and features are assigned to software engineers and they are fixed/created. The software engineer marks that each task is complete. It’s not hard to turn this log into release notes. 

Instead, we are left with the current system. If you kick up enough of a fuss, you might get lucky and someone from Sonos makes a single forum post inside a lengthy topic mentioning that a recent minor update rolled out an important bug fix. Otherwise, Sonos customers are left guessing whether their listening experience has been affected by an update or not.

It’s not acceptable.