I believe the new app and Sonos setup sends all requests via Sonos’ servers which is at the heart of many of the issues people are facing. I believe that’s why they can now offer a web version of the app. 

Indeed it does, all music service calls go app → Sonos cloud → Music Service → Sonos cloud → App.

And even artwork goes through the Sonos cloud now, which is even crazier. Guaranteed to be slower than before, and also literally costs Sonos money in egress charges for their cloud service.

From listening on the earnings call yesterday, it was clear that the move to web/servers for Sonos is part of a much bigger future for Sonos, that localised environments don’t support. Patrick mentioned being bigger in the “out of home” space (or similar) so presumably more car speakers, further headphones and other things that I can’t yet envisage. But he seemed prepared to go through the pain for now to see the reimagined future of Sonos… 

(In a way, longer-term, those Sonos shares could well be a bargain right now...)

But isn’t this what Bluetooth currently does, and very well from my music service to my bose headphones to my car head unit. He maybe also seems to be prepared to throw local music onto the bonfire or make it just another linked service to achieve it.

Listened to ace yesterday in John Lewis and demo setup was impressive and emersive, but imo not worth the extra over my bose qc

I just want sonos to stay in the house and work when i want it to.

Sure, but without further innovation there can be no growth for the company. The release of the Ace has clearly done that - and the two new products were also meant to do that for Q4 2024, but not now. People don’t replace speakers very often, especially ones that are getting as advanced as Sonos’ more recent offerings, so eother than acquisition of smaller companies which is still very possible] where else can Sonos go but outside into the world (although it’s not what you want!)? 

You are of course right. John Lewis setup seemed a bit dated to me sadly, with play5 sat next to Era300 both about the same size really, headphone demo was excellent and raised things, i see why they couldn’t delay its launch.

All the tv manufacturers had their own soundbar solution under EVERY tv, and they tried to push the upsell hard with no mention of a sonos solution.

The Ruark stand looked very good

I find Sonos’ displays at John Lewis, Currys and other places a bit lacking in impact, with the items looking a bit sorry for themselves with the demo buttons a bit hit and miss in terms of state of repair and response. For a company of their stature, they feel set off to one side (and I’m not talking about since the app debacle) - not sure what our US friends find at Best Buy and other retailers, but it feels like Sonos needs to look a bit more impressive in-store in the UK… It will need to try especially hard when they get back into ‘winning back customers’ mode.

Edit: sorry, @Marsden, just realised how off-topic this has become...