Contributor I

Like losing an old friend

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
May 16, 2020
15 replies
661 views

Finally pulled the trigger on replacing the remaining Legacy components in my set up, at least the critical ones. This was a tough and close decision for me. The Legacy decision almost forced me to walk away from Sonos. This purchase consisted of just south of $3000.00 for 6 new amps (after discounts). The extended Plan was to just junk the remaining residuals of my stuff for now, and add and restructure with some other options as we go. This purchase would keep the party going so to speak.

Shipping and packaging was awesome, got me pretty excited before I even opened the boxes. Install and connection was an absolute nightmare. Every unit couldn't be discovered for multiple attempts, the controller app would freeze and lock up on numerous occasions, Reboots, resets, and reattempts galore. And I am not talking once or twice here either. So after multiple HOURS - yes multiple HOURS, to get 6 new amps swapped out and recognized, still nothing wanted to communicate properly. Grouping is painfully slow, as is volume adjustment and loading a file or station to a play que, group, or zone. I have 1 gig internet on a large wifi mesh format and have zero issues with connections of any other devices or systems in use. (Please don’t insult me with the wifi signal/ interference troubleshooting replies) The old components were very responsive and virtually issue free for months and/or even years at a time, aside from the minor issues that present in all tech.

NOW: Put everything I have mentioned aside and My biggest complaint of all is the poor volume levels of these new amps. my previous amps had much more punch…. MUCH! The sound quality is good, don’t get me wrong, but where 40 or 50% volume sufficed previously, now we need 70 or 80% to achieve the same volume. I am hoping this is app or controller related as I have noticed this is across the board for all my gear, as even my existing Play 5’s now play at a much lower volume level since adding these new Amps.

I added these components only today, and finished up with some serious agitation, so maybe a brighter future will present, however currently I find myself full of regrets for my decision. As I mentioned, I almost walked away from Sonos when the “Legacy / forced update” announcement rolled out. You Know, When us long time, large system customers, got the middle finger. So I won’t sugar coat it, At this very moment I wish I had moved on. $3000 for a system that works inferior to the original at least at first impression, seems like a pretty solid kick in the nards. Maybe Sonos can smooth this crap out and bring me back some faith, but they have a long way to go.

My attempt here was not to rant but to simply express my input and my experiences - Y’all need to hear this stuff.

Sadly,

David Smith

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Show previous replies

ratty

Just to respond to your original woes, do you happen to reserve fixed IP addresses for all your Sonos units (and control devices too) in your router? It should avoid the possibility of IP conflicts, of which many of the observations in your original post are symptomatic.

Yes sir, every device in my home is given a fix IP address and then documented on an spreadsheet for trouble shooting purposes.

Okay, well, that’s not the cause then. It was the remark that things seemed much better today which prompted my query.

Routers typically apply a 24-hour lease time, so from yesterday to today all IPs should have been routinely refreshed. If there had been a conflict it would have been expected to have worked its way out.

el rubio

@IronGandalf may I ask: did you assign new IP addresses or re-used the addresses from the old devices?

salu2.eu

buzz

Grand Maestro

IronGandalf,

A dirty little secret: Humans have been conditioned to equate loud with distorted. In many circles, it is not "loud" until it is distorted.

A very important data point for me was a college party in a relatively small room. We had two stereo systems and the combination could play loud enough to interfere with verbal communication, but it was clean. Numerous patrons approached us, hands cupped around their mouth, yelling into our ear, "Turn it up, it's not loud enough." Believe me, it was really loud. OSHA would have closed us down and I'd still be in jail. That same crew, in a different venue with some sort of maxed out compact system struggling to stay alive, no one asked, "Turn it up," because it seemed officially "loud” and we had no problem communicating verbally.

In another setting we were having a “my dog is better than your dog” equipment confrontation. We had an assemblage electronics and speakers. We would try out different combinations and we were listening “loud”. One comparison was a bit vexing. The first amplifier was a widely respected unit and we were pleased with the results. The next amplifier we used resulted in repeatedly blown speaker fuses. I had not yet fully internalized the above observation. After a few days reflection I realized that the second amplifier was much cleaner and as a result we were running at much higher levels, but had not yet reached “loud” before the speaker fuses blew. Years later with some measurement equipment available, I could confirm that amplifier one had somewhat high distortion of a sort that annoys humans. While i didn’t have an amplifier two sample for direct comparison, amplifier one was not particularly pleasant sounding compared to then current stuff.

Bottom line: the newer SONOS amplifiers are cleaner than the originals and this is could be why you are having trouble achieving “loud”.

E

eisenb11

Trending Lyricist I

@buzz my interpretation of that story is no one wanted to make the second system louder because it was clear it was struggling and would only sound worse

buzz

Grand Maestro

That’s a reasonable observation.

In yet another situation the users were complaining that “see … that’s all the louder it gets” (it was ‘loud’ by most metrics, but clean). No one seemed to notice that everyone’s speaking voice was hoarse for some reason.

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