Play sonos s1 stream on s2 system

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 14, 2022
32 replies
717 views

Hi,

If I have both S1 & S2 sonos set up on the same network, can I play an S1 stream on my S2 system?

Thanks.

S1 and S2

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Best answer by t999

I’m afraid you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how Sonos actually works.

I’m more than happy to learn!

Assuming two way communication is essential for sync (what does this acheive - presumably the master unit can’t slow down playback if the syncing unit can’t keep up) then could the S2 unit not simply mimic an S1 unit?

Show previous replies

jgatie

I agree with what you are saying, but given that Sonos probably started S2 with the guts of the S1 code in there it would have been relatively simple for them to have provided backwards compatability in some way, whether this was by emulating an S1 system (albeit with limited features) or otherwise. This would be simplified by the fact that the S1 protocol is - as you have said - not going to evolve.

What I am suggesting is that not doing so was a “business” decision rather than a technical one. Given that providing a means for S1 users to add new S2 only equipment would allow them to buy new equipment from Sonos, they must have decided that the revenue from this would be less than the revenue from people binning all their S1 kit and buying full S2 systems.

Or it actally was a technical reason, and Sonos had to give up on S1 people buying more Sonos devices or cease growing as a company. Because that's exactly what it was. As @buzz said, each unit has to communicate with all others, meaning each device must be recognized by every other device. And there's no way for S1 devices to know how to recognize a device which didn't exist when S1 was frozen.

Otherwise, if Sonos really wanted to force people to upgrade, why allow S2 capable devices which existed at the time of the split to remain on S1? Why not force all S2 devices to ugrade?

buzz

Grand Maestro

If you want to ponder the wisdom of perpetual backward compatibility, hackers can easily exploit some ancient code that has been brought along. A prime example is the SMBv1 protocol required by S1 to access NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives. Hackers love this protocol. Moving away from SMBv1 requires (at least) more RAM be installed into the S1 player because its operating system kernel must be replaced. This cannot be done in the field. The trip to a service center could easily approach or surpass the cost of a replacement unit. Since very old units might begin to fail due to unrelated issues, this upgrade would be a questionable investment.

Sure, a few DIY elites might be able to handle some of this at home, but only if they have surface mount soldering skills and tools. And, this assumes that new IC’s have the same pin-out as the IC’s they replace.

“Backwards Compatibility” is a great marketing claim, but our global computer security could be greatly enhanced if we would trash everything and start over, rather than attempting to maintain compatibility with ancient hardware and software that was never secure.

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