Sonos ZonePlayer Airplay 2 Support

If they were not sure what would be supported they should have said so. Sonos created the impression that all speakers would be able to use Airplay 2. Also Sonos' new announcement claims that the older models are using outdated technology and are 16 times less powerful than the newer models. Sonos should have updated the outdated models or at least disclosed the issue.

They did say so. They have qualified the original statement many times that Airplay 2 would be supported on the Sonos One at the minimum. In addition, if one reads the original statement, they carefully worded it so that anyone with even a scant amount of scepticism would realize they purposefully avoided stating it would be available on all speakers.

Can someone who is disappointed by this announcement because of having Play:1/3/bar devices tell me what their use case is? I can't see the problem. Maybe it's because I use a Mac with iTunes and I'm already able to get Sonos speakers new or old working over Airplay using Audiobridge. If your system is all-Sonos, I suppose you don't have a problem either as you can use almost any device to play on any speaker. So your use case must involve mixing Sonos hardware with non-Sonos hardware and not using a source that is able to run Audiobridge or something like that I guess. Or are you just mad because you have new hardware that doesn't support the latest features? How would you use those features anyway? The only case I can see is if your music source is an iPhone or iPad.

Sonos did not make it clear in their announcement that Airplay 2 would not be available on all currently sold Sonos Models. Here is a direct quote from the Sonos website that is still on line: "Sonos also announced that it will begin supporting Apple’s AirPlay 2 in 2018, making it possible to play any sound from an iOS device – including YouTube videos and Netflix movies – on Sonos speakers throughout the house. Owners will also be able to ask any Siri-enabled device to control music on Sonos speakers." This makes no mention of Airplay 2 being available on only some speaker. And Sonos's new announcement refers to older models that are still on sale as being underpowered with 1/16th the processing power of the newest model and refers to the new models as "modern" in contrast to older models that are still being sold. I would expect a company to upgrade models that are currently being sold so that the user can take advantage of all of the advertised features of the system, unless the advertisements make it clear that some models do not include the.new feature. Sonos clearly did not do this and I resent it.

Saldog, I also added to my existing Sonos, two Play: 1's early this year (2018). Then wanted to play specific iTunes playlists without reproducing them on the Sonos controller on the Mac. So I tried Audiobridge, which does not work perfectly for my setup.
I've been sweating on Sonos adding Airplay support, and now find that I've recently bought a product that will never have the functionality I need.
I'd appreciate clear direction from Sonos on this. If it will be possible via an extra device maybe I'll keep the Play:1's and buy the extra device. If it will never be possible, then I must dump the Play:1's (or dump iTunes? :P)
In general, there must be many tens of thousands of Sonos users with older speakers who are also Apple users. They have been abandoned by this decision... I predict a crash for Sonos now that the Apple HomePod is available.

I’m really excited about this news ! I sincerely hope one will be able airplay from an Apple TV to a pair of 5s or Ones !

I predict I crash for Sonos now that the Apple HomePod is available.

I own the HomePod and two 5s. There is no comparison! The HomePod sounds great, but it’s no where near a single 5 let alone a pair.

@Petros, I guess by "does not work perfectly" you mean Audiobridge must have a syncing problem. I do see that, too as the Sonos speakers on Audiobridge seem to be a quarter of a second ahead of the other Airplay speakers, which I have connected via Airport Express routers. It isn't noticeable unless you're standing in between two zones. Not a big problem but can be super annoying in some layouts. When you say you want to play specific iTunes playlists without reproducing them, I am wondering how that is a problem. I am new to Sonos by the way. I have been doing multi-room for 8 years but finally switched to Sonos and wished I did long ago. I planned to finish building out my system using Play:1's from the 'bay. My understanding is that iTunes music is just indexed and not actually reproduced in the Sonos app, but you are saying playlists, not the actual tracks. I'm ignorant on this. Are you saying the app doesn't sync playlists as they change? I'm set up to sync every night automatically and I just assumed that includes playlists. Anyway, I think you will only need to buy one One and group it with your 1's and you should be good to go unless you want individual control of the 1's over Airplay 2.

Hey Saldog, Audiobridge seems to drop out a lot. Could be the underlying open source software or it could be a buffering issue with the Play:1, I don't yet know. It could even be my overall network (which is extended via a Airport Extreme acting as a bridge) causing some problem. (Although the specific Play:1 is wireless to the main router.)
The Sonos MacOs controller does not seem to maintain the playlist order which is specific to a clinic room and the sound is part of the treatment. The health practitioner concerned does not want to futz around with finding the correct track!
As for grouping, in future, maybe... at the moment, I need different sound in different rooms.

@rleventhal, you just re-stated your earlier post, which was already responded to by @jgatie. Sonos never implied support for all their devices. In fact, in many posts on this forum, they were pretty clear that not all devices would be supported. About 7 months ago. If you bought Play:1's recently, you paid a much lower price than thousands of people had before. It is not uncommon for a consumer electronics company to discount products that are starting to sunset. If they planned to keep Play:1 in the line-up, they wouldn't have reduced the price, but instead would have sold the One for more since it has Alexa. But the Play:1 is not really sunsetting. The only thing that is happening is that it won't get Airplay 2. At some point in the future, they will probably stop selling them, but existing 1's will still keep working fine. Other than being pissed that Sonos has decided to stop putting new features in an old product, what's your reason for being pissed? Again, what is your use case?

Shoot @Petros, I hadn't even thought that your application was commercial, let alone health care where music is part of the treatment. That is a tall order. I can see why any small thing can be a big issue. I suggest selling the Play:1's on eBay for $100 ea and picking up new One's for $160 ea if you are on a tight budget. You might want to try out the Sonos Boost to help with the signal or try a new mesh wifi system. I used to have lots of problems with dropouts in my Airplay (AirTunes) network until I replaced my wifi system with a multi-node mesh router arrangement (Linksys Velop with 3 nodes). Good luck.