Enthusiast I

Take Heed Sonos Devs

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
November 3, 2017
73 replies
2134 views

While you sit in your conference rooms and debate the 8.x app with corporate speak sentences like "They will get used to it" and "This happens every major upgrade" and "Scale-able, cross-platform modern blah blah blah.....".
One thing that has never happened before with my Sonos house happened last night. And it is important you realize the significance.

I had three couples over for drinks and I put on one of my playlists and then I turned the ipad over and placed it under my bar. I did it without thinking - it just seemed less distracting that way.

This morning i did think about it however. I had never done that before. I tend to hand off the Ipad and let guests marvel at my wonderful Sonos system. I let them pick music from the seemingly endless inventory of tunes from Google and Apple. Soon old songs are played that bring back great memories - people sing and some might even dance.
It almost always turns into a "So what is this Sonos thing?".

Last night. That did not happen.
The new interface is just confusing enough for new users that i have to give a tutorial I didn't feel like giving a tutorial.
The aesthetic is a bit too glaring and, in my opinion, not as attractive as it once was.

Your app is more than a tool. It is a showpiece. And we, the owners of Sonos dearly love to show it off. The speakers, yeah, they the Wow factor when the rich sound fills the house but when a new user touches the app and finds any song at the end of their fingertips, you can almost see the excitement in their eyes.

So while we can debate endlessly of 8.x being intuitive or not intuitive or 8.x being an evolutionary step forward or backward, one thing is a stone cold fact: six people did not fall in love with Sonos last night.

And THAT is something you should worry about.

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mwiseman

Enthusiast II

Wow, that is rich coming from you.

Could you show me the place where I've lobbied for the shutdown of opinions? Where I've claimed the victim? Where I call others names and hurl insults and then don't accept the same in kind? Where I've attacked the poster and not what they post?

Good luck finding them.

So, have you deleted nearly every post you have made?

jgatie

So that would be a no on actually pointing out those posts? Thought so. Any other problem with my posts, I suggest you take up with the mods. They will decide if I am in violation of the TOS, not you. Now if you have something to add to the conversation besides personal attacks on me, then I will be happy to engage. Sorry but I'm finding your obsession with me a little creepy, and as such, I would rather keep the thread on topic.

inopinatus

Prominent Collaborator I

The people sledging the OP have missed the point, in their rush to be holier-than-thou about it.

The point was that Sonos lost a net promoter, and here's why: dislike of new UX. And even better, it's attached to a pithy user story and specific use case. That is feedback that Sonos's product managers actually could find useful. Being a dick to the OP doesn't change that, but it could suppress it in future. All good PMs know that every piece of unsolicited feedback hints at an iceberg of unrevealed market preferences.

So the rest of you - the people telling the OP how or why they "did the wrong thing"; to Sonos's product managers, you are being suppressive noise, not helpful signal. Did you stop to think for a moment, "who does my opinion assist?" Hint: it certainly isn't the OP, who will just be thinking "f*** you". And it isn't Sonos, either.

Source: I am a product manager (not for Sonos).

uncooked meat prior to state vector collapse

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Sononos_fan

Enthusiast II

So that would be a no on actually pointing out those posts? Thought so. Any other problem with my posts, I suggest you take up with the mods. They will decide if I am in violation of the TOS, not you. Now if you have something to add to the conversation besides personal attacks on me, then I will be happy to engage. Sorry but I'm finding your obsession with me a little creepy, and as such, I would rather keep the thread on topic.

Imo the one with a creepy obsession is jgatie, I've only been here a few hours and he's in like every thread I've read dealing with Alexa, the one or 8.1 feedback totally derailing the discussion.
Is he trolling or what?

K

Kumar

I also cannot say that I truly prefer the current update. What I do know is that I find no great difficulty using it.
But these posts!!!!!!

I am in the same boat, down to the last bit. I truly don't see the big deal and maybe it is an age thing. Saying that it broke a USD 2000 system seems over the top for sure. In my opinion it adds as much as it takes away; and I don't like the annual relearning for every cosmetic change.

And if memory serves, every refresh has a similar litany of complaints; including the last one, that posters that don't like this one, are pining for. Maybe Sonos should just save money and freeze the app to what it is for the next 5 years or more. But they know their market's tastes and their business a lot better than I do, so I will put up with the annual relearning for all the other desired benefits. Fortunately, this takes less than a couple of hours even for someone that is age disadvantaged. Life has more interesting challenges.

A

amun

And I don't know why this "get your ears checked" is such a common response, but it is.

Presumably, because the OP doesn't believe a word of it, as they can't believe that anyone could seriously not hear the difference between a pair of Sonos Play 1s and a pair of Quad Electrostatics.

As to the specific comparison it was made in a context of use/application. I have a play 1 pair on my desk, flanking my computer and playing music when I am at the desk. I challenge anyone to have any Quad ESL pair, even the latest one that sells for USD 10K or such, sound just as good for that use. After they have shoe horned it into the space

So now you're saying that the Play 1s can equal any audiophile kit, as long as the kit is no bigger than a Play 1? So we're not really talking about sound quality at all, simply convenience.

K

Kumar

No, my friend, we are not talking just convenience, we are talking application specific choice of kit. In a very large room, for example, a play 1 + Sub will not be as capable of delivering the required sound quality as more suitable kit; it may need a 5 pair + Sub, it may need something even more capable for the space. Usually, but not always that means larger speaker enclosures; and ditto for price point shifts to the right. For my desktop, placed where it is, the Sub will detract from the sound quality from a 1 pair placed flanking the speakers for near field listening even if place can be found for it under the desk quite conveniently; I have tried this and I know from actual tests. While the Quad ESLs, even if place can be found for them flanking the speakers, will not sound as good as the 1 pair while working at the desk, where near field listening is involved.

We are still talking sound quality, by the way not "simply convenience".

And regardless of what the OP believes, there are many ways of conveying it. To a person that has a 1 pair AND Quad Electrostatics, who can be assumed with reasonable certainty to know what he is talking about. Once you know a little more about him from earlier conversations here.

U

User103951

Renowned Enthusiast I

Could you show me the place where I've lobbied for the shutdown of opinions? Where I've claimed the victim? Where I call others names and hurl insults and then don't accept the same in kind? Where I've attacked the poster and not what they post?

I have not been active long on this forum, but in practically every thread in which someone voiced critique on the new design, I have seen you shoot the messenger. Time and time again, you go of on a rant on how this is the same as with 5.0 and that is nothing more than muscle memory, and that people who complain about the new design are just ridiculous. The below is a perfect example in this regard.

"the childish rants over what is essentially an easily relearned interface to an extremely first world luxury music system. Yet it is being talked about like it has the impact of world hunger or climate change."

Instead of engaging with other forum posters on the pro-and cons of the new interface, you almost systematically attack the poster for not going along with the program. And looks like I'm not the only one who noticed that

Imo the one with a creepy obsession is jgatie, I've only been here a few hours and he's in like every thread I've read dealing with Alexa, the one or 8.1 feedback totally derailing the discussion.
Is he trolling or what?

jgatie

If the message is a childish rant, then I am shooting the message, not the messenger. I offer valid and proven facts that people now love the 5.0 UI which was once slagged 10 times more than the current 8.0 release, and state that because of these facts, most of the complaints can be boiled down to familiarity and muscle memory. The overwhelming response to those facts has been personal attacks and cries for me to shut up, the loudest cry from the very poster I was replying to here.

The very, very few posters who have attempted to discuss the phenomenon I describe I have engaged with politely and respectfully. One poster even asked me for my actual opinion on Sonos' latest releases and I ripped them as bad as anyone here, sans the childish nonsense. But hey, one sees what they want to see.

Oh and by the way, I also can be seen in other threads helping hundreds of users with troubleshooting problems or buying decisions. If one spent any time outside the complaint threads, one would notice that.

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Sononos_fan

Enthusiast II

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The very, very few posters who have attempted to discuss the phenomenon I describe I have engaged with politely and respectfully.

Nope you don't have a polite or respectful word in you as far as I can tell. You've invaded and derailed almost every thread I've read on these forums with your muscle memory schtick and/or heaping insults and scorn on anyone with an opposing pov .

These Sonos forum communities are incredibly unfriendly and you are the main troll. The fake offense you take to being called out on it is hilarious. And with that I'm done feeding the troll.

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