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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K

Kumar

So we're not really talking about sound quality at all, simply convenience.

We are talking about sound quality and the application. The latter is not the same as "simply convenience".
As to hearing things that others do not, asking for the other's hearing to be checked is one of many possible responses, and less courteous than most of them.
A longer reply is probably not going to get past moderation.

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Keithmac

Virtuoso

I was trying to show somone round my Sonos setup last week, got stuck at one point and I bet they were thinking what a lot of effort to go through..

Didn't sell itself at all..

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User103951

Renowned Enthusiast I

If the message is a childish rant, then I am shooting the message, not the messenger.

By calling people childish you are shooting the messenger instead of the message. And given how often you have done so the past weeks, you'd expect Sonos to be a product for toddlers.

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

What you have is anecdotal evidence at best, based on a single instance. Anyone with a science background can tell you that doesn't mean much.

Moreover your line of reasoning ignores the possibility that the app before 5.0 was indeed more intuitive, and that the new version simply got even worse.

, and state that because of these facts, most of the complaints can be boiled down to familiarity and muscle memory.

Muscle memory is one little element in terms of intuitiveness and easy of use. And in case of 8.0 plenty of others apply as well. from inefficient navigation paths, over a design that results in excessively long lists, to a poor colour choice.

None of those examples have anything to do with muscle memory, yet they all apply. Something you conveniently keep on ignoring although the majority of complaints are aimed at such issues.

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.

Yes, and that can't have anything to do with constantly derailing the conversation with that muscle memory rant while calling people childish now, can it?

Which is btw, exactly what you did in this thread as well. Because clearly it can'tbe anything else. The new design can not be less intuitive then before, let alone flat out a step back compared to the previous version. No, it must be muscle memory and nothing else.

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.

More like, one sees what is typically there to be seen. I don't rule out that you have occasionally discussed the actual merits of the new design, but in the large majority of the cases you derail the conversation and start shooting the messenger. And yes, that does get annoying quite quickly

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.

Your helpfulness elsewhere in this forum doesn't justify the rudeness you display in this one..

M

mwiseman

Enthusiast II

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.

Your helpfulness elsewhere in this forum doesn't justify the rudeness you display in this one..

His rudeness is displayed in many other threads also.

S

shadybee

Trending Lyricist I

While the Sonos speakers sound good for their size, I think that it would be a struggle to find many who would call the sound output "audiophile".

As for compressed vs uncompressed and hearing sound above 20kHz, I personally cannot detect a difference but there are plenty who claim they can.

And there are also plenty who spend £1,000's on audiophile USB and HDMI cables and claim they can hear or see a difference.

Obviously a very poor sample rate will sound poo, but regular streaming from Amazon through a pair of Sonos Ones is more than adequate for me to enjoy music without the hassle of powering everything on to listen through full sized speakers.

chicks

While the Sonos speakers sound good for their size, I think that it would be a struggle to find many who would call the sound output "audiophile".

For their size, you'd be very hard pressed to find any speakers with better performance, actually. Objective reviews certainty confirm this. It's just the ridiculous subjective audiophile press, who jumped the shark many years ago, who refuse to review "lifestyle" speakers, as an honest review (which really never happens in their pages anymore) might roundly embarrass their advertisers.

https://www.lifewire.com/sonos-play-1-measurements-4103874

jgatie

I repeat, if you folks have a problem with my posts, report me to the mods. The discussion of muscle memory and familiarity is both on topic and reasonable when it comes to UI complaints and I will continue to give my opinion until the mods tell me otherwise. If you don't like it, that is your problem. But please stop confusing disagreement with bullying or rudeness. You want bullying and rude, talk to the people asking me to shut up or telling people their hearing is screwed.

Again, until informed by the mods I am in violation of the TOS I, like all of you, will post what I like, when I like.

S

shadybee

Trending Lyricist I

I'm sure that there exists small bookshelf speakers that compete sonically (is that a word?) with Sonos, but I can't think of any smart speakers that have Alexa built in that may sound better.

I only bought a One because I wanted an Echo for controlling home automation, but don't like the insecurity of always on WiFi, and as far as I can tell, the One is unique in having wired Ethernet.

I was impressed with the sound quality and the novelty of calling out a song or genre without having to switch anything on or pick up a smartphone, so I bought another one to stereo pair, and I find the sound to be very good for the size, but I wouldn't call them audiophile speakers.

A

amun

While the Sonos speakers sound good for their size, I think that it would be a struggle to find many who would call the sound output "audiophile".

You'd think so, wouldn't you? :8

K

Kumar

While the Sonos speakers sound good for their size, I think that it would be a struggle to find many who would call the sound output "audiophile".

I am one that would. And as someone that has been an audiophile for ten years with exposure to most audiophile speakers out there except ESLs and the monstrosities that are more than 6 feet tall with 6 or more drive units.

As always, before we can debate this point, there has to be a working definition of the word "audiophile" and from there of the word "audiophile speaker". What is that, please? I still haven't found a good one.

Many would call a passive speaker to be one, even if it has over 20 year old tech inside, if it carries the brand name of the usual suspects and has an appropriate veneer. Many would refuse to call one that, if it does not bear such a brand name, even where it has active tech, with every driver driven by a dedicated amp, using active crossovers that allow the use of state of the art DSP. As the play 1 does.

It has to be down to the sound quality in the listening position, not to ill defined audiophile cred. But unfortunately the latter is more often relied on to label a product an "audiophile speaker".

And even in the arena of audiophilia, it is widely accepted that the satellite+Sub combination is often better able to handle the problem of bass bloat and muddied mid range than large full frequency boxes. Which is why the sound from a 1 pair + Sub sounds as good as it does. But, I hear the audiophile protest - it may be good, but it isn't audiophile. And we are then back to square one in the debate.

Or do I need to get my hearing checked?

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