The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it

All the experiments and thinking over things leads to the conclusion that there is no one simple answer to the question of whether in May one should opt for one legacy system or a split system - I do not wish to discuss the third option that Sonos would love for all to choose - trade up all legacy units and have one modern system. The answer as it is to many complex questions - It depends.

In my case, where I have three legacy zones and three play 1 driven modern zones, a legacy option is the best - I don't see that the play 1, with its 64 mb, will get any feature up grades that are ground breaking - assuming here that such are even possible for what is just an audio system. So foregoing those by keeping the play 1 units/Sub in legacy mode is a no brainer IF Sonos keeps its promise to keep these systems working - for months/years and not weeks/months.

Where folks have 1024 mb devices, releasing them to get the all singing all dancing upgrades that Sonos is promising may make sense, sacrificing interoperability with their legacy system - and whether this makes sense or not may also depend on if the two systems can be physically organised to ensure that this sacrifice has minimal impact.

Where people have Line In on both legacy and modern units, again split systems may make sense to the point of being a no brainer, because significant interoperability may also be possible via a two Echo device constructed wired+wireless bridge between the two Sonos systems. With the added gift of album art to both systems - that no Sonos unit in existence today can provide.

Does anyone out there have experience with Echo Link rather than Echo Input or Echo Dot?  The Link appears designed for A/V system use, not so sure for Input or Dot?  (Link price point speaks for itself begging question why would it be allowed to be done more inexpensively…..or am I thinking too hard)

The Echo Link has the HiFi kind of features and connectivity options that are needed to convince audiophiles to take it seriously - and believe it or not, the high price is also necessary to convince this lot. 

It was hilarious to see the reactions of this group to the Chromecast Audio puck which delivered as good sound quality as any expensive HiFi streamer did, for a similar price as the Dot. They refused to even contemplate that it could do this because doing so would shatter their carefully built up and cherished world view about what deserves to be called HiFi. Also, by their standards the puck looked like a toy. So, ruled out for that reason too. Basically, it was too cheap.

Buy the higher priced Link only if you need the additional interconnectivity and are susceptible to such influences.

Influences such as these reviews of it, copy/pasted below:

The Echo Link provides the extra juice lacking from the Echo Input or Dot. Those less-expensive options output audio to an audio system, but only through an analog connection. The Echo Link offers a digital connection through Toslink or Digital Coax. It has analog outputs that’s powered by a DAC with a superior dynamic range and total harmonic distortion found in the Input or Dot. It’s an easy way to improve the quality of music from streaming services.

And another bit for the effect this has on how the music sounds:

I added the Onkyo amplifier to the system last year and it made a huge difference to the quality. The music suddenly had more power. The two-channel amp pushes harder than the receiver, and resulted in audio that was more expansive and clear. And at any volume, too. I didn’t know what I was missing. That’s the trick with audio. Most of the time the audio sounds great until it suddenly sounds better. The Echo Link provided me with the same feeling of discovery.

Audiophiles just love this kind of writing. As I said, buy it if it floats your boat as well.

John, it’s the promotion of telling folk to act outside their 'agreement' with Sonos that I’m not in favour of here. The agreement is that the user is given their voucher for a 30% discount off their next Sonos purchase, if they 'responsibly' recycle their legacy product. For Kumar, or anyone else, to tell users to accept the voucher and then keep their deactivated product up and running using the line-in etc. is in my book, not the correct message to send, it’s almost bordering on fraudulently obtaining the voucher, which can be worth many hundreds of pounds/dollars etc in some instances. A huge amount on a worldwide scale.

Even worse than that, is Kumar attempts to justify saying these things to all users here on the basis that he believes Sonos are acting dishonestly and so it’s okay for him and others to behave dishonestly too. Well those are not my 'values' John.. even if what Kumar said we’re true (which they aren’t) two ‘wrongs’ will never make  a 'right’.

I personally think that a much better message to promote is to either trade-up and stick to the agreement to responsibly recycle the equipment (that’s a users choice) or they opt out the trade-up scheme and go for using the line-in option, if that becomes necessary for them to go down that route.

I’m pretty sure the line-in will not work on a traded-up deactivated Sonos product anyway, but that’s beside the point, I think anyone who tries to promote a 'scam' of obtaining Sonos discount vouchers and then trying to workaround the agreement to keep old devices running is not acting in the spirit of what that scheme is intended for.. hence I still see trying to promote such action as bordering on dishonest and such influential posts here should be removed. This is about integrity and initially Kumar was calling for ‘pragmatic' workarounds, which is fair enough .. but such suggested action to step outside the agreement goes far beyond being 'pragmatic'. It’s not the kind of message I would want to pass onto my own children.

LOL.

@RDog : To repeat what I have said elsewhere - Since the Port can work with any product via its output jacks, what’s to stop you from buying a bunch of cheap Ports ( I am sure that the price point of the Port has nothing to do with costs), and using them with your choice of third party speakers? You get all the Sonos functionality, while the Sonos top line is damaged - and even blown out of the water once everyone starts adopting this obvious approach. For Sonos to sell a cheap Port type device, they simply have to allow it to work only with Sonos products - which then should be dumb speakers. 

Amazon and Google can sell similar at cost - or even below cost - because they do not need the top line from these products. Sonos does not have that luxury.

The opportunity for Sonos is to disaggregate their expensive smart speakers physically - replaceable smart modules sold at or below cost, docked into speakers that sound as good as they do today, like the old iPod dock speakers, but with proprietary comms. Then the Sonos smart module can be replaced every 3-4 years even, while the speakers can be built for decades of service required by their higher price points.

I voluntarily withdrew from one part of the community last week, permanently. It will be interesting to see if I am either thrown out of the rest of it, or have to myself withdraw from it entirely as I will if a single one of my posts is removed without a prior conversation about that action between Sonos and I.

Hi Ken,  you should read the actual agreement before you try to use it to cast aspersions on Kumar's ethics and morals. 

The discount is not contingent on physically recycling the product, the discount is solely for putting it in "recycle mode"(ie software bricking it). It's in plain language if you had read it. The  agreemen states that you "should' take it to a recyle Depot or ship it to Sonos. Not that you must, just should.

So to be honest ianal and I don't think you need to be one to understand that attempting to reuse or talking about attempting to reuse these products is totally fine under the TOU.

Ken, how do you feel about Sonos dishonesty about this recycle program? Remember when they told customers over and over that it had nothing to do with obsoleting older products? Did you pass that message on to your children?

I gave my children my 2x legacy play:5 pair and I’m sure they will happily continue to use them in their home for a good many years still to come alongside some modern and legacy products that they each own already. I chose to trade-up just my two CR 200 controllers to go to recycling shortly (Kids prefer the mobile App and I have plans for the two vouchers)  ...and so those old controllers will follow in the footsteps of my Sonos Dock and two CR100 controllers (never used those much anyway) 

I’m all for moving forward with technology, rather than standing still and have always tried to build upgrades into the family budget along the way to keep aboard the ever-moving train.

It’s the same thing with mobiles, tablets, white goods, TV’s etc. I see them all as having a limited lifespan and to be clear, in my case, Sonos products have (and still are) exceeding my expectation of their lifespan compared to a good many other things that I have owned and upgraded over the years. 

I have two Sonos Bridge devices to set aside soon too (now in cupboard and originally kept as spare), but have put a Boost in place already - the kids didn’t want those either. My children fully understand that ‘nothing lasts forever’ and that you need to plan ahead for things, rather than waiting till the last minute for things to happen.

Why on God’s Big Blue Marble is anyone arguing about using the Line-In on a recycled unit when it has been definitively proven that IT WILL NOT WORK!!???