The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it

Don’t have a link, but I did take a look at the specs rather closely.  When it first came out, the audio input could not be casted to other Alexa speakers in your home, but it looks like the feature is supported now.  It states that it doesn’t support TV sources, so I assume your audio is buffered to the point where it will be out of sync with any video.  

I would say it’s a pretty good idea if you want to build an Alexa multiroom system, and echo speakers are generally good enough for your needs, with a few rooms with full AV receivers and such.  The biggest concern I’d have is that Amazon is really lacking a solution for TV audio.  Yes, your AV receiver can handle that, and then you can switch to the Link’s input for music, but I have to expect that Amazon will come out with a better solution eventually.  They clearly know that video is important.

The Link is a strange animal, because it only seems to exist to make Echo tech palatable to the HiFi set; after all, an Echo Dot can be wired to even a Dynaudio active speaker pair to yield the Dynaudio sound for all the Echo is playing. By voice command or Amazon cast.

But which HiFi user will believe that the DAC in the Dot will be good enough? - sacrilege to even think that, let along blind test it to decide. So, the Link that looks like HiFi kit, to overcome that prejudice, that also exists for the Port by the way - Audiophiles look down on Sonos with the same fervour they look down on Echo. And so I don't think too many Audiophiles will suffer to have even a Link in their set ups. The only buyers will be those that need the additional connectivity options it offers.

There are two big holes in the Amazon portfolio, of which the TV one is being attempted by the Echo Studio with Atmos - I have no idea how well that works. The second hole is NAS play and I suspect that Amazon may decide to not address that bit of the market.

But an Echo Studio Pair starts getting into price points where the same service life issues will start raising their head.

We don’t know exactly when Sonos management decided to embark on this legacy program.  While it seems entirely possible that Sonos had the legacy program all planned out when they initiated the trade up program it’s also possible that they either did not have the legacy decision made yet (not very likely) or there was nothing firm planned.  Perhaps they originally were going to create the legacy program in 2021 and did not think it was wise to announce it over a year in advance.  We know that Sonos recently bought the Snips voice assistant company, and perhaps the integration into Sonos products has changed their production schedule.  

Regardless of all that, the announcement of the legacy program was not ideal, and was not as much notice as most customers would want and expect to see for such a change.   Personally, I am waiting to hold judgement until May when more information is available, as well as the months after when other announcements might be made that shed light on the reasoning behind certain decisions.   Or maybe that information never comes.  No one needs to wait for that information though, and can obviously make their own decision about how they want to proceed.

I see two other benefits to the Link.  The more prominent reason is that the you don’t need to have the dot, more importantly, the Alexa microphones, directly wired to your AV system.  As an example, you can have a dot sitting on the table next to your couch, instead of the TV/AV stand across the room..where you might need to shout to be heard.  It provides a necessary wireless separation between the microphone and speaker.  True, you could probably accomplish the same thing with using 2 dots that are properly setup with groups, but it’s not as elegant.

The other aspect, and I’m not exactly sure this is in place, but you could use the link to switch inputs (between streaming and line-in) rather than having to use your AV receiver to switch remotes.  It could be that like the playbar and other Sonos products, the devices can automatically switch to the line in sources when audio is detected.  That’s a minor convenience overall I think, but one that tends to go along way in simplifying everyday use.  

The other thing about Amazon - or Google for that matter - is that if in future I am not going to stay in bed with Sonos, it would be silly to jump into bed with either of these in a similar way, exposed in a similar way to their antics. But one cannot wish away their cheap smart front ends because I cannot see any one else being able to make agnostic cheap smart front ends that work as well. So, quality third party speakers with these front ends as and when the existing Sonos hardware dies. Of course, one also hopes that this death is so far into the future that things have changed and even better approaches have become possible.

I find myself using Amazon cast as much as I use voice commands - except when I am alone and voice does not get embarrassing. So that addresses this issue for me. Spotify Connect too would serve to do this well.

The other neat way of doing voice discreetly is via the Alexa voice remote that can sit next to you, so you don't have to shout across the room to the wired to speaker Dot.

Never having to deal with Amazon customer service more than I already must is reason enough for me to eschew this approach. :) Amongst other reasons. But otherwise, good on you guys for soldiering forward!

Am I missing something obvious here.  You say the Alexa app is at 90 percent.  Why is this not at 100 percent.

@MikeOinToronto : good catch!

There is a noticeable dialling down of Sonos presence on this thread. Either on their own, or under orders to do so. Not complaining, we seem to be doing ok without it:-)).