Alternative to Sonos

I sent this to the Sonos CEO email, as this seems to be the only support option available. My main point is to find a solution on the bad situation I find myself in, with the non-functioning new app.

Anyone else, if not the CEO, is welcome to give their suggestions and comments, that may help me on the way. Thanks.

“Dear Sonos,

You have done something completely absurd, as you are aware of, by killing off a functioning app and replacing it with one that has close to no functions - a work in progress, at best, or a disaster of an app, when speaking realistically.

After some years without Sonos for my part, since you decided to kill off all older devices, threatening that if I didn't replace them with new ones I would be at risk of you sending out software updates at any time that would render my system useless, I decided to give you a chance again, ordering a Port.

The day after receiving this new device, before I had even managed to connect it and start using it, came this infamous app update.

I have one - one - purpose of owning a Sonos system: I want a player for the music I have in my own collection. CDs that I have copied to a local SAN and are playing from there.

This is hardly possible now. I was lucky to get the old desktop app before you stopped access to it, so that I at least in that app can make playlists - which most of the time are visible and playable from the mobile app.

In the mobile app, it happens from time to time that "My music" appears - and when it does, it sometimes stay long enough for me to see the music collection - in a somewhat useless form, as all contributing artists and their mother and neighbors seem to be in the list that, therefore, becomes extremely long - and since it is not searchable, I can effectively see only the first few letters of the alphabet. When it works at all, that is.

And what can I do with that music overview? I can pick one tune. Or one album. And play it directly. That's it.

If I pick an album, I cannot see the tunes on it in the queue, which is called empty, even though the system does play song after song until that album is over.

If I try with the web app, I can always see My music, and I can pick an artist, if I want - but wanting this means accepting that all tunes by that artist will be played either alphabetically or in random order (if I push that button). I cannot get them played in the order they are on the albums.

So, back to the old desktop app that I now do not dare to upgrade, even though it constantly asks me to do so: There, I can make playlists of albums that will be played in the correct order.

You want so much that I upgrade that app, but what will come out of it? I expect nothing good.

My take on all this is that you have ruined my joy of ownership of that new thing, the Port, like you previously did with the older devices I had. It was wrong of me to give you another chance. You have not proved worthy of that.

So, apart from not buying any more devices from Sonos, due to this failure of delivering what you sold me, I will again start looking for an alternative. 

You are in general lucky, in that the competition is very poor. I tried out Yamaha's MusicCast and Denon's Heos, and where Yamaha had great hardware, they had a terrible app. Where Denon had a useful app, they had malfunctioning hardware. Sonos used to be the combination of good hardware and software, even though you several times have shown a lack of sense of fair business, but now you have the most miserable app of them all, making it impossible to utilize the hardware, so it no longer matters if that is good or bad.

I hope that there is a fourth or a fifth player on the market that I can find and shift to. And since you obviously do not want me as a customer (making my ownership experience as miserable as possible), you probably wouldn't mind that I move to a competitor? 

So, please advise on who is providing a system for playing music that actually works.”