Pretty much.

Your conclusion that Sonos has lost it’s way would only be true if your devices really would not be supported anymore. Since they still are, you seem te be a bit early.

I know, all these new features too. Just too overwhelming

 the thing is the home speaker market has suddenly got a bit crowded. We have the likes of Sonos, Denon, Bose etc not being joined by the big boys. Google, Amazon and Apple can throw big money at this and develop new features. Sonos and others have to remain competitive and can’t afford to sit still. To have kept every speaker product still working is quite an achievement.
 
I don’t think they’ve lost their way just forging a new path.  

Who are you going to dump them for?  Denon, who got sued by Sonos for patent infringement and lost?  Bluesound, who are more expensive and also getting sued?  Bose, who killed their entire lineup after 5 short years and brought out an entirely new line that is incompatible with the old?  Compare Bose’s approach with Sonos’ efforts to keep 15 year old products still viable and working and you will see that the grass is not always greener.

I  guess I just don’t see too much value in worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet, nor do we know that it definitely will happen.   I see the logic of complaining in advance as a way of maybe preventing it from happening...but Sonos has the numbers and knows the impact better than we do.     I tend to think I’ll have a hardware failure before  anything happens.

OK...It’s time to stop the panic/fear of Sonos products becoming obsolete overnight and let Sonos speak. IMO ALL questions will be answered regarding product life cycles and Sonos commitment to its loyal customers in the information below. Read on…

Responsibility_Sonos 2018 Sustainability Report_Product Design_93% of all Sonos products ever sold are still in operation_Click the link to read more

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/sustainability

Trade Up_FAQ_5 Year Commitment_Click the link to read more.

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/tradeup

The statement above IMO indicates that if you purchase a Sonos product any day of the week, month or year; and it’s the last day for manufacture and won’t be sold again, it will not go dark for at least 5 years forward.

Maybe this information/links should be formatted into a “sticky” by one of our illustrious Community Managers.  I’m just saying...

Cheers!

Thanks all for your comments. Clearly Sonos owners are very loyal and passionate ! 

I too have been an advocate of their products just sense there may be a few changes besides product updates.

My recommendations to non Sonos owners will now have a small caveat. Meanwhile I will keep enjoying the tunes as long as they last.

Just sayin’ …

Hey Kabb

Looks like you were right, despite all the people above naysaying your point.  I agree with you.  I bought my Play 5  five years ago and it works brilliantly - great sound.  Nothing wrong with it.  But now it seems it will become obsolete.  What products next? Call me old fashioned but I just don't think its good enough to have to reinvest every five years in such expensive gear.  Apart from the enviromental damage it effectively means that its effectively a subscription model for the hardware if you need to replace it so regularly

I completely agree. I’ve been a loyal customer for years and now all 5 rooms of Sonos equipment is obsolete as I do not have and do not want to stream my own music through a third party. I have my own music library on a home hard drive, iMac, iPad and iPhone and now all I can play through sonos is the radio. Sonos customers service do not give a damn and have been quoting me terms and conditions to get out of providing any sensible solution. Rubbish service, rubbish company and now it seems - rubbish product.

Check the number of posts of the Sonos positives.  They will never let anything disrupt their support of Sonos.

Why do I care about Sonos positives? I’ve been talking about my experience and can clearly see that a lot of other people have experienced the same disloyalty that I have. Basic quality in service dictates that all the time something works everyone thinks it’s wonderful but you can only measure true quality when things go wrong. It’s how you put it right that counts and in my experience Sonos’s attitude and approach is about a 2 out of 10 - a ‘little’ room for improvement shall we say.

@Andyz 

You’ve raised the same question over 2 years. Just exactly what is your concern and how are you affected. Maybe we can help. 

You shouldn’t have any issue playing music from your local library on hard drive and iMac.  Is this no longer functioning for you?  As far as the iPad and iPhone, this was due to changes that Apple made to the OS that prevented the ‘play from device’ feature from working correctly.

Yep - and nothing has happened. The ‘service’ team has said they can’t help address my issue that I cannot use the equipment in the way it was sold to me and used successfully for some years before you changed the way the product is used. You then basically said “tough - change the way you use the system”. 
rubbish service and not listening to customers - there’s a lot of paying customers on here to be listened to so why drag up that I’ve been complaining about this for a while. Try LISTENING and then actually do something about it. You’re supposed to be the whiz kids, so why don’t you whiz! 

@Andyz , @AjTrek1 is just another customer like you, trying to help out a fellow customer. The ‘we’ he is referring to is the community at large who have some experience with these sort of issues, not Sonos staff themselves.

@Andyz Clearly you have trouble reading what I wrote.  You are unhappy like me and thousands of others, but you are debating with users who have posted thousands of times.  They are so “positive” about Sonos they will never agree with you, they will follow the Sonos party line of “ nothing to see here, no problems, everything will keep working, etc”.

Is it being unreasonably positive to point out that anyone who says their Sonos system can only play radio is mistaken,  and to offer to try to help?

Hi John.

thanks for your positive reply but a bit like Sonos, if you ingest the whole thread you will understand that what you’ve just said is not the problem.

Andy. I was really responding specifically to comments by  @dutyfree. I have read the whole thread. 

There are people on here - just ordinary users like me  - who are willing to give a bit of time to trying to sort out problems

That is all I was saying.

@Andyz, if you don’t tell us, we will never learn what your problem actually is.

I think you have a point.  Someone who has a post count is likely to have a positive outlook on Sonos overall.  But they also are likely to have a greater knowledge of how Sonos works, Sonos history, etc, in comparison to somehow with a significantly lower post count.  Likely...not definitive. And there certainly are posters with high counts that have issues with this event as a whole, or in part.  

There is also a lot of misinformation going about right now (Sonos has a lot of blame in this) and based on what AndyZ wrote, it sounds like he might be reacting to misinformation.  It also sounds like his issues may be related to changed that occurred last year, not to the more recent announcement.  I don’t see why trying to get accurate information, or helping out someone with a specific problem, out is a bad thing.

And yes, I am aware that I have 2 months old post above where I made a prediction that was entirely incorrect.  

I have two Amps that they have now told me will no longer be supported. I bought both of these less than 4 years ago and now the unethical company want me to spend £800 to upgrade them.

I cannot believe their attitude to customers.

I used to be almost evangelical about Sonos. That has now changed and judging by the responses I have seen on here they will see their customer base shrinking very rapidly if they do not resolve it.

The Sonos technical team cannot be bothered to write efficient code that will enable older models to continue to work.

Do not buy Sonos equipment until they resolve these issues. You will be investing in very expensive future paperweights!

False.

Ahhh yes, the obligatory insult to developers whom you do not know, and are in no position to evaluate their skills.  Real classy.  Well I’ve got news for you, they’ve been putting out efficient code for 15 years; fitting the core code into a mere 32 MB is no easy feat. 

But eventually, there’s no more blood in the stone.

Your legacy devices are not paperweights.  They will just not receive new features.  If you choose, your system will continue to operate just as it does today, including bug fixes and security updates. 

Any more misinformation I can clarify? 

Not misinformation. Direct from Sonos support. They are working to see if they can find a way for legacy Amp equipment to continue to work with new equipment on the same system. As yet they have not found a way. They don’t seem to be too optimistic either. 
 

N.B. Both Amps are less than 4 years old. 

Are you going to believe a low level support person, or the CEO?

A letter from our CEO: All Sonos products will continue to work past May

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.