SONOS being more informative to their customers

I think this is pretty informative:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3521

Who can be against more transparancy? But I do think stating you “don’t need the updates” is a bit strange if you’ve just told us you don’t know what they are for……

Most of us with the latest issues brought on by the 14.12 update were happy before and needed no changes.

I've said the same, they have a habbit of introducing negative side effects through their updates and all customers can do is wait until they hopefully sort it out.

Shame really as the hardware side is excellent.

I agree, though this seems to be something that affects the TV product line, because I have never seen any adverse sound quality effect on any of my Sonos audio products because they are not meant for TV. Now of course I am even less at risk of exposure to this, having opted to stay on S1.

Why the TV products should suffer this when the audio products do not is something I have no answer to.

Sonos obviously was not planning on introducing issues with their update, so it’s not something they could realistic list out as a ‘feature’ of the update.  Was it a failure of proper testing?  Probably, but that’s not really the question here.

The question really is whether or not Sonos should make it easier, or encourage, users NOT to upgrade if they don’t see any new features in the firmware upgrade. Sonos does not want to support multiple versions of their software for obvious cost reasons.  They already have to support S1 and S2.  They also have designed it so that firmware updates can happen automatically.  There is the issue that the app version needs to be matched to the device firmware versions to work properly.  There is also the issue that older versions may not be able to upgrade to the current version cleanly.

I get the point that some people may want to not apply an update if they see no benefit, only the potential that something might break.  However, I also think it’s reasonable for Sonos to require the most current version for support and to add new hardware.

I would guess that the required software manipulation of TV audio, given the additional channels, emphasis on dialog, and the expectation to of audio bouncing off walls and ceilings makes it more complex that the standard stereo signal in music.  There is also the matter that Sonos gets the audio from TVs or other sources which may do it’s own manipulation of the audio, that Sonos has to account for in some cases. Indeed, this current issue certainly doesn’t seem to be impacting all users, but just those who meet a certain setup of conditions.   Yes, I can imagine why today’s TV audio might be a little more difficult that streaming music.

That is all fine as an excuse, but what happens when the sound that was the basis of a user buying decision, changes via a Sonos upgrade? The user who bought the unit for the way it sounds, is now left with a unit that sounds different, and with a sound that he/she does not like.

This is compounded by the fact that such a user cannot dial back to the old sound that was preferred. Trueplay can at least be toggled OFF if not liked.

Why should such users not legitimately be entitled for a refund?

Because that is not the contract they entered into with Sonos when they purchased the hardware and installed the software.  Legally this contract is a function of the EULA, which states the software is licensed, not purchased, and is subject to change, with no expectation of continuous functionality of some or all features.  This is a standard in the software industry and has been for decades.

But a user buying a Sonos unit has no idea - and need not have any idea - about EULA etc. Most are not software geeks.

So what?  Caveat emptor.  And I disagree the buyer need not have any idea about the EULA, the evidence in this and other threads makes it quite clear they most certainly should be aware.  At the very least they should be aware that their ignorance is no grounds for a refund.