Your feedback on the new Sonos App

Oh no-way, as there’s absolutely nothing wrong at all, with any Sonos hardware - I definitely want their Ace headphones. It’s probably a different division of Sonos anyway, compared to the controller software. The new Ace Headphones apparently support Qualcomms 5.4 Snapdragon Sound’s APT-X Lossless audio.

If that is correct, that’s a max Bluetooth bitrate 1200kbps - up-to 24/96 lossless audio. That said, my transceivers here only support 24/48 (Apt-X HD) audio, but I’m not complaining, as even that exceeds my own hearing capabilities anyway, as I’m just from planet Earth.

The audio quality is better than anything Apple or Sony etc, are doing at around the same price-point, which is reasonable, all things considered - I guess it’s even better if you also perhaps have an old Sonos product and can perhaps use to grab a trade-up voucher.

The new Sonos App is likely here to stay anyway and it will only get better - I’m happy to hang around patiently until their developers sort the missing features, which they will.  

The new App and Web App are both working okay for me. It’s simple enough to use.

My SMBv2 local NAS library is working/playing okay too.

Sorry, I’ve waited years for Sonos headphones to arrive and so there’s no way am I boycotting them for a controller App that’ll get sorted anyway. That would be like ‘cutting off my nose to spite my face’.

Sonos is completely absent. Hold times of 2 hours to talk to an agent and I’m certain they have no answers anyway. #firespence #firetheentireappteam

In fact Qualcomm Snapdragon Sounds Lossless audio availability on Sonos Ace is mentioned in this media report:

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/sonos-ace-vs-airpods-max-what-are-the-differences

The Ace also supports Apple’s ALAC ‘lossless’ codec too, all playing through Sonos’ custom-designed drivers. 

I personally just see these things as being more reasons to buy Ace, than not to buy.

The App is not a music player in any case @Silverthorn - it’s only ever been a ‘remote’ controller. It will not play anything when away from Home, for example… so not much likely in there for Headphones anyway, other than perhaps adjusting EQ settings etc. All the usual room settings (that’s my guess, at least).

This new app is terrible. Sonos clearly doesn’t understand that the app is the life-blood of their entire product. and launching such a poorly redeveloped app shows they probably do t care enough to truly care about our concerns but here goes anyway. 
 

First, the volume adjustment sliders are sticky and unresponsive. subtle adjustments are no longer possible. The numerical volume level does not appear anymore when adjusting either. What is the point of taking away useful, intuitive, necessary elements? Now volume levels jump up and down. Also, volume adjustments can no longer be made using the built in iPhone volume buttons as it did before. I’m a discrete volume adjuster and often simply click the phone volume buttons to adjust up and down as needed without having to actually go into the app. Why did you take that function away?

Sonos is not as Tidal friendly now. Tidal has a great feature, playing a track that relates to the last track played automatically and Sonos used to allow Tidal to do that but now it simply stops after each track as though it’s disconnected from tidal altogether after the selected track has played.

lastly, this app is simply not user friendly and deviates so much from what the previous app was that it is just frustratingly irritating and you all really should be trying much harder.  Maybe you hit a management deadline with this launch but it was not ready.

fix it or accept that this is the start of your downfall  

You’re delusional dude. The app is unusable. 

Unable to remedy the EQ not working bug. Arc product with sub. Eq slider will work but goes right back to 0. Same thing happens on the sub level too. Goes right back to 0. Attempted the uninstall reinstall approach that a few folks have had success with, but no glory hear. The more.i play around in the app the more issues I find, I sure hope this can all be fixed. My 7 Sonos products are not doing me (or any of us honestly) much good these days. I switched over from Bluesound, don't want to go back, but man this is really leaving a bad taste in my mouth and serious reservations on purchasing any additional product.

I own 11 Sonos speakers and am ready to throw them away and find a better alternative in one of Sonos competitors. This new app is unusable. So many features are either missing or so hard to find. My ability to just play music is not reliable because the damn thing is so glitchy. There is no way to view an artists album anymore. I'm so disappointed in this new app that I am led to start looking at other options other than Sonos. It wasn't broke, why try to fix it? All you did was screw it up! Most of your users are complaining about it, and you aren't fixing it. Sonos is a sinking ship and it's time to jump ship.

Sinking it is.

WE ARE VOCAL MINORITY. 

SEE?

I got fed up with the new app, bought the IOS app Sonophone, revelation it just works ! Worth evert penny.

My own understanding is it can be done by long pressing the Ace ‘content’  button - no need for the App for SoundSwap if you read the notes, the only piece of code likely in the App is probably the initial setup (bond?) between Ace and Arc by all accounts. After that, my guess is you can set the controller App aside… as some others have mentioned though, it’s not (yet) clear what the case will be if there is more than one Arc in the Household? If the App is used in that case to select which Arc to bond with etc. I guess that’s something that will need to be established later on.

I’m just defending the Sonos hardware here too by the way, as there is definitely nothing wrong with Sonos speakers/products - it’s why we are all here and a part of this community. So you may dislike the software, but you cannot criticise Sonos for their hardware - it’s still well designed, well built and almost always sounds better than the competition at the same/similar price point.