No Airplay 2 for Playbar. GUTTED !!!!!

And frankly, at the time I purchased my 1's and Playbar it was partly on Sonos publicizing Airplay 2 compatibility being in the works and I would have thought the technical requirements would have been well enough understood when they committed to Airplay 2 for Sonos to know that some of their products would not be able to support it.

As has been said many times, Sonos stated in the press and on this forum that Airplay 2 would be supported by the Sonos One at the minimum. There was never any guarantee for support on any other device. Anyone with a clue would realize that if they were at first limiting it to the very latest product, one should be cautious buying a product from 3-4 years ago.

Note : products in shops need to start having a first sold date and a best before date. Really, how does a casual shopper know how old a device and its design and internals are? Normal, non techie customers.

Future proofing the processor is really hard. It is 5 years old. So that means the r&d was min 6 year to 7 years ago. Say they used the most advance processor they could for electronic equipment say from qualcomm or broadcomm or who ever. As computer processors are too expensive so that is mostly out of the question. That processor in the playbar is 7 generation behind the times now. Airplay 2 is not even out. But it iis SW base and requires plenty of processor power to run I am sure.

But I can understand your dissatisfaction. But companies always keep selling current models even after the newer models arrive. It is part business.

Note : products in shops need to start having a first sold date and a best before date. Really, how does a casual shopper know how old a device and its design and internals are? Normal, non techie customers.

Google!!!! You can always find out when a product was first release. I would never drop 700 dollars on a product without doing my research first. But that is me.🆒

And frankly, at the time I purchased my 1's and Playbar it was partly on Sonos publicizing Airplay 2 compatibility being in the works and I would have thought the technical requirements would have been well enough understood when they committed to Airplay 2 for Sonos to know that some of their products would not be able to support it.

As has been said many times, Sonos stated in the press and on this forum that Airplay 2 would be supported by the Sonos One at the minimum. There was never any guarantee for support on any other device. Anyone with a clue would realize that if they were at first limiting it to the very latest product, one should be cautious buying a product from 3-4 years ago.

Guess it serves me right for not paying more attention to the press release!

Future proofing the processor is really hard. It is 5 years old. So that means the r&d was min 6 year to 7 years ago. Say they used the most advance processor they could for electronic equipment say from qualcomm or broadcomm or who ever. As computer processors are too expensive so that is mostly out of the question. That processor in the playbar is 7 generation behind the times now. Airplay 2 is not even out. But it iis SW base and requires plenty of processor power to run I am sure.

But I can understand your dissatisfaction. But companies always keep selling current models even after the newer models arrive. It is part business.

I'm not arguing that older products won't have the capacity or features of newer ones. Generally though, deprecated models get a price cut or the newer and more capable is at a higher price. I researched the sound quality and found the trade off between the Playbar and the Playbase to be negligible from the reviews, so went for what I considered to be the more attractive option. Granted, had I researched more I guess I would have found out that there may be a forthcoming reduced feature set as a result, but as the price point was the same I did not consider that it would be the case, so didn't delve deaper.

How has the feature set been reduced?

I'm not arguing that older products won't have the capacity or features of newer ones. Generally though, deprecated models get a price cut or the newer and more capable is at a higher price. I researched the sound quality and found the trade off between the Playbar and the Playbase to be negligible from the reviews, so went for what I considered to be the more attractive option. Granted, had I researched more I guess I would have found out that there may be a forthcoming reduced feature set as a result, but as the price point was the same I did not consider that it would be the case, so didn't delve deaper.

I think you just got caught buying at the limbo time. As play 3, and playbars has been discounted as of late. The playbar was recently selling for 350 dallars at Target.

But if you brought it say 9 months ago. Airplay2 was still up in the air. And if Sonos started the playbar update. It was still in the early r&d cycle. So it would not make sense to discounts it then. Typical R&d cycle for tech items are around 18 months. Some as along as 3 years. But say Sonos is 18 months. Would you think dropping the price of you product 16 month before you release your replacement makes sense? Remember playbar replacement is still rumors right now. I would say if they are true. We are still 6 months aways before it is available. It would not make for good business to drop you prices 16 months before the launch of a new product.

Also you brought your playbar with features builted in. But even with the airplay2 announcement. Sonos still have not removed any features from your playbar. The fact is they just could not add one particular feature to the playbar natively. In fact at the same time. They actually found a way to give you that ablity. Though it does not sit well with some having to buy a Sonos one. But if you look at it realistically, Sonos added abilities not taking away feature to something design 7 years ago. Shoot they also just added audible since you brought your playbar most likely. So at the end I would argue base on facts they added ablities to a 7year old design.

It does suck when you get caught buying something at the wrong time. I would say I just hope, up till this latest uproar. That you were able to enjoy you playbar up till now. It will most likely be hard to stomach going forward. But hopefully you got to enjoy it for a little bit.

Shoturtle, I have to say that my creation of this thread is actually because the Playbar and associated speakers provide, BY FAR, the best cinema experience that I have ever had. I actually sold £2000 speakers and THX amp to move to the Sonos, and it is a far better experience. (I realise I'm opening up a can of worms just saying this!). The key thing with the Playbar is the quality of the voices. With our B&W Series 7 speaker system, we had to continually rewind films to re-hear what people were saying.

Fingers crossed both Playbar and Connect AMP are re-launched with gutsy updated interiors in the next 6 months, and then we will be good. I get that Playbar can be used with ONE speakers, but we have a very real need right now for Airplay in the Connect:AMP so really hope it gets upgraded soon. Someone mentioned upcoming accessories coming from other manufacturers with Airplay 2 in, but I can't find anything online yet. I'm sure that will change.

Thanks everyone for all their points of view. Clearly, it's a very marmite situation. I think one thing is for sure - like other areas of tech (iPhones etc...) - business crosses with hobby with lifestyle, and we get more wrapped up in the hobby side and forget that, at the end of the day, we are dealing with a business, which for the most part, has provided some outstanding hardware.

Finally, I emailed Sonos and got an email confirming what we already know, from their head of customer services. But still, a nice response.

Just voicing this cos I want to, it’s not to add value or provoke anyone but I am bitterly disappointed that the Playbar will not be receiving AirPlay2.

I really don’t get why they didn’t refresh the internals of the Playbar when they launched the Playbase, I would love to understand how difficult or costly that would have been.