SONOS 7.1 Surround Sound System

Hi all, could not agree more with what is said here.
Below mail sent to Sonos CEO as suggested on sonos web ...

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Dear intelligent CEO
After a long waiting time, I decided to join the Sonos bandwagon.
As classical music maniac and software engineer,
the quality of restitution of mediums is to me the critical point for music listening and this was my major hesitation to buy Sonos.
Finally, I decided to install the following in my 5m x 5m living room which gladly brings me a lot of satisfaction:
-> 3 pairs of Sonos One for stereo Front, stereo center & stereo back
-> 1 sonos Five (new model) for "Front center" channel (for home cinema)
I have spent around 2000 USD up to now... you must be happy :-)

BUT BUT BUT...YOU WANT TO REMAIN LEADER ?

1. Make Multichannel listening a reality
My dear Sonos, we are today in the 21st century and sound restitution as moved from stereo to multichannel even in the Hifi world.
It is possible today, with sound processors etc., to recreate "Concert Hall" or "Outdoor Concert" listening experiences.
Therefore you should invest heavily in software development to bring an application that can drive 7.1 or 9.1 configurations of sonos speakers.
Build something in cooperation with Yamaha, Pioneer or Denon etc. to bring to the market a standard allowing any Streaming of Dolby ATMOS or DTS to wireless speakers... A STANDARD not a proprietary thing...

2. OPEN-UP Sonos
Build APIs allowing 3rd party applications to stream music to sonos speakers !!!
Is it so difficult to understand this need ??? Everybody screams for it on your forum/blog.
Monopoly is stupid, think of Microsoft, Apple, ... They all pay at the end lack of openness.
For ex. I stopped buying iphone and moved to Android... Apple lost 750 USD every 2 years.

And, No, it is not ok to pay 350 USD just to have a line in adapter.
I would love to see "player" applications like KODI being able to stream to Sonos speakers.

3. FIX
Fix this annoying loss of music playback by the speaker acting as Sonos controller.
Being software engineer I am 100 % confident that when getting the tracks to play you can buffer them and avoid these cuts while listening.
FYI my WIFI is very good an I use the sonos boost.

MOST IMPORTANTLY to stay the best, apply this rule of thumb:
NEVER BELIEVE THAT YOU KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO STAY THE BEST.
LISTEN CONSTANTLY TO YOUR CUSTOMER.
ONLY HIM KNOWS WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOUR BUSINESS !

A customer is faithful because he is listened more than anything else... like in a couple.

Oh yeah, that's really going to make him listen, "Dear intelligent CEO"...

If Sonos implemented everything that every customer has ever wanted on this site, they would be; making Sonos brand routers, NAS drives, and rippers, using illegal anti-DRM software, selling out to Apple, manufacturing both $10,000 high end streamers and a low cost version of the Connect, not to mention other ever increasingly silly propositions. And this was from just ONE customer!

One thing I've learned in business from both a retail and corporate view: The customer is always right, unless he is costing you profits, and then he is 100% WRONG!

Hi LHC,
If the CEO is intelligent, he will understand the irony behind "Dear", if not then I was wrong saying so.
I presume he is, because he is CEO.

Jgatie, I don't see your point.
It's not about me, who said it's about one customer ? It's about Sonos customer base, which means all of us having bought Sonos.
I am just adding my voice to all of us requesting the same features to Sonos, like surround sound support, read the blog ...
Sonos is certainly prioritizing the issues/requests, analyzing and 'hopefully' acting appropriately.

Sometimes, I have this impression of people writing to the blog more to get into arguments rather than truly contributing to the debate, it's pointless.

Hi LHC,
If the CEO is intelligent, he will understand the irony behind "Dear", if not then I was wrong saying so.
I presume he is, because he is CEO.

It was the irony behind "intelligent" that I was commenting on.

In any case he will understand ... 🙂

Jgatie, I don't see your point.

My point is exactly what I said. When people demand things with commentary like

NEVER BELIEVE THAT YOU KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO STAY THE BEST.
LISTEN CONSTANTLY TO YOUR CUSTOMER.
ONLY HIM KNOWS WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOUR BUSINESS !

it is the most absurd nonsense I've ever heard.

#1 - No, the customer is not the ONLY one who knows what is good for Sonos' business. Not by a long shot. The customer knows what is good for themselves, which is not necessarily good for a business, and is quite often in direct opposite. If customers think Sonos should sell a Connect for $50, are they correct? Because there are plenty who think they should!

#2 - It is not a guaranteed success because one yields to the general public his own visions and dreams for what his product should be. Matter of fact, the most successful businessmen dictate the market, they don't follow it.

Let's all take stock and redirect. SONOS, Please get us to at least 7.1, if not 9.1. I own at least one of every single item you produce(4qty Play 3s) and would put those 7.1 set ups in at least 2 more rooms plus my outdoor space. Yes, this includes your expensive play bars and SONOS SUB.

Thanks for your consideration.

The chances of Sonos either updating the current Playbar or of introducing a new Playbar to do a 7.1 or 9.1 (Really?!) set-up are vanishingly small.

Really if I were you I'd choose another horse.

There's more chance of Sonos announcing support for DTS

The chances of Sonos either updating the current Playbar or of introducing a new Playbar to do a 7.1 or 9.1 (Really?!) set-up are vanishingly small.

Really if I were you I'd choose another horse.

There's more chance of Sonos announcing support for DTS

Is sonos done with the soundbar most likely?