TRUEPLAY ANDROID Legality

IMHO that’s almost as shocking as owning your system for well over a year before considering Trueplay. 

@Woody250,
Restricting a products performance?

In some cases the tuning process might make the sound less-preferred for some. It’s a subtle change in most cases and in some rooms I personally prefer the sound with Trueplay disabled.

The default sound profile for a Sonos ‘room’ is a damn fine ‘average’ to try to suit the majority and there are plenty of customisation tools in the Sonos App to cater for most environments and the way that many prefer to hear their chosen audio output.

Trueplay is just one additional ‘free’ tool that needs a decent calibrated mic to use it and that’s why iOS Apple iOS devices were selected, as many other manufacturers mobile products have mics that vary greatly, even within the same make/model. 

It’s of course entirely free all round for those of us who already have a compatible iOS device and I doubt many would want to pay-out €/£/$75.00+ for a Sonos mic that only gets used for less than a minute, once in a blue-moon. 

You just need to find a friend that has a iPhone and give them a seat, cuppa and a biscuit, whilst you spend a few minutes with their phone and tune your Sonos ‘rooms’ and then you’re done.

There is some merit in the OP sentiment, seeing that Trueplay is now many years old, and Android users are not some outlying subset of Sonos users - or so I imagine.

A question: can one replicate what Trueplay does using what is provided in Sonos Eq adjustments, or does Trueplay do something beyond what any permutation/combination of the EQ adjustments can deliver? I ask this knowing that probably only Sonos can accurately answer this.

@Corry P ?

Woody250,

Rather than feeling cheated as an Android user, consider the free feature that has been added for iOS users. Unfortunately, it is not practical to add this as a free feature for Android users. Why is this not practical? It’s because there are a limited number of iOS models that SONOS tests extensively before releasing Trueplay for a given model. You may have noticed that Trueplay is not yet available for some of the latest iOS models because SONOS has not yet had the opportunity to test a significant number of samples.

It certainly would be possible to develop an accessory for Android users that could enable Trueplay. Would you be willing to purchase such accessory or be comfortable with the added cost of a SONOS unit that included such an accessory? Or, would you be willing to take your Android to a certified dealer and have it calibrated? Who should pay the cost of this service? Using ROAM or MOVE as the portable calibrated microphone might be an option -- but only if a customer owns one of these.

Here's your hat:

The conspiracy is your insinuation that "it's a racket" which has Sonos promoting Apple products over Android.  Because there's many thousands of users who lost the ability to play files directly from their iPhones who would have something to say about that.

Never mind the further implications that Sonos is somehow doing something illegal, which is just silly.  3rd party Airplay speakers require an iOS device, are they too "illegal"?

The original press release https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/newsroom/sonos-introduces-trueplay-tuning-software-and-new-flagship-play-5-smart-speaker explains what Trueplay tries to achieve. Well placed speakers will minimise the need for Trueplay. It was and still is only available on IOS. If this is a problem for you, @Woody250, why did you buy Sonos rather than, say, Bose? 

Very useful link, thank you.

But reading it leads me to expect more out of the tuning than what I get where play1 units are concerned - as a pair or as a single unit. The latter especially, since it is placed for convenience and not in the best place for it acoustically. With a Sub added to the mix, no such issues - the difference after tuning is stark, and for the better. To an extent that when I am fooling around with the Trueplay toggle with reggae playing loud, my wife will shout out from the next room when Trueplay is toggled off!

That also suggests that Sonos 5 units that do much more bass than the 1/One, may show up bigger improvements after the tuning.

I have no experience of Sonos HT components, but my experience suggests that Trueplay is essential if Sub is in the mix there. And also probably for the units with speaker drivers pointed in different directions. Which leads me to ask @John B : why have you not borrowed an iDevice to see if your great can become greater?!

Reading the blog will wind up the OP even more for not having access to the feature - or encourage him to look to make a new friend of someone that has an iDevice! If so, it may be worth doing True play twice if toggling the Trueplay ON/OFF after the first pass yields no noticeable difference. Just to make sure it has been done right.

And then remember to not move the units around in the room, because that “breaks” the tuning. Also, remember that toggling Trueplay ON/OFF subsequently can be done via Android at any time in the future.

I have no experience of Sonos HT components, but my experience suggests that Trueplay is essential if Sub is in the mix there.

Good Lord. 🙄

I can't help it you make a fool of yourself so often.  I only have to hit what you serve, and you aren't exactly serving aces, champ.

This may not change the situation. If users did not own one of the speakers that includes a calibrated microphone, users would be complaining about the need to purchase yet another SONOS unit simply to be able to calibrate their phone/pad or run Trueplay. If you have never used Trueplay there is an operational detail that you should be aware of. The phone/pad must be moved around the room while running Trueplay. If you attempted to do this without using a battery powered unit, there would be a trip hazard associated with the power cord.

Why is there a legal issue with adding a free feature that was never part of the initial product concept?

There isn’t any that I see, when the feature was offered free, post purchase, back in 2015. It now is a part of the concept for sales being made, but Sonos has made it very clear that an iOS device is needed to enable it, so there isn't any there either - assuming that what I see on the Sonos website is equally clearly stated on any other Sonos marketing collateral including that used by official distributors. 

Another question that is of no interest to the OP, that only Sonos can accurately answer, I would think: Does Trueplay do more in higher memory S2 units than what it does in a Play 1 running on S1? Will a Play 1 do more from the tuning if under S2? Or, more likely, will a latest generation One do more with Trueplay under S2 than what a play 1 does under S1?

Perhaps reading some of the threads that have existed in this forum since TruePlay was released might assist you in understanding the challenges around implementing TruePlay would be for Android devices.  There are several.