Skip to main content
I was very disappointed to be informed of the Sonos price rises in the UK. Although the dollar rate is blamed it doesn't account for why the products are much cheaper in some countries? £100 rise on the Sub and Playbar is just too much. I am very lucky that my system is now pretty complete but think UK sales will suffer
I would hesitate to move to Bluesound, merely because it does not seem a lot more expensive now. I am not sure that it is as robust a solution as Sonos for multi room; the Hi Res feature is largely a red herring.

On the price increase - is this only for the UK? I know that US prices haven't changed, but how about the EU for example?
Canadian prices have risen, but close to a year ago. At today's exchange rates they're roughly equal to US prices, before sales taxes. Canadian provinces have higher combined federal/provincial sales taxes than U.S. states that levy taxes, so the result is that Canadian all-in prices are higher. The prices rose in April 2016. "Due to a significant change in the value of Canada's dollar, we, like many companies, must increase product pricing. Our prices are defined regionally, but we pay for everything we make in U.S. dollars."
Exchange rates and their variations are just one input into the pricing decision/policy, regardless of what reasons may be ascribed to price changes. The price for a geographical market depends on the competitive scenario there as well, and is based on an assessment of what the desired market can bear. Some achieve the necessary fine balance better than others. Customers will always voice anger at price rises, so to some extent, this input is more noise and less signal.



As to the Canada situation, I know people that go to the US on weekends to shop, although I guess this is too small a drop in the bucket to trouble Canada. With Trump and people wanting to relocate to Canada, will they add to this set of weekend shoppers?!:D
"Exchange rates and their variations are just one input into the pricing decision/policy, regardless of what reasons may be ascribed to price changes. The price for a geographical market depends on the competitive scenario there as well, and is based on an assessment of what the desired market can bear."

Thanks, Kumar, for some understanding of business and markets that is much needed on this thread.
😃. Perhaps it is a lot easier to be objective when one isn't in the affected geography and/or has no further buying intent.
"Exchange rates and their variations are just one input into the pricing decision/policy, regardless of what reasons may be ascribed to price changes. The price for a geographical market depends on the competitive scenario there as well, and is based on an assessment of what the desired market can bear."

Thanks, Kumar, for some understanding of business and markets that is much needed on this thread."



For some reason the forum quote mechanism is no longer working for me. Hence the handmade quote above. I'm sure that most members of this group are aware of the obvious, as stated above. It is Sonos, not its customers, that is attributing the need for price increases solely to exchange rates and the questionable assertion that "we pay for everything we make in U.S dollars."
Unless Sonos operates both sides of a bank account outside the US in another currency, the cost to Sonos of the FX that they send from the US to any country is determined by the USD FX rate. So there isn't anything questionable about the assertion of how they pay for everything.

In the former case, there is a natural hedge because their exposure is limited to the net amount left in the overseas bank accounts. But only companies with extensive in other country operations enjoy that benefit.
That is not the same as "paying for everything in U.S. dollars." In any event, Sonos is a relatively large company that apparently labels its equipment as being built in Malaysia even though it has contract manufacturers in China. It also has offices and employees in Malaysia. No company that is manufacturing entirely offshore would operate without more sophisticated hedges than what you described above, without a sophisticated foreign exchange policy, and without means of sourcing and holding funds in other currencies. It is not as simple for a business to "send" money to another country as you state above. Many countries, for example, have currency restrictions. I'm not a business and I regularly deal in three currencies, two of them because I live in two different countries. My currency strategy is more sophisticated than what you've described above, and I doubt very much that I know nearly as much about this as Sonos. If I do, there is something wrong.
Hedging only protects against short term fluctuations, to allow for a stable short term cost structure, at a premium paid for the hedge, and this premium is also built into the cost structure. It really isn't more complicated than that. Longer term FX rate movements cannot be hedged against because normally there isn't a market for such hedges, and these movements need either costs to be reduced or prices to be raised if profitability is to be maintained.



The other thing that people tend to forget, as is visible from posters here, is that Sonos keeps upgrading all its installed base for free. Trueplay is just one significant example. I do not therefore believe that my kit, bought in 2014, is three year old tech. Nor is a new play 1 on sale today, old tech.



Finally, those that don't like the increase have the option of voting with their wallets - if they can find a better product for the new prices, they will buy it.



I don't see much value in adding to this thread because this is becoming a circular discussion of little real consequence.
Hear, hear.
Your understanding of hedges is incorrect. It is entirely possible to institute a long-term hedging strategy, although in some cases it may involve the use of short-term products. Investment funds, dealing in the equivalents of billions of dollars in "foreign" currency do this regularly. For many investment funds (or, if you prefer, mutual funds) hedging appears in their prospectus as part of a long-term investment strategy, opening that strategy to the scrutiny of securities regulators. This is not Sonos, but this is long term hedging. It does exist and it's in use constantly by businesses and investors around the world. As I'm sure you know, hedging isn't always successful and positive results are not guaranteed. But that's dependent on circumstances and the skills of the hedger.
Lol. I agree that I don't understand hedging. I must have wasted the years I spent in the corporate treasury function of a global manufacturing company.
Or your company was only interested in short-term hedging. Apparently I've wasted years of writing about currency and hedging for some of the world's largest financial institutions. Btw, you mentioned above something about the premium being built into the cost structure. Successful hedging pays for itself; it should be reducing the "cost structure"--in other words, reducing or managing costs. Of course, whether a company wants to reduce costs and at the same time increase profit is up to them. That doesn't necessarily sit well with customers, which I think is what we're seeing in this discussion. (What is wrong with the quote function on this forum? It no longer works for me.)
This is simple. Sonos is entitled to price how it wishes, for whatever reasons. It's natural people don't like price hikes. They are entitled to the view that it is a mistake, or that it is justified - neither camp has anything like enough information to judge that, and I am totally agnostic. But Sonos is under no moral obligation to sell at a particular price, to limit price rises to a certain percentage, or sell at the same price in different markets (whatever "the same" means in a world of floating currencies and differing tax regimes). Nobody has to buy it. One poster described the increases as "exploitation", for goodness sake! Like Kumar, I've had enough of this nonsense. Say whatever you like in response, because I won't be reading it.
Of course the company has the right to price its products however it wishes. And customers have the right to complain about a company that prices however it wishes. There are two sides of the equation, the seller and the buyer. The last time I looked, these forums consisted mainly of buyers. Why wouldn't they complain here? I'm always amused by the commenters, and there a few of them here, who opine and then inform other participants not to bother replying because they won't be listening. In a phrase, "who cares?" This is a discussion forum, and people discuss.
Manufacturing businesses are not in the business of taking exposures/hedges for the long term for their business operations because that isn't their competency. For instance, try obtaining a hedge contract for USD/GBP for a five year term, that will convert proceeds of all Sonos sales in the UK for the next five years into USD at today's USD/GBP rate. There will be a huge hedging cost to be paid that may prove to be an unnecessary expense and one that the price for its products may also not support today. All that a manufacturing company like Sonos does is take hedges for the short term future/planning horizon, and use the relatively small premium on these hedges to freeze the cost/revenue structure over this term and keep going forward on this basis, periodically adjusting prices if necessary to reflect FX rate changes. And they will usually use natural offsetting hedges to the extent possible, so that the premium cost gets incurred only for the net differences over the planning horizon.



Manufacturing companies do more than this are using their treasury function as a profit centre; inevitably taking risks in a business they don't always understand, and the ones that know their limitations tend to not do this.
I am aware of many manufacturing corporations with tremendous hedging competency, both short term and long term. I'm certain you are, as well. In fact, I'm originally from a country where currency management strategies are paramount--Canada, where 80% of goods and services are exported to the US, and the US$/C$ exchange rate fluctuates considerably. Granted, many of those companies are larger than Sonos. Sonos is a private company, so unless you are an employee or former employee I can't fathom how you would be privy to their hedging competency or their hedging strategy.
In any event, I'm sure we've said more about hedging than most people want to hear. My contention is simply that attributing a price increase only to $/£ FX (or $/C$ FX) isn't credible for a company that manufactures outside of these currency zones and sells in many countries. Some kind of currency management surely must be in use, whether it's simple natural hedging, more complex hedging strategies or simply or managing to pass along currency risks to suppliers or contract manufacturers. If none of those exist, Sonos risks pricing itself out of some markets. I'll be interested to see what happens with pricing when medium-term currency moves are in Sonos's favour.

As another example, and as a photography enthusiast, I note that the prices of camera equipment sold by major manufacturers such as Canon don't fluctuate nearly as much in any country I spend time in, including Canada and Brasil. Both those countries have experienced tremendous currency fluctuations over the past few years relative to the yen and US$, yet prices haven't wavered much. That isn't to say they don't differ from, for example, the US, because they do. In Brazil, photo gear is horribly expensive for many complex reasons. But the professional Canon photo printer I purchased in Brasil two years ago is still sold for the same price in local currency. Canon didn't jack up the price, and obviously didn't blame currencies because it didn't do anything. The printer was manufactured in Thailand and imported into Brasil from Canon Mexico by Canon Brasil.
I am certainly not privy to their strategy. But I know enough of hedging to not say: if they knew how to implement a good hedging strategy, they would not need to do this price increase for the ascribed reasons.



It would be like me, a non engineer, saying - if Sonos are any good at engineering, they should be able to easily make an outdoor speaker, or a computer speaker, or a wireless system that does not depend on the external WiFi/interference environment, and so on, down the usual wish list.



Before we now get into arguing on this matter, I am signing off from this thread.
Well, just seen the prices today. That's me out of buying any new sonos speakers unless they have huge Christmas sales. 😞



Just pleased I already have the full 5.1 set up in one room
Price rises and playbase with no new tech is not the way to go. Playbase seems like an old product even before it is launched.

Main hope is for intregration with alexa & google home, to try to stop people dumping sonos altogether.
The most disappointing aspect for me is ordering a Play 5 on Saturday from Electricshopping.com in the UK for £429 then having my order cancelled on Tuesday as they'd "got the price wrong on their website". Incompetence and disregard for the consumer bundled together. Will not be buying anything from that dealer ever again.
Trouble is, you buy into sonos by getting a good start deal ( in my case a connect, connect amp and bridge) for a good price (£650) but then find expansion is expensive. Tempting to say, sod it I'll sell the sonos on eBay and start again with the (much higher end) naim unity system ... But the cheapest component of that is the £1200 uniti quite which is, basically, a connect amp. Suddenly sonos doesn't seem so spensive! 😃
Suddenly sonos doesn't seem so spensive! :D

That is what a good pricing manager will always seek to achieve, if he/she is earning their salary. This is no longer a casually filled job in any large corporation now.
only joined the SONOS revolution at the beginning of February 2017 - Play 3 and a connect - over the moon with this equipment - was going to buy a Sub and Playbar today only to find out the prices have been hiked over BREXIT - WTF is going on ???? the French, Germans and Italians aren't leaving the EU so why have Amazon hiked them up over their as well - not paying into this scam



spotted a review about Bluesound Node 2 (never heard of them) but the reviews look great - since eBay is now in overdrive with everyone selling their SONOS stuff - I will end up now selling my Play 3 and connect at a higher price than I paid for them - this is a bad move SONOS and totally unjustified of hiking up the prices of what is 4 year old technology
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings