14.12 Update

If you are using the Arc, Sonos doesn’t recommend turning up the Sub audio. They recommend temporarily disabling Trueplay on the Arc until the issue is addressed with an upcoming software update. 

It would have been a lot more helpful if you mentioned the thread you specifically had in mind to provide some context.  As it stood without context, it looked like you were referring to conversations that happened years ago on completely different topics.  

Why would Sonos bother with a EULA if they do not intend to use it as an argument?  What a silly comment, of course Sonos will use the EULA as an argument, there's no other reason to have a EULA.

Disabling TruePlay has made little difference on my system (Arc + sub + surrounds). The sound is still tinny with no depth to the bass, even if I then turn up the bass EQ to full. My conclusion is either Sonos have not fully understood the scope of the issue yet, or they have chosen to downplay it for marketing reasons. In my opinion neither reflects well on Sonos.

Even if you ignore the unintended issues of bass response being broken in some setups, when you have customers who have spent thousands of $/£ on Sonos equipment, I find it pretty disappointing that Sonos product management ever thought it would be ok to roll out a significant change to the sound profile to all Arc customers on an automated software update with no ability for users to opt in or out of the change. Sure, some people like the change, and some don’t. But those people who auditioned the Sonos equipment or who relied on reviews of the sound profile by seasoned reviewers, are now left with a product that no longer provides that experience. Sonos isn’t some subscription service where people who don’t like the new experience can just switch to another service. It’s expensive hardware that you’re stuck with if Sonos decide that the sound profile you liked when you made your purchase decision is no longer available. In my opinion, this is not a good way to treat customers if you want them to be happy and remain long term Sonos fans, or repeat customers as new products are released.

As soon as this issue has been resolved (if it ever is) then I will be disabling Sonos software updates and hoping Sonos continues to work as is in a stable sate without needing any kind of mandatory update in the future.

I’ve adjusted my “would you recommend Sonos to a friend” score from 8/10 down to 2/10.

For those who are not effected by the any issues or who don’t find this experience as disappointing as me, then that’s ok. I’m just trying to respectfully share my experience and my opinion, and I’m not saying it reflects your experience or should be your opinion.

What is a EULA? 

End User License Agreement

End User License Agreement. Unlike hardware, which you purchase and own, the software you "buy" is really a license to use, and as such, it is not covered by the same warranty laws as the hardware.  Almost all software made has a EULA which includes clauses which allow the producers of the software to alter it at will.  Here is Sonos' for US users:

EULA for Sonos Users in the United States

After reading the section, even thought it says turning off auto updates would not get updated, mine did. Very aggravating to say the least. 

It has already been explained to you - Turning off automatic updates in the Sonos app only turns off firmware updates to the Sonos hardware.  You must also turn off automatic updates to the apps on your controller devices.  Automatic app updates are a feature of the mobile OS, and cannot be controlled by Sonos.  Which is why your controller app was updated, which in turn alerted you to the firmware update on the Sonos hardware because the two were out of sync.

This is one of the crappiest “features” of iOS/Android, auto updates are either off or on, you cannot set it to off for some apps and on for others. 

Two months ago (with the connectivity issue and sonos completely ignoring it and the people who complained about it), I recommended a friend to stay away from sonos if he wants to stay sane. Now, another friend of mine wants to buy a new theater system and I told him the same thing. losing two customers is probably not gonna make a difference at sonos, but if they’re trying to make a bad reputation for the company, it’s definitely working.

And it’s also turned off on my devices… jeeeese.. not everyone s first rodeo 

There has never been a case reported and confirmed here in which Sonos updated itself without prior authorization to do so. 

Which leads many of us to the conclusion that either this is absolutely new behaviour, or there’s something else going on. 

I don’t know you from Adam, you could be a neophyte or you could be the next coming of Steve Jobs.  Given that, like all other support techniques, we start with the basics.  But hey, sorry for trying to help. 🙄

Clearly you have only just done that, or you would not have been in the position of having app on 14.12 and system on 14.10.

Sonos needs to take a look at their development and QA process.  Clearly there is something wrong.  I don’t care about turning up the volume but not having sub or disabling Trueplay is pretty lame.  As it happens I got my arc and sub the day this update came out so it has never run on anything else.  Not a great first experience.  Once they fix the sub issue I expect I will be happy but I am close to retuning the arc and sub anyway just because not leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  especially after it took them months to fix the issues with arc, sub, and rears disconnecting.  I’m betting when they fired half their American staff to save money they also outsourced development to the usual 3rd world countries.

The sound is absolutely shocking after this update. I don’t have a sub and the Arc is standalone which was never a problem before. 
While watching films with Atmos soundtracks it feels like half the soundstage is missing. There’s simply no low end base anymore. 
You should at least add sound profiles in allowing us to choose the sound we prefer, we are the mercy of your mistakes with no comeback. 
 

The communication has also been terrible. If your making a change of this magnitude you shouldn’t wait for users to search the forums to find out what’s changed. You should be proactively mailing those that have registered the product. I’ll be thinking twice about Sonos products in the future if it can change so dramatically over the products lifetime with no option to revert. 

Maybe listen to this feedback from your listeners

WE ARE NOT HAPPY!

Please put the sound back to pre-14.12 why you try to figure out what you f@&£ked up

And in future don’t roll out un-tested firmware changes until you’ve tested them on every configuration.

We are just a few voices, but there are thousand of angry customers out there who know nothing of this Sonos forum.

You have the option to roll back the firmware, do it now rather than waiting weeks for new firmware!

It won’t make you look weak to say you made a mistake and applied a temporary soultion, it will make you look like you have good customer service, rather than poor customer service!

Sonos needs to revert to the sound profile we all purchased and provide an option to adjust to other preset sound profiles as well as provide a more robust EQ. I know you all worked very hard on this update, but it wasn’t properly tested and missed the mark by a significant margin. 

Certainly for Android, that isn't a 'feature' at all , auto updates are not either off or on and you can turn off Auto updates on an App basis.

Just select the top right for the App to decide if you want it to auto update.

Well, you learn something new everyday.

Maybe, but since Sonos would have to test with various combinations of speakers, room dimensions, wall materials, TVs, source devices, and who knows what else, Sonos can’t possibly test every combination.  Sure, you can logically eliminate some of those factors, or decide that test cases are similar enough that one test can represent a set of cases...but these are the sort of assumptions that tend to get you into trouble.  Point is, you have to accept some level of risk.  It could be that there were some clear mistakes made, or it could be that Sonos has just had some ‘bad luck’.  Spending more time and effort may just wasted money without really reducing the risk of another bug.  I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s obvious with what little information we have to go on.

Somewhat of a catch-22 to want Sonos to improve on dev and QA, yet also want to do it in a  shorter period of time.  Yes, you can throw more people and money at a problem, but that has it downsides too.

When did Sonos fire half their American staff?  They have had some rounds of layoffs over the years, none in the past couple years that I recall, and I don’t recall any of them doing anything that drastic or outsourcing development as you’re suggesting.

Hi I found the following video on YouTube. The frequency response of Sonos arc does change from 14.10 to 14.12 when turning off the Trueplay. (put them in the same volume level)

I don’t think Sonos team will take their ‘valuable time’ to design an extra profile for my Sonos one, so here can show why I can hear the difference even if I turn off the Trueplay, and why the clarity improves when I downgrade to s1.

This is actually the silly comment. No CEO in his right mind will allow his engineers to use EULA to defend the company/engineer failures if the sound profile of a speaker is changed the way it seems to have changed in this case of the Arc. 

Never mind what Sonos fans trot out in dogmatic defence of such a change, it costs them nothing to do this.

sjw wrote:

Certainly for Android, that isn't a 'feature' at all , auto updates are not either off or on and you can turn off Auto updates on an App basis.

Just select the top right for the App to decide if you want it to auto update.

 

Thanks for posting this.  I was going to say it’s not available on my Galaxy, but it is...just not where I would expect it.  You can’t set this in Settings for apps….where permissions, notifications, and everything else is.  You have to view the app in the Play store, and then you can enable/disable this.  I mean, why would anybody expect to change the auto-update setting under Settings?

The frequency response did change from 14.10 to 14.12 when the Trueplay is off.  A valid test is here and you can find the YouTube link in my previous test. I think this is a global change of sound signature on all Sonos devices and it is not the bug of that Trueplay issue. They increased the bass and decreased the treble in 14.12, which decreased  the clarity. Then when you turn on the Trueplay, the bass is gone...

This change of frequency response is consistent with what I hear on Sonos one. I think this test is global and confirmed what I hear. I will hold my opinion because I haven’t seen any valid posts or tests saying everything else keeps the same but the Trueplay.