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Please note that we’ve created a new thread with some clarifications to questions that have come up several times in this thread. Please see here to continue the discussion if you still have any questions. The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.

 

We have some important news regarding our oldest Sonos devices shared on the Sonos Blog today. The text of that blog post is being included here for your convenience:

 

Starting in May 2020, some of our oldest products will no longer receive software updates or new features. We want to explain why and your options. 

When we first set out almost 20 years ago to invent the technology to easily listen to any song in any room, most of the ways we listen to music today did not exist. In fact, the first Sonos products were introduced before the first iPhone was announced and when Myspace still ruled social media. 

 

In order to invent multi-room music and smart speakers, we combined the worlds of high-fidelity audio and computing. Every Sonos product has a microprocessor, flash memory, and other hardware components typically found in computers and smartphones.  

 

Since launching our first products, technology has advanced at an exponential rate; from streaming services and voice assistants to wireless networking and Bluetooth capabilities.  Through all of this transformation, we have continued delivering new features via software updates. We’re extremely proud of the fact that we build products that last a long time, and that listeners continue to enjoy them. In fact, 92% of the products we’ve ever shipped are still in use today. That is unheard of in the world of consumer electronics. However, we’ve now come to a point where some of the oldest products have been stretched to their technical limits in terms of memory and processing power.  

This coming May, these legacy products—our original Zone Players, Connect, and Connect:Amp (launched in 2006; includes versions sold until 2015), first-generation Play:5 (launched 2009), CR200 (launched 2009), and Bridge (launched 2007)—will no longer receive software updates or new features. 

 Today the Sonos experience relies on an interconnected ecosystem, giving you access to more than 100 streaming services, voice assistants, and control options like Apple AirPlay 2. Without new software updates, access to services and overall functionality of your sound system will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their technology. 

To help you through this transition, we’re providing two options:

Option 1: Continue using these legacy products, recognizing that your system will no longer receive software updates and new features.  

Option 2: Trade up to a new Sonos product with a 30% credit for each legacy product you replace.

If you’re not sure if your products are affected, you can check in the System tab in your sonos.com-account

If you choose to participate in the trade up program, your legacy products will be put in Recycle Mode, a state that deletes personally identifiable information and prepares these products for e-recycling. Recycle Mode also protects unsuspecting people from buying legacy products that are approaching the end of their useful life and won’t provide the Sonos experience customers expect today. Recycle Mode will only apply to the legacy products listed above.

 

We ask that you take your legacy products to a nearby certified e-recycling facility. This is the most environmentally friendly way to recycle. That said, if there isn’t a facility in your area, we are happy to pay for you to ship your products back to Sonos for responsible recycling.    

 

Ideally all our products would last forever, but for now we’re limited by the existing technology. Our responsibility here is threefold: build products that last a long time; continually look for ways to make our products more environmentally friendly through materials, packaging, and our supply chain and take responsibility for helping you through the transition once products near the end of their useful life.  

 

We’ve always believed in freedom of choice, whether that means choosing a certain streaming service or way to control your listening experience. We hope the choices provided here—continuing to use these products without new software updates or trading up to our modern products—enable you to make the choice that’s right for you. 

 

We are honored to have a place in your home and want to make sure that we help continue to bring the best experience we can, even when products reach the end of their useful life. 

 

More information.

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

How arrogant of Sonos to suggest that these great products may no longer work.   

Carry on with developing new products, but do not stop products that work perfectly well from continuing to work.

Or perhaps Sonos just don’t care about their customers!!

Please take the time and review this decision.

 

Very disappointing news, I have a Play 5 Gen 1 that I use mainly for a turntable and now I will need to replace this with a new Play 5.

In the process of buying a soundbar, play 1s and a Sub for a home cinema setup and think I am better off buying something from Samsung instead now which is a shame as I like the Sonos range due to it being so easy to use (unfortunately the fact it might become obsolete at any point has put me off)

Big shame that a system that is modular and supposed to grow around the house is putting older speakers out in the cold.

FFS! If you don’t revert this stupid policy and get your act together, this will be the doom of Sonos.
I will NEVER buy a single thing from you ever again unless you IMMEDIATELY reverse this.

It cannot be THAT hard to support multiple versions. If it truly is, then all the more reason to not buy a Sonos product again if you can’t manage to support multiple versions.

What device would replace a Sonos connect from May on, in order to keep the software updates and mantain the same functionalities as the Connect? Thank you 

 

Sonos Port

Swiping left on Sonos and your lousy 30% offer. I'm crying inside on the breakup. What it boils down to is $500/year for the past enjoyable years with my Sonos. Loved you guys but at that crazy investment price just can't see making that investment again. Hopefully you can find some lovers with money to burn because I suspect a rough time ahead for you. So many options out there now that weren't there all those years ago when we first got together. I once sang your praises to all who would listen. Now I'm like my outdated equipment..silent and sad.

It was clear that this was going to have to be done at some point, and it is probably more surprising that the inevitable has not happened sooner.  I’m not surprised, either, that the frozen system option is ‘all-or-nothing’. But that makes it a non-option for me, as I don’t want to close off future developments, given that I have only one ‘legacy’ component.  I must admit I didn’t expect Connects sold as recently as 2015 to go at this point though.

I think my only gripe is the lack of generosity in the discount offered.  I find myself facing an unexpected bill of £280 for a Port to replace my Connect, with little real benefit. Sure, I get a new Port that may last longer than my Connect would have done (or may not, I shall never know).  Better DAC?  I use digital out to a DAC / pre-amp.  Airplay? Never use it, don’t own anything Apple.  12V trigger?  No use for it.

So that’s a bit disappointing, but nobody died.   I suspect there will be some posts coming up that equate Sonos’ decision to murder, or possibly genocide, to judge by some past threads.


Why is it clear John B??

My system works perfectly.  I have no need to update it until it breaks.

I simply cannot afford at this time to update my system and pay a hefty price for it.

No Sonos owner ever expected to be dumped in such a mercenary fashion when they chose to invest at some expense on a Sonos product.

Sorry, but saying ‘nobody died’, and ‘equate Sonos’ decision to murder’ simply ignores the plight of us mere mortals that still have a perfectly working system and have no need to change it.

You can opt out of updates and don’t have to change it.  I have posted elsewhere that I don’t think that is a great option longer term but there is no pressing need for you to upgrade.


Appreciate your reply.

If there is no need to upgrade, then that is fair enough, so long as the product doesn’t fail due to anything other than mechanical defect.

That being the case, I really can’t see why Sonos cannot continue to offer basic support for our legacy products.  The e-mail sent out is, I’m afraid, somewhat cynical, and judging by this thread there aren’t many folk leaping at the 30% option to upgrade.

It’s so disappointing that a brilliant concept and product range has to go through this kind of crap to encourage new business.  My Connect Amp breathed new life into my stereo system which I hadn’t used for ages previously.  

Question - a carpet company in the UK made brilliant products, but went out of business because nobody replaced them.  Is this move to discontinue support for legacy products a sign that legacy folk were quite happy with their lot and didn’t want to even consider updating??  If so, then might one assume that Sonos is actually in some trouble.

Having worked in Sales, the one thing any decent company doesn’t do is forget or take for granted its customer base that have invested in their business.  Which, I’m afraid, is exactly what Sonos has done with this cynical move.

Sorry John, I know i’m venting, but I’d just like to see someone from Sonos actually empathise with legacy owners rather than commit a very poor customer relations failure like this.

Utter BS. So Sonos rewards the early adopters of their system with a 30% off coupon? Guess what? Many of us spent 1000s of dollars on an unknown system only 6-7 years ago. You expect us to believe you can't work with these existing systems now?! What? We just throw them in a landfill? They are PERFECTLY GOOD speakers!! I would've never bought them if I knew they would be bricked and then profited on. 30% off? What a joke. So you only make 270% profit on doing this. Time to call in the attorneys. 

 

I have close to $15K invested. And this is how I am treated. 

Shocking! I probably would ‘upgrade’ my connect to a Port, but the Port has fewer ports, I.e. no Optical out port. I know I could get a converter, but no, messy, plus another bloody wall wart!


Goodbye SONOS, hello Bluesound I think.

I suggest everyone get #boycottSonos trending on twitter

https://techknowbits.com/2020/01/21/insider-selling-sonos-inc-nasdaqsono-insider-sells-36453-shares-of-stock-updated-updated.html
 

wowza!  Selling before bad news?

But would the Chief Product Officer know about the upcoming cull and bad news. He most likely has a strong case for selling. A court order from a judge to cover a divorce, or a massive house purchase might cover it.

But other than that it looks exceptional bad timing for him.

Has anyone else had an email telling them their Sonos system is going to be obsolete? It’s absolutely outrageous. My system is 5 years old. It wasn’t cheap. We had planned to add to this “whole house system” this year. What an absolute rip off. I can only suggest NEVER buying Sonos. It simply isn’t worth it.

Anyone figure out how to apply the 30 % discount? I recognize that this is heresy for most here, yet am trying to complete the transaction. I even received a confirmation email.  Thanks

https://techknowbits.com/2020/01/21/insider-selling-sonos-inc-nasdaqsono-insider-sells-36453-shares-of-stock-updated-updated.html
 

wowza!  Selling before bad news?

But would the Chief Product Officer know about the upcoming cull and bad news. He most likely has a strong case for selling. A court order from a judge to cover a divorce, or a massive house purchase might cover it.

But other than that it looks exceptional bad timing for him.

Hard to imagine he would not. He owns the product, therefore would know about product strategy changes. 

Ryan,  

 

9 zone Sonos system tied into home architectural speaker system. I am ok with my components becoming legacy status as long as their current functions remain uninterrupted and  continues to work with future iOS or Android OS. It should be just updating iOS or Android app (not updating Sonos software). 
 

Now that future Sonos software updates will be free from legacy shackles, does that mean it will have better features other than keeping up with AirPlay?  


Will it support high def audio beyond current 44.1kHz/16-bits CD resolution?  Lack of support for “modern” high def audio has always been strange for company promoting hi-fi audio. It was understandable as old “legacy” system lacked horse-power and dac. But surely current “modern” Sonos components should be able to support at least 96 kHz/24-bits sampling, right?

I have only had my play 5 for 4 years and it is already out of support. This is an appalling service and a complete waste of £500. I was a fan of sonos but this treatment in unacceptable 

Anyone figure out how to apply the 30 % discount? I recognize that this is heresy for most here, yet am trying to complete the transaction. I even received a confirmation email.  Thanks

Just post them your credit card, it’ll save time in future.

You’ll be able to split systems though and use your modern devices separate from your legacy devices both in the same household.

@Ryan S Could you specify the details of this please? Will both parts of the system be controllable from a single controller? Will they share any settings (playlists, services, etc.)?

This level of detail is essential to aid understanding of the impact of this change.

Great question, and the team is working on this. We’ll have more to share on this in particular in May.

@Ryan S I appreciate the response, but -- with respect -- that is not good enough. The announcement should not have been made until such details were worked out and clear. Sonos is not some toddler startup, it’s a mature company that should not be acting in so amateur a fashion.

So is this what our country has turned into a throwaway society where products are still useable but are no longer supported?   Why buy your products if all are going to be only a few years away from being unsupported?  

 

I will have to start looking for a product that doesn’t go into the waste bin after only a few years. Thanks, SONOS! 

Also keep in mind that since they raised prices last week, that 30% discount is really only 20%. 

I think a field installable updated microprocessor/memory board/wifi  module upgrade for all legacy products would have a market. Let me select one for each affected legacy product I have and I will install them myself. Instead of a 30% off Trade In coupon

Our commitment is to support products with software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting for longer. The Sub is still being sold today.

I do not understand; the Connect Amp and the Connect were still being sold till some months ago? And if the product has a specific name, it does not matter what year it was made in - a Connect is a Connect is a Connect. Ditto for Connect Amp.

That does not appear to be the case. Connects and Connect:Amps from 2016 onwards are not flagged as outdated. Now, that better mean that they have updated hardware in them, otherwise ...

In fact, one of the reasons I felt comfortable buying my three Connects on eBay was that the Connect was still on retail sale at the time (2017). They cost less than retail, but they were not cheap.

Now all three are ‘outdated’.

I completely understand the need to move to a newer codebase that’s not compatible with the earlier hardware, but this ranks pretty highly in a list of how not to do business.

You have an ever-expandable system that people invest in, then pull this?

Even if I did upgrade my Play 5 and Connect, how long until my Soundbar, Sub and Play 1’s have the same problem? My system is pretty small compared to a lot of folks, but I’m fuming about this - to say the legacy devices will be rendered useless is madness.

I’d understand if you made the newer products / app support multi-instances, so we can have the old kit on a “legacy” instance, and the newer kit that supports it on a newer instance - then people can at least upgrade over time and replace devices in the legacy instance with devices on the new, offering an upgrade path with same goal and no cliff-edge.

But back to the point above - how often will this happen in future - even if this happened every 10 years that's not good enough, without a flexible upgrade path. If this is the way forward, then I’m going to go backwards and dig out my older audio kit which most likely still works fine. I will not buy new connect / Play 5 so they can still work with newer kit, only to have replace that newer kit in another year or two. 

My post regarding the discontinued support of a connect amp I have only had 2 years was deleted.

Way to go...

Feel robbed. Gutted. I have a lot of cash tied up in these speakers. Sonos will loose a customer if I have to bin my speakers. 

I seriously will not spend another penny on sonos.

PR FAIL!

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