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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 The information contained in this thread is outdated and may no longer be accurate.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.

I loved Sonos and was a big advocate for Sonos.  I will no longer buy any Sonos product due to the fact that what I have bought will no longer work.  You lost a good customer today, who used to tell everyone to buy your products.  I will let everyone I know NOT to buy your product.

Why do you think your products will no longer work? That is not what the announcement says.


Hmmm. What lifespan do my old Play:1 speakers have? Given that they’re not listed as a product in the store any longer. I don’t want to fork out for a new Connect to Port replacement to find that not long down the road I have to replace all my Play:1 speakers too.

Does anyone know the official line?


All my Sonos system was bought at the same time only 4 years ago. Expect play 1 x2. 2 Sonos 5 and amp would now need replacing. Extremely disappointed 


I own 19 Sonos devices including Playbar (x1), Amp (x1), Port (x1), Play:5 (x3), Play:3 (x1), Play:1 (x4), Sub (x2) , Connect:Amp (x2), and Play:5 Gen 1 (x3). 

With this announcement, you’ve stated that you’ll no longer support updates to my newer Sonos products because my Play:5 Gen 1 (3) and Connect:Amp (2) devices aren’t “modern devices.”

You’ve lost a “forever” customer. You’ve lost an advocate. You’ve lost a champion. And now you have a bitter former customer who will explain to anyone who asks why they should never buy a Sonos speaker. Those criticisms started today as I shared my story with 5000 Facebook friends. The moral of the story is simple. Don’t buy Sonos products because the company will eventually blackmail you to purchase new Sonos products or face forced obsolescence.

I predict that this will be marked as the “we jumped the shark” day in Sonos history.

I can’t remember the last time I was so furious at any company.

Rob. I couldn’t have said it better. I feel exactly like you. I’ve been an advocate to so many people as I was a die hard forever customer. I have loved Sonos but receiving an email that my expensive products will no longer be supported via software upgrades and an offer of only 30% discount for the latest products is beyond disappointing and is clear that Sonos are in business for $ only and don’t care about their customers. I should have bought better known brands when I started in 2014 with “collecting” Sonos pieces. Little did I know I am buying future Duds! Sonos advertised: Sonos a system you can forever add to- well how can you lie like that. Shame on you Sonos. 


This is a poor show.  I appreciate that older products may eventually cease to get upgrades but to hold back the whole system just comes across as a ransom.

I have 2 x Play 5’s that are now “legacy”. What is crazy is they still look good and sound amazing, so bricking these seems hugely wasteful.  Do they not know there is a climate emergency?

Please rethink your approach fast as you are alienating your customer base.


I would argue with the sound thing, I have used the Node 2i recently, it is pretty impressive.

Matter of taste, perhaps. I auditioned Sonos against the equivalent Bluesound hardware, and I thought Sonos crushed it. Wasn’t even close, but sound is subjective.

However, I am now using on my main system, Raspberry Pi, Khadas Tone Board Dac and Volumio to control it all. Sound is amazing! 

Total cost was £35 for pi, £80 for dac and £22 a year for Volumio. 

The dac is stunning, it has replaced a £2k Meridian dac.

Sounds good … thanks for the pointers. (TBH, modern DACs are a commodity item: unless they’re playing EQ tricks, there aren’t audible differences between cheap ones and esoteric ones under controlled listening conditions.)


Know what , stuff it I’m not normally “that” type of person but I'm putting this on social media, I’m not gonna let my friends get stuffed if they were thinking of buying a new brick.

I suggest everyone who feels the same does likewise, you never know a national newspaper might pick up on it and then the doodah can really hit the fan,

I feel justifiably ripped off


Only a complete idiot would opt to upgrade their kit after being treated like this.


I will ask again. 

If you have legacy products in your system, then buy a new product after May, with a later firmware, will you be able to even add it? 

 


Good Question!

You will be able to add products to your legacy systems. We'll have more to share on the experience come May.


All my Sonos system was bought at the same time only 4 years ago. Expect play 1 x2. 2 Sonos 5 and amp would now need replacing. Extremely disappointed 

 

Play:1s are unaffected, and if you truly only purchased 4 years ago, that would be the Connect:Amp and Play:5 Gen 2, both sold after 2015, also unaffected.


Question:  is the trade up from a Play:5 (Gen 1) a trade up to a newer Play:5 or the Move?


I will add my voice here. In 2013 (an entire 7 years ago!) I went all in with SONOS after hearing it at a friend’s home. The Bridge, 4 of the Play5 gen1 speakers, a SUB. I ripped over 1000 CDs to my computer and ditched my CD player and the discs. In the meantime I retired, moving to a liveable but fixed income. I have endured the endless system updates. And I have very much enjoyed my music system. Now, you are telling me it will soon become useless ( I have no faith that the components will be able to be used more than a year or two after being declared “legacy”.). This borders on criminal. Nothing less than a big  ***** to all your customers who have built systems with your products. My father had a pair of high end Klipsch speakers he used for FORTY YEARS!!!  And you have the temerity to suggest that products being sold 5 short years ago should, as a matter of course in this modern era,  become obsolete, and  the 30% discount on all new stuff is a good deal. I am in no position to go out and drop that kind of money on a new music system, especially when the one I have IS IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER! Never again will I purchase a SONOS product. You people are terrible


I’m very unhappy about this. Why is my 5yr old Connect:Amp I purchased from Bestbuy now a legacy item? So is the life cycle now only 5 years for your hardware? So if I purchase new amps I can expect to have to purchase new ones again in 5yrs to continue support?

 

I can not justify upgrading hardware this often, the expense and the cost to the environment. I will put my effort towards helping build an open source solution then.


I understand the approach though a cynic would certainly say the built in redundancy approach to getting more revenue is being applied here! 

 

Whatever the reality, the message to me as a loyal customer of many many years who has enjoyed a wonderful system and in return has added new speakers at periodic intervals is that Sonos is no longer the right solution and I need to move to a separates approach - streaming from a volume provider (google/amazon?) and amp/speakers from a bona fide hifi provider(s). I can’t be anywhere near alone and dear Sonos don’t forget:

 

 As per a 2018 Forbes article once you have lost us loyal customers...”it can cost five times more to attract a new customer, than it does to retain an existing one”.

 


Question:  is the trade up from a Play:5 (Gen 1) a trade up to a newer Play:5 or the Move?

 

You can use the 30% discount on any one Sonos product (and some bundles).  It does not need to be a direct replacement.


Sonos needs to figure this out. I have been a loyal customer for 5 years (over $4k invested) and have recommended Sonos to many of my clients and friends, even gave Sonos Ones as Christmas gifts last year. Not a good customer relations strategy, I will not purchase or recommend Sonos product until they resolve this issue....


30% doesn’t even come close to cutting it. Hell, I’d question it at 60%!

A great amp and speakers are now or will soon be, practically speaking, useless because of limited CPU and memory at the same time putting other components of the system at risk. Why would anyone spend good money after bad only to likely face this situation again and again in future? Maybe SONOS should work a replaceable system card into their speakers so users don’t have to pay for replacing entire audiophile system components, just the logic boards.

Hey Sonos, this is what the start of bankruptcy looks like. Need to get a better offer on the table, fast.


Add my name to the list of incredibly pissed-off people.

Unlike many people in this thread, I only have 1 device (a Play:5 Gen 1) that is on the obsolete list. And it’s amazing that Sonos has supported this product as long as they have, and I don’t really have a problem with them dropping their support for it.

Unfortunately, Sonos is holding the rest of my products (Playbar, Sub, 3x One, 2x Play:1) hostage as well, since they also won’t receive any updates. What happens when Spotify tweaks their API and a Sonos update is required to keep things working? “Sorry. Give us $ for a new Play:5 and then we’ll let the rest of your system work again”.

People would absolutely lose it if Apple told customers that their 2019 iPhones and Apple Watches were being cut off from updates since they also own a 2010 iPad.

Why doesn’t Sonos do what’s its done elsewhere and “wall off features”? (The fact that my Play:5 and Play:1’s cannot do airplay does not prevent my “One”’s from using Airplay)


I have loved Sonos, I have advocated Sonos, but receiving this news that my expensive products will no longer be supported via software upgrades and an offer of only 30% discount for the latest products is beyond disappointing and it is clear that you are in business for $ only and don’t care about your customers. I should have bought better known brands when I started in 2014 with you. Instead I gave Sonos at a high price a go. You advertised: Sonos a system you can forever add to- well how can you lie like that. Shame on you Sonos. I wish I never recommended you to the 100’s of people I have. You’ve turned a Net promoter score of 10/10 into a 0/10 ex-customer for life today. 


So if I understand this correctly - SONOS expects their customers to upgrade the hardware every time they terminate the software updates? Is SONOS going to make a habit out of this? Something is not right with their thinking there.


Sonos has been considering this for well over a year, as this quote comes from Sonos’ November 2018 10-K filing:

We may choose to discontinue support for older versions of our products, resulting in customer dissatisfaction that could negatively affect our business and operating results. We have historically maintained, and we believe our customers have grown to expect, extensive backward compatibility for our older products and the software that supports them, allowing older products to continue to benefit from new software updates. We expect that in the near to intermediate term, this backward compatibility will no longer be practical or cost-effective, and we may decrease or discontinue service for our older products. Therefore, if we no longer provide extensive backward capability for our products, we may damage our relationship with our customers, and the value proposition of our products with  existing  and  prospective  customers  may  decline.  We  may  lose  existing  customers  if  their  older  products  cannot  integrate  with  newer  versions  of  our software,  and  this  may  also  result  in  negative  publicity  that  could  adversely  affect  our  reputation  and  brand  loyalty  and  impact  our  ability  to  attract  new customers or sell new products to existing customers. For these reasons, any decision to decrease or discontinue backward capability may decrease sales and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

haha so some financial analyst folks at Sonos had actually, honestly looked at how detrimental this move could be to the company and somehow someone convinced the bigwigs to do it anyway?


you could not make this shit up! I imagine Sonos offices are like an episode of the office. 

 

Not Mr. McRae from the M3 forums? 

 


When the trade-up was announced I was in favour because I have a ZP90 that I no longer use and I thought I might trade this in for another product.

Having seen the latest news though, I’m somewhat shocked. I will potentially lose 2x ZP90s, a ZP120 which is still great sounding and in constant use and also the CR200. I ditched a CR100 the other year and that was still a good controller.

At the moment I don’t feel like giving any more money over to Sonos (even with the trade-up discounts) because I’ve lost a lot of trust in them. Who knows what will happen to my Play1 speakers in the next year etc.

I will probably keep the system as it is and not have any more updates.

 


So just checked with a lawyer friend of mine - his view, In Europe, if you bought any Sonos product in the last 6 years that is affected by this you can take it back to the original retailer and get your money back! 


All my Sonos system was bought at the same time only 4 years ago. Expect play 1 x2. 2 Sonos 5 and amp would now need replacing. Extremely disappointed 

 

Play:1s are unaffected, and if you truly only purchased 4 years ago, that would be the Connect:Amp and Play:5 Gen 2, both sold after 2015, also unaffected.

Play 5 gen2 announced September 2015 - there was some overlap with Gen1 sales/clear out so it's possible it was bought in 2016. Same with the Connect cut off, possible that the poster bought a new unit in 2016 that was on the wrong side of the 2015 cutoff.

So yeah 4 years ago is possible. 


There is a word for this kind of operation: extortion.

I can either not pay and render my equipment useless or pay up to change to new equipment. This is a lousy behavior and a disgrace to the customers. You should be ashamed! We (the customers) have paid much money for our equipment and the whole time you have used them as a trojan horse to keep us hostages when least expected. You are aware that you´re still selling the affected equipment right? If you should phase a product you should announce it for a long time and stop selling at least a year ahead.

I hope you goes directly to bankruptcy (and you most certainly will because this will have a deep impact of the trust and loyalty of the customers).