I’m in the same “this is how we reward our early adopters” boat, and not happy about it. Will be interesting to see how many customers are affected, and just how much outrage Sonos stirs up with this action. Equally troubling is the precedent they are setting in terms of future product support and programmed obsolescence. Many Class Action lawsuits have been generated over such issues.

I've just received an email from Sonos telling me that the brand new Connect:Amp purchased only one month ago, is about to be made a legacy product from May.  How can this possibly happen???

Bizarrely, this is the newest of 5 Connect:Amps powering speakers around my home, the others having been bought between December 2017 and May 2018.  Yet the older connect amps have NOT been flagged in this email and all but the newest show in my account (system) as being modern products, with NO ‘Trade Up Eligible’ label next to them.  Only the newest Connect:Amp has the ‘Trade Up Eligible’ label showing against it (but also still showing the ‘Modern product label’).

So could somebody please explain what is happening here?  I was told that only products manufactured before 2015 would be affected? 

The 3 products bought in December 2017, all have serial numbers beginning with 1710 5CAAFDEXXXXXX, with the 4th Connect:Amp purchased in May 2018 beginning with 1801 5CAAFDEXXXXXX.  Given the most recent serial number begins with 1807 347E5C2XXXXXX, surely this would indicate this unit is the newest (logically it must be, having been purchased 18 to 24 months after the others)?  So what on earth is going on? Has anyone else experienced this?

I would appreciate any advice other Sonos owners can offer who may have experienced similar ‘treatment’ from Sonos.  

Oh, that’s all right then.  Only obsolete after 4 years.   Yes, all the best consumer products are obsolete after 4 years. 

The optics for Sonos here are truly awful across a number of dimensions.   

Or, if you’ve moved country like I have to a non trade up location, you don’t even get the 30pc!

How do you turn off updates, period? My speakers need no updates and if they brick my hardware I’m going to be livid.

To add clarification, if you have devices in your system that are marked as legacy, then your system will not get an update after May.  Nothing is going to suddenly stop working in May, unless you actually take it out of your system, do the trade up program, intentionally.

Since your devices won’t get updates anymore, there won’t be new features, and some features that interact with other companies services, like streaming and voice, may eventually stop working since the nature of those services are not going to freeze.  This is the same as if you had a phone or tablet that is on an OS version that Apple/Andorid no longer supports and can no longer be updated.   

To be clear, the trade up program does required that you use the 30% discount to buy the same product type (example Port for a Connect),   You also don’t need to make this decision in May, as I understand it.  You could continue on with your system the way it is until the point where a service your using no longer functions properly or you wish to add a new device...which could be a year or more from now.  At that point, you can look at removing your legacy devices and utilizing the discount if you wish.

As far as this situation occurring a few years from now.  It’s important to realize that this is the first instance of this happening, so it’s a bit hard to gauge when the scenario will repeat again.  I don’t know how much capacity the play:1 for example has for upgraded features, or what features would be a problem  for the play:1 going forward.    Also worth considering that the timing is based on when a product was manufactured (or the date it was first release, more accurately) , not when it was sold.  So a Sonos One bought 2 years ago is ‘safer’ than a playbar bought last summer due to it’s released date.

They have to do something, but it’s entirely possible to develop distributed system software that simultaneously accommodates older and newer versions. In fact, it’s common development practice, with well-known approaches like versioned APIs and protocols.

There is no technical reason why a single Sonos system could not comprise older and newer software versions running alongside each other, with limitations. For example, it might not be possible to group older and newer versions.

This is a horrendous decision.  Horrible.  I own more Sonos components than I can count and started to amass them around 2007.  I currently own three One’s, two Fives, 1 Amp, 2 Connects, PlayBar, and the Subwoofer.  Not to mention Sonos Ones I have handed out for Xmas over the years.   FIVE of my components (Fives X2, Amp, Connect X 2) are now going to be rendered extinct.

You market yourself as “high-end”.  Your own marketing initially emphasized how “you can build your system over time”.  Which I did.  SHAME ON YOU!    One of the main reasons for buying HIFI equipment is not only sound, but longevity.  I have speakers and amps that are over 20 years old.

Your promise of a system that a person can build on was the reason I spent THOUSANDS of dollars over the years.  I will never make that mistake again.  This is bait and switch at its most evil.  Shame on you Sonos!

For how long eh?

As a massive fan of Sonos, this decision is quite frankly shameful, and as I can see on reddit, and twitter, everyone seems to agree. Do yourself a favour and go back to a whiteboard with your tail between your legs and think of a better solution to the problem - otherwise watch Sonos die.

Ryan, I won’t mince words. This sucks. Sonos is already a little buggy and I know this change is going to cause grief for us in more ways than one. It ain’t gonna’ be a simple transition. Things are going to get messed up. It’s bad enough that you’re screwing the people who got in early and made a commitment to your brand and company -- the people who helped you establish a successful company -- but your offer of a 30% discount on new equipment is disrespectful. No one told me my investment was “limited” to a certain amount of time when I bought all my equipment. Had I known I might have thought twice about spending this kind of money. I suggest Sonos offer a more substantial discount on new equipment to show their respect to your most loyal customers. Why would I ever reinvest in Sonos knowing now that you will eventually discontinue my products? When I bought the system there were very few choices. Now there are endless choices. Sonos, are we breaking up?

Ditto.  You BASTARDS.  I’ve been with Sonos for 20 years now.  I’ve purchased just about every product you’ve ever made from the beginning.  Over $10,000 worth of your equipment and I’ve sold even more for you with recommendations.  I’ve already thrown away the Controller 100, two Controller 200’s and 3 Bridges.  Now you want me to “Upgrade” and give you more money.  I’m finished.  Bluesound here I come.  It’s better anyway.  It has High Resolution.

So, when can I expect the other components in my system to be EOL’d?

So 6 zones for me at a full replacement cost of £3,294! But I can stay the same for £2,305, gee wow thanks. And the rest of the year looking over my shoulder at the death of Gen1 Play 1s (5 of them), when will they come for the Playbar and Sub?

It just doesn’t make sense to have killed the CR100, Boost & other bits first. Then kill the Gen 1 stuff. Why couldn’t they have been made legacy nicely. Whoever is driving this has little idea about customer sentiment.

Instead they want to force customers to loose the CR100 whilst openly stating there are no plans to kill the zone players and the memory was totally different and they were just fine. Oh hang on, what we meant was kill them off next year.

I am surprised they haven’t said they might catch fire, but not catch fire, like the CR100.

What a load of crap, what went wrong guys?

For reference I am already a refugee walled in behind my firewall with three working CR100s, and Sonophone for apps. Amazon Prime and Spotify are still working.

This is the fastest I’ve ever gone from “love” to “hate” with a company.

Sonos will never see another dollar from me.

With today’s unwelcome and short notice (May 2020) of forced obsolesence of my entire Sonos infrastructure (except my Sub); is Sonos indicating how long the “Modern” products will be supported? When will these be demoted to “Legacy” and lose their value too?

The “Legacy” designation (as I understand it) effectively means I can never expand my (Legacy) system with newer products - I can only scrap and replace it with new (and the “trade up” program while welcome is a small offset to the replacement cost).

IMO Return it if you can. It might be fine but why risk it?

The disgust is growing fast and most people are still at work and unable to respond yet...

Sub doesn’t do much, it just receives and plays a signal.  So the memory requirements are paltry compared to a player which needs to store settings/index/playlists, access tracks, do voice control, etc.  

Ridiculous comment.  @jgatie was simply and correctly pointing out which subset is affected.  It is a factual and correct statement.  It makes no moral judgement and is not disgusting.  And this is a user forum, @jgatie is not a member of Sonos Support.

No perspective at all, merely relaying the facts.

I want to add my displeasure to the way this has been handled.  I have been a loyal Sonos customer with a Beam, 2 Playbars, a playbase and multiple zp100’s and Connect AMPs.  I recently moved and purchases a bunch of new Connect: Amp players 2 years ago.  Now I find they are going to be outdated and need replaced for me to have full function from the rest of my system.  I know nothing lasts for ever, and I have no complaints related to my 6-10 year old equipment.  Not only can I only get 30% back on the old (2 years) equipment, they recently bumped the price on the replacements not allowing me to take advantage of the older price point.  Now faced with the prospect of spending several thousand dollars on replacing 2 year old players I am thinking I will move on to a different technology and a different company.  

Again, I am fine with the discounted price on 5+ year old items, but I paid the premium sonos prices because I want quality and durability.  30% off on 2 year old items that are sunset is completely unnaceptable!

Goodbye Sonos. It’ been a great 20yrs of owning your products. I will not be spending thousands of dollars, even after your “generous” 30% buyback offer, to replace components that I’ve spent the last 2 decades piecing together.

How about I give you all 20 of my products for 30% buyback so that I can go purchase some relevant tech? Let me know if you’re interested in my offer!

Here’s hoping you make national news for this P&L salvaging strategy that removes the customer from legitimate consideration!

Im beside myself ive been using Sonos for 15 years …. now you wanna surprise me and get me to buy thousands of dollars in equipt twice?? your nuts besides the lashing your about to take on the social networks.  it should be illegal to boot your equipment is expensive most people buy alittle at a time then you render not someone's product but someone's whole system obsolete?????? who made this up ? where i come from its bad buisness straight up

I have also received this email and am flabbergasted that Sonos would poop upon their most loyal customers like this.

I feel lucky that I’m only (so far) being warned of my Sonos Bridge and Connect as being legacy.

I upgraded’ the Bridge in June to a Boost as devices were dropping out after a software update was run. This was £79 wasted but my system was working again so I was happy.

The Connect, I bought in February 2015 which is less than 5 years old will be ‘legacy’ as of May.

As of now I will still be able to update my other speakers (2 x Play3 & 3x Play1) after May if I purchase a replacement for the Connect but I don’t want to.

I will no longer be recommending Sonos as a good easy option and will be ridding myself of what was the best solution to easy Hi-Fi ever.

My wife can actually work Sonos and we’ve been adding to the system over the years since our first Play3.

I don’t want Alexa and all that crap so will not buy anymore Sonos.

What are the idiots in charge now thinking?

Bye bye Sonos. You shouldn’t listen to Gerald Ratner for marketing advice.

This is nuts, I have all of these devices, purchased in 2014, Invested well over $3000 in this stuff, and looking to buy more, now after May, no updated even for my new non obsolete devices unless I remove the obsolete ones from my system, and I am assuming that includes security updates.

Will this apply to my non obsolete sub and playbar in 4 years?.

Good way to loose loyal customers SONOS.

Imagine buying a Cisco router network, and being told by Cisco that your entire network will not be supported in 6 months because of memory shortage in one or more of the devices, and the solution is to buy more Cisco routers. Nuts.

F.Y.I  I purchased a Meridian analog HIFI in 1994, it is still working perfectly with superior sound quality every time.