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The next generation of Sonos software is now available. Sonos S2 is a new app and an operating system for compatible devices, which brings support for higher resolution audio, saved groups, support for new Sonos products, and more.

Learn more about the Sonos S2 app on our S2 home page.

 

Support for the newest Sonos products

The all new Sonos Arc, Sonos Five, and Sonos Sub will require the Sonos S2 app. These new players are not supported by the Sonos S1 Controller. 

 

Saved Groups

The new S2 app can save groups of rooms to create groups quickly and easily. Once a group is created, you can select it to start playing music and the players will automatically group up. 

 

High Resolution Audio

 

With S2, Sonos speakers now have support for high resolution audio, 24-bit, 44.1/48kHz for FLAC/ALAC only. This support is for local music libraries shared from computers and network attached drives. We’ve updated the article on Sonos supported music formats here.

The Sonos Arc is a Dolby Atmos soundbar, and S2 brings support for that audio to Sonos for home theater and music. Dolby Atmos can be read from Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby MAT, and Dolby TrueHD. 

 

How to get S2

All Sonos systems will be able to update to Sonos version 11.2, which contains some bug fixes and stability improvements. This version is a new S1 update, and compatible with all players. 

Once the 11.2 update is completed, systems compatible with Sonos S2 will receive a notification that the new app is available. You can tap that notification to start updating and the new app which will guide you through updating compatible players to the new platform. If you don’t see the notification banner, you go to System Tools in Settings to check compatibility and update. Sonos S2 is Sonos version 12.0.

You can check our Sonos S2 Compatibility article for a list of products that are compatible with S2.​​​​​

 

Articles and important information about S2

We will support products on Sonos S1 with bug fixes and security patches, and we will do what we can to ensure they keep working with the music services you love given their limited RAM and processing power.

We’ve put together answers to some of the top questions we’ve seen around S2 here, so please check out the following articles on:

Sonos S2 Overview - A great starting place to learn more about S2.

Sonos S2 Compatibility - Information about the differences between Sonos S2 and S1, including which Sonos products are compatible.

Set up separate S1 and S2 systems - Learn how to set up a separate Sonos S1 system with Sonos products that are not compatible with S2.

Known limitations with separate S1 and S2 Sonos systems - This article covers what you can expect when using two separate S1 and S2 systems.

Set up a separate Sonos S1 system

Remove Sonos products that are not compatible with S2 - Instructions on how to use the product removal tool in the Sonos S1 Controller before updating to Sonos S2.

Information about Trade Up:

If you’re interested in updating older Sonos speakers, here’s all the details on our Trade Up program, a way to get a big discount on any new Sonos products that are S2 compatible.

Trade Up home page - Get a general overview of the Sonos Trade Up program.

Trade Up support article - Step by step instructions on how to trade up your eligible Sonos products.

After updating to the S2 app, my Sonos Beam 5.1 set-up worked without needing any updates. However, my Apple TV was showing “Atmos“, (before, it didn’t). I don’t know if it’s from the eARC connection through my Sony A8H TV or not. I still have a lot to learn. Also. when playing a Blu-ray disc, it wasn’t able to play DTS, but it showed 5.1 on the PCM setting. 

My system including 9 Sonos items has successfully updated to version 12 (S2).

A simple question: Now that I have used the old app to upgrade to S1, and then used the S1 app to download the new Sonos S2 app, can I now uninstall the original S1 apps on my iPads and iPhones? OR do I need to leave the old, updated to S1 apps on our devices?

 

If you are not running an S1 system, you can uninstall the S1 app.

If you are not running an S1 system, you can uninstall the S1 app.

Thanks for your reply jgatie

what about music from turntable connected to line-in of a Play:5 2nd generation? How is converted?

what about music from turntable connected to line-in of a Play:5 2nd generation? How is converted?

 

In uncompressed mode it is converted to 16 bit, 44.1 kHz WAV.  Which is overkill, considering vinyl has a maximum dynamic range equal to about 14 bits.  

what about music from turntable connected to line-in of a Play:5 2nd generation? How is converted?

 

In uncompressed mode it is converted to 16 bit, 44.1 kHz WAV.  Which is overkill, considering vinyl has a maximum dynamic range equal to about 14 bits.  

12 bits. Around 70dB tops.

12 bits. Around 70dB tops.

 

But it has a frequency response of zero to infinity! (Or so I’ve been told. :yum: )

12 bits. Around 70dB tops.

 

But it has a frequency response of zero to infinity! (Or so I’ve been told. :yum: )

Ah, that’ll mean 12/384 then. :wink:

Now that I’ve installed the S2 app, I can no longer group my Play:3 with my Play:1 systems.

 

What gives?! 

Ryan, can you confirm what jgatie said above — that is, that downloaded music from Amazon HD will not play in 24bit via S2, and that the only way to get 24bit on S2 is with music that has actually been purchased and stored on a local device.  I was about to pull the trigger on a new Sonos Amp to replace an old Connect-and-receiver setup.  But If the only way to get 24bit from S2 is to go and buy all new music, then I probably should hold off on that purchase.  Thanks. 

Ryan, can you confirm what jgatie said above — that is, that downloaded music from Amazon HD will not play in 24bit via S2, and that the only way to get 24bit on S2 is with music that has actually been purchased and stored on a local device.  I was about to pull the trigger on a new Sonos Amp to replace an old Connect-and-receiver setup.  But If the only way to get 24bit from S2 is to go and buy all new music, then I probably should hold off on that purchase.  Thanks. 

Music that’s saved for offline playback from a service is almost always saved in a DRM protected format that only allows it to play on the device that it’s saved to, and not shareable to Sonos using the music library feature. 24-bit music on Sonos today is for tracks that you own which are shared for local playback off of a computer or NAS drive. 

This might be a moot point but I really like the S2 app. My only beef with it is the status bar(the star browse icons etc) at the bottom looks like a carryover from S1/android days. Is there a way to make this cleaner and flow better with the new theming? Or at least when i’m in the now playing screen have it all flow together without the rounder corners straight line jazz thats there. Grant it I know you guys have bigger issues and this truly is an elite first world problem so if nothing happens I understand. I attached photos to help illustrate the problem areas. 

 

Can we setup a forum for feedback on the new interface?

i for one liked the old GUI with having the current song/ album art along side the queue. Now you either get the fullscreen album art of current song or a queue.  Anyone else agree with me? Also it would be nice when in this new queue format that the current song could be highlighted a little more it doesn’t quite stand out.  Or add its album art like S1😀

ok I just found that you get the combined current album art and queue in landscape mode. Why not the same in portrait? I’m using an iPad. I could see maybe being restricted on a smaller device.

 

one thing I always posted as  was preserving the current song pointer in the Queue if you switched say to a radio station or a line in (I use play5 as a tv speaker). It would be nice to go back to the queue and resume where you left off. Vs finding that song and selecting it. 
 

I wish the amazon music menus had the A-Z indexes on the right side so I could jump directly to For example Letter M Songs and not have to scroll forever. 

Ryan, can you confirm what jgatie said above — that is, that downloaded music from Amazon HD will not play in 24bit via S2, and that the only way to get 24bit on S2 is with music that has actually been purchased and stored on a local device.  I was about to pull the trigger on a new Sonos Amp to replace an old Connect-and-receiver setup.  But If the only way to get 24bit from S2 is to go and buy all new music, then I probably should hold off on that purchase.  Thanks. 

Music that’s saved for offline playback from a service is almost always saved in a DRM protected format that only allows it to play on the device that it’s saved to, and not shareable to Sonos using the music library feature. 24-bit music on Sonos today is for tracks that you own which are shared for local playback off of a computer or NAS drive. 

What about music bought from something like HD tracks? Or if it came as a download card that came with an LP?

Am I correct that S2 continues to require that SMB V1 is activated in order to access NAS stored music libary? SMB V1 is terribly outdated, has security issues and since many years is replaced by V2 and in meanwhile V3.

 

Just upgraded to S2, seems okay but I am having trouble using TruPlay with a pair of play ones, anyone else had this?

I wish I had checked the community first, I have signed up for a trial of Tidal and have not noticed much of a difference over Spotify, now I know why!

Is there an S2 controller for Mac available yet?

Edit: found it.

Hmm... am I missing something? I what way does S2 support hi-res any more than S1?


It supports Dolby Atmos (on ARC), and 24 bit FLAC/ALAC on up to 48 kHz. 96 kHz is still rather broken, though - it plays the music really slowly.

 

I’m really hoping they’ll fix that… play it on Arc/Port, just play a downsampled version on the other speakers if they can’t play it natively.

I really, really, really dislike the darker background colour in the new app.  It’s like you listened to all the people that want dark mode and decided for something in the middle that will make everybody unhappy. Or maybe it’s just me that is baffled and horrified by the new Sonos branding and ubiquitous weird background colours.  
 

My now Sonos S1 controller is lighter now, and I can no longer play XM nor can I update for new Sonos app. I just want to play my xm on all of my speakers. I have a play:1, a Play:3, 2 Play :5 and sub (for TV), as well as a bar and a boost. What’s the deal? This has been nothing but a pain for the last year or so. My late husband used to trouble shoot, but I have had it.

I really, really, really dislike the darker background colour in the new app.  It’s like you listened to all the people that want dark mode and decided for something in the middle that will make everybody unhappy. Or maybe it’s just me that is baffled and horrified by the new Sonos branding and ubiquitous weird background colours.  
 

Horrified?

I really, really, really dislike the darker background colour in the new app.  It’s like you listened to all the people that want dark mode and decided for something in the middle that will make everybody unhappy. Or maybe it’s just me that is baffled and horrified by the new Sonos branding and ubiquitous weird background colours.  
 

Horrified?

Yes sir, I am not a fan of black text on a rather dark gray background.  

Running Qobuz via the UPnP plugin for LMS.  Looks like “hi-rez” streaming from Qobuz is working fine, at least this FLAC stream is.  No idea if it’s 24-bit or 16-bit, but obviously would be no difference in the sound.

 

 

Updated my two One Gen 2 and Windows app to S2 OK. Works fine, but when requesting BBC stations from Alexa with the BBC skill installed, it plays fine, but says while starting playing the station ‘Sorry, I’m having a little trouble. Please try in a little while’. I’ve rebooted all and re-installed Alexa app and Sonos S2 Android app v 12.0 and deleted the old S1 app (Huawei P30 on EMUI 10).  I’ve disabled the BBC skill and re-enabled. Any other suggestions please?

 

It’s a change from a few months ago when Alexa said ‘Playing xxx’ and silence ensued till repeated. That was fixed by an Alexa app update eventually. Is this likely to be a similar problem?

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