Honestly not a fight. I love Sonos I love that it just currently works in my household. I love that it has made moving and resetting up super easy. 

play:5 gen2 did have some issues with AirPlay, updates to overall design should be good things.

but doesn’t have backwards compatibility and with recent S1 S2 product split announcement that isn’t well understood, and it’s a walk back from bricking. the optics look like future forced obsolescence, so the release of a new non compatible sku makes me more scared as an existing customer rather than happy. It’s a sign that within the next 5+ years my initial 800 dollar investment in a play 5 gen 2 might become an expensive paper weight or hindrance, rather than hey let’s be excited at the continued growth of Sonos as a brand and it’s continued product refinement.
 

What I think most of the people being negative are looking for is more indications that Sonos unlike other companies, have our backs as customers and has a growth path forward. That we are not paying for the great IOT experiment everyone in the industry says we are.

I totally understand that concern. I can’t speak to what may happen in 5+ years, but I can say that we will keep on supporting older products as long as possible. At a minimum, we promise to keep bringing news features and updates to Sonos players for at least 5 years after we stop selling them. At some point in the future, if the Play:5 gen2 becomes a legacy product, we’ll still keep trying to bring it updates and maintain compatibility the best we can.

Just trying to understand here and I appreciate your response. If I understand correctly,  you are saying the different processors mean that they can’t pair, fair enough. Since it’s a technical reason I guess Sonosequencer won’t be able to pair them either (I was actually hoping you would say the reason is because of sound so sonosequencer would be able to pair them if I go down that road). 

Thanks for the clarification @Ryan S

Keep up the great work and products. 

An idea for future product compatibility and support is to maybe run an emulator or an API, that allows for backwards compatibility and/or compute offload to a master compute resource / product.

All any of these products need to be for us at the end of the day is a speaker. How it processes and offloads that work and gets there it doesn’t matter to the user. Traditional speakers don’t process anything they just make sound, legacy sonos devices could transition from full featured to dumb devices that required a sonos digital receiver device to function, and I would personally think that was very reasonable. Its what you do with the AMPS for traditional speakers already.

It’s possible that the app may be able to pair them, we just can’t guaranty the performance of that pair if it does work. I believe that app can pair Sonos devices that have no business being paired, like a Play:1 and a Play:5, which have different processors. When we build pairing for devices into the Sonos app, we need to be sure of the quality and longevity.

Can you explain a little more about this feature? The attached pictures show what Alexa says when I try to set this up with my Play:5 Gen 1.

My issue is that a particular radio station I use through a particular skill will always play on the Dot rather than on Sonos, but this is not the case with any of my Ones. It’s also not the case when I initiate Spotify through the Dot.

Wow, now i am even MORE happy that i never took Sonos up on the offer of replacing my 5 year old Play gen.1 with a play gen.2.

If i was angry that they obsoleted my 5 year old speaker, i would be really really angry if i bought the replacement they recommended, only to find that it was discontinued a month later, and is most likely being obsoleted in another 5 years.

I wonder if the “Get 30% off, for every Play 5. gen 1 speaker” also applies to the FIVE. ?

If it does, i would think that people lured into accepting the play 5 gen.2 just a month or 2 ago would be REALLY angry and feel VERY cheated.

You can use the 30% on every Sonos device sold, even sets up to a whole 5.1 setup.  I’m pretty sure the only thing it doesn't apply to is the turntables.  So you could trade up from a $350 Connect, and get over $500 off a full Arc, surrounds, and Sub 5.1setup. 

Like the Five, the Play:5 Gen 1 is not an Alexa enabled speaker, so Alexa can’t respond through it.  Your speaker can take commands to play, pause, etc from Alexa, but it’s not capable of responding as Alexa (unless wired through the aux input of course).

I am not sure it’s 100% technically accurate, but it makes sense, to me anyway, to think of it this way.  One of the feature requirements  of an Alexa enabled device is to have microphones that listen for the keyword, then send the audio up to Alexa servers for processing.  A second function is that they must be ‘listening’ to the Alexa servers what Alexa needs to say something.  That’s usually a direct response to a command it was given, but it doesn’t have to be.  For example, Alexa can remind you of an appointment, or give you the news at a set time, etc….all without being prompted.  What I believe Amazon has done with this default speaker feature is essentially to forward every request for  a device (A) to speak on to a different advice (B).  Device A can still listen, but device B does all the talking for it.

Anyway, a speaker can’t be the default speaker if it isn’t Alexa enabled, unfortunately.  This is just me spit balling, but I wonder if one day, the Five could be an Alexa enabled device even though it has no mics built in. That way it could be the default speaker, do the Alexa talking and playback of audio for skills etc.  Would be pretty cool, but I doubt it will happen. 

Yea you could get the audio for the skill to automatically play on an Alexa enabled device like your Ones or anther dot, but not. the Play:5 gen 1, unfortunately.

So anyone that took their upgrade offer for a 2.gen play 5, could have waited and gotten a play FIVE.

Honestly, id be pretty miffed, if had taken that offer a month ago for the 2.gen, just to find out its being discontinued right now.

Would it be strange, if someone that did that, was to speculate that Sonos did this, to clear the stock of 2.gen before announcing the killing of the 2.gen speaker.

So you’d be happier if they didn’t allow you the discount on newer products? Rather silly, no?

Usual misinformation from @DK_Madsen .  There is no sense in which the gen 2 has been 'killed'.

And I can't see why anyone would be bothered about their discounted purchase of a great S2-compatible speaker  

I’m certainly extraordinarily pleased with both PLAY:5 gen 2 speakers I have. They’re outstanding, and completely S2 compliant. 

Phew, this is good to know. I haven’t really been following the developments too closely and thought the Play5 was done.

I don’t see it on the US website or “Last Chance” area for sale. I thought they had stopped manufacturing and selling the Play5 and the five year software countdown had started since I only see the new 5.

There is no “countdown”.  That is the minimum that is guaranteed.  There are devices just becoming legacy now that were last manufactured over a decade ago.  Fact is: All the legacy products had 32MB RAM/storage.  The Play:5 Gen 2 has 8 times that.  I’m not saying that means it will last 8 times longer, it won’t. But it is certainly more future proof than the legacy units were. 

This 'only 5 years' thing has been possibly the biggest misrepresentation that has featured on this forum in recent months. A close second is that discontinuing sales makes a speaker 'useless', 'obsolete' or 'dead'.

Yes, especially the “Sonos could release a new product and discontinue it the very next day, so you really only have 5 years of life” reality twisting logic.

Oh, I thought there was a 5 year minimum guarantee, thus the countdown on the guaranteed support period. I know it can be longer, what’s the minimum it will be supported as I guess I’m wrong?

Funny you mention the 8 times more memory, the new sub has 8 times more memory than the Play5. 

You guys are really snippy. If I am wrong that’s fine but I’m not trying to misrepresent anything.

I thought it was a 5 year guarantee...I know it could be longer but is 5 years the guaranteed minimum that Sonos promises? Please tell me the actual minimum guarantee, I’ll be very happy if they guarantee more than 5!. Thanks.

I don’t think anyone was “lured” into doing anything. Anyone doing their purchasing research would have discovered that the Play:5 Gen 2 was one of the products due for an upgrade and could have factored that into their choice. Moreover, absolutely nothing has changed yet by having a Play:5 Gen 1 as part of your system and won’t until June, so why would anyone rush out and buy a new product immediately.

They might be snippy, but I can understand the reaction to the immoderate and inaccurate language on this issue from many across this forum and in social media more widely. Anyway, you are correct that the minimum support guarantee is five years after a product is discontinued, so it is possible the Play:5 Gen 2 may start to lose access to new features in five years time, but they are very unlikely to stop working altogether. I’m still happily using products that I bought 10+ years ago, and am only swapping those out now because I’d like to keep up with S2 developments.

A “countdown” denotes there is a definitive end when the timer reaches zero.  It also connotes a bomb going boom, or a rocket going off in ball of flames and rising to leave the Earth.  It’s a loaded phrase, purposefully used to bring up that type of image, wouldn’t you say? 

After all, nobody ever went “10, 9, 8, . . . 3, 2,1.  And now we are going to sit here like this for a few more years of functionality.”

Right?   

Thanks for confirming I am correct about the 5 year minimum software support guarantee. What was inaccurate or immoderate about my language if I may ask?

Your specific experience with a long support time is great, I hope my devices will get at least 10 years of updates. But not everyone got 10 years right? There are a lot of people who only got 5, 6 years of updates and I would like to avoid that.

Ryan,

What are the options for Play: 5 (Gen2) owners that need to complete a stereo pair now?  The Gen2 is not currently available for purchase on your site.  I already have the sub (also Gen2) but need to complete this room with true stereo.  
 

Thanks. 

Mr Pedant, Sonos guarantees 5 years of software updates from the last sale right? It seems that the Play5 is at the last sale point. The countdown to the end of the guarantee is on. So it would be correct to say that the 5 year guarantee will run out in 5 years. 

I have no idea why you are talking about bombs, rockets and flames. Countdowns aren’t just for astronauts, North Koreans and doomsday cults. 

What do you think about the sub having 8 times the memory of the Play5?