I remember people asking for headphones that are a zone, not basic Bluetooth clones of what’s already on the market. 

Well they’ve apparently got the Qualcomm QC A4012 dual band WiFi chipset onboard according to things I’ve seen/read online, so who knows what the future may hold. Seems priorities for the moment though are with the App, but there’s always the fact they can play Snapdraggon Apt-X lossless audio (not that I have a TX that can do that as my hardware is Apt-X HD only) and by my own reckoning the Ace supports 24/48 .ALAC HiRes audio too.

Yeah.. the new hardware could be revolutionary, but it still doesn’t detract from how bad the new UX in the app is. The price-point on these systems is far too high to have to be constantly fighting it these past few months.

I’d also speculate that the vast majority of Sonos customers have no interest in ever having to use this site. At least for me, I’d much rather be enjoying a great sound system that actually works instead of catching up on all of this.

I just want HDMI to work as reliably as it used to on my Arc, and for the app to not make it so difficult to control multiple rooms/sources

That must be so galling to the hardware team.  I agree, Sonos has some excellent hardware, sadly hampered by poor software and lousy leadership. 

Absolutely. Even after defecting from Sonos in 2020, I have continued to maintain that the hardware is excellent for both build and sound quality for home audio other than TV applications. On the software side, I see nothing poor in S1 either. It still does the job of a remote control, it does not aspire to anything fancier.

On the headphone front, what I recall being mentioned about them was for their being used as another zone. There was no clamour for just a BT capable copy as the Ace are at this time.

PS: I don't use Sonos for TV, hence that little qualification.

I bought a book but I only have part of the pages, Sonos app is the same

I bought a book but I only have part of the pages, Sonos app is the same

Or…

“NEW! The complete Sonos system! Collect a new fix in fortnightly instalments - 13 updates available over 26 weeks. Until complete, you’ll not know what shape the system takes. Once you have collected all the fixes, you’ll be able to impress your friends with sonic brilliance. 
(While CEOs last. Updates may be withdrawn or changed at any time. Music library not guaranteed. Number of accessible devices may go up or down, and past performance is no guarantee of future access. Technical network knowledge required. Details of those with fully working systems are available at the Sonos forum - no abuse will be tolerated. Date of final release subject to continual pushback. Class action will be rightly ridiculed. For full Ts&Cs, and to become disproportionately outraged at what are completely standard data collection policies, visit the Sonos website. Details correct at time of writing but are highly unreliable.)

It’s my felling, I buy someting not finish, first time I buy Sonos but last time for sure 

And when I read have to wait 26 weeks for have the full system I can only laugh, never see a stupid company like this bye bye sonos

Ma réponse ci-dessus n'était en fait qu'une blague sur la façon dont les mises à jour pourraient être comparées à un produit de collection. Les mises à jour sont publiées toutes les deux semaines et ils s'attendent à ce que l'application soit à nouveau presque entièrement fonctionnelle d'ici octobre...

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed or been disappointed by the recent changes in how we can control our Sonos speakers. It used to be really convenient to manage my speakers remotely, even when I wasn’t on the same WiFi network. Whether I was at work, out of town, or just in another part of the house with a different WiFi connection, I could still add songs to the queue, adjust settings, and generally control my speakers without any issues.

However, it seems like this functionality is no longer available. Now, unless I’m connected to the same WiFi as my speakers, I’m pretty much locked out of controlling them altogether. This has been a bit of a bummer for me because I loved the flexibility of being able to manage my speakers from anywhere.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Does anyone know if there’s a way to regain this remote control capability, or if Sonos has mentioned any plans to bring it back? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks!

I bought a book but I only have part of the pages, Sonos app is the same

The big problem with those fortnightly instalment delivery products is after the first half dozen they usually stop being available  

I bought a book but I only have part of the pages, Sonos app is the same

Well, let’s see - we’re not there yet…! 

Currently, every time I see an update for Sonos in the App Store, I think ‘blimey, where did those two weeks go’  

From the Q3 Conference Call:

“Erik Woodring- Morgan Stanley

Patrick, I know you guys are alluding to the $20 million to $30 million of costs in the near term. I'm just wondering if you'd take a step back and think about the potential reputational damage that you could have from this app update. Could that be longer lasting and more kind of cost intensity than just $20 million to $30 million? I mean if you go through, I'm sure you have a number of message boards, there's a lot of backlash. And so I'm just wondering if there's a longer-term plan here in place outside of fixing the app and promoting. What else you have in store to try to get those customers that have either been loyal customers or new customers that were potentially considering Sonos products to actually come back after this? And then I have a follow-up.

Patrick Spence, CEO- Sonos

Yes. Thanks, Erik. So I think the key is to address the pain points that we have right now and those customers that are having issues with the new app for sure. But remember, we're not standing still on the innovation front. So we have 2 major new products that we're pushing out again to get-- make sure that we're in a position where the app issues are behind us. As we do that and as we launch those, we launch other products we have planned, we do our day-to-day execution in the channels and in marketing and all our other areas, people will be able to see the products. They'll experience our products. And I'm confident that with the road map wehave, with the innovation we have coming, that this will be just one chapter in our long history. And so we do feel like the $20 million to $30 million is what it takes to address the short-term pain. And that with everything we have coming, we'll be able to ultimately address that pain and then get back to a place of customers raving about Sonos”

When asked about reputational damage and how to make it right with existing customers, he immediately went to new products.  This is not the same company it was when I started buying their products 10 years ago.  The focus is new products and growth.  Developing a long standing relationship with customers is secondary.  Sonos products will soon be like phones - get a new one every 2 years, the old ones don’t work as well.  If I ever buy another Sonos product, I know what I’m getting - not a speaker that will last but a junky piece of tech that will be good for only a couple years.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/sonos-is-failing-and-millions-of-devices-could-go-with-it-why-open-source-audio-is-our-only-hope/

Interesting viewpoint; although the author has an axe to grind these are questions anyone considering material investment in any system needs to ask.  

 That’s why I still use SqueezeBox.  WiiM Pro Plus & Ultra can be SqueezeBox Players and my Touch still works it’s magic.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel when all it takes is for the smart front end and the generic speaker side to both have analog line level jacks. Signal voltages don’t need any more protocols to communicate.

I always thought the play 1 units would have moved from good to great with a line in jack; I believe recent Sonos speakers do have these. On the other hand, new Echo devices are usually stripped of  audio out jacks, reducing their versatility just to save some pennies.

Interesting, although in his desire to promote his AudioPile idea he has overlooked that Matter which has open source libraries for hardware of all sizes and supports most of the connectivity he’s wanting are looking into an audio casting specification. They already have a video casting specification and there are products on the market using it.

Matter is a unified, open-source application-layer connectivity standard built to enable developers and device manufacturers to connect and build reliable, and secure ecosystems and increase compatibility among connected home devices.

https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip

There is even working code for building the video casting example.

Who are members of the CSA defining the Matter/Thread specifications? Well oddly all it includes all the current closed platform manufacturers, Amazon, Google, Apple, Sonos he is complaining about and extends across companies from the entire supply chain.

It’s almost as if they recognised that the expensive and duplicated effort they put into their systems it is better for them if they make things open and concentrate on selling services and content and devices without needing full end to end single vendor control and investment.

Personally I’d prefer a Matter solution over yet another open source platform. Mix and match endpoint devices and they work with your preferred controller app.

I have used, contributed to and been a supporter of open source since the mid 90’s when I battled through the minefield of hardware support to install the first Slackware release. That carried into my working life, where most of  what I work with wouldn’t exist or have been possible without open source solutions.

I used to use Squeezebox and it was my first multi room & multi location (via vpn) music system before I bought my first Sonos devices back in 2007.

I’m glad Logitech kept it open when they bought it and it is continuing now Logitech aren’t interested.

I do keep looking at it, but for me the client server model with everything running through it gives an extra server I’m not interested in maintaining and a single point of failure I don’t want. It can be powerful and flexible, but in reality from the repos it still looks like there are only a handful of people maintaining it and many of the plugins are single person development. Without being able to interest new developers to contribute it suffers the same issue as many projects where it’s only sustainable while the developer stays.

Unfortunately in the open source side of audio there appears to be a lot of re-invent the wheel, so projects get smaller dedicated followers, but don’t reach the tipping point of being the majority solution.

The most visible recent example I’ve seen is rather than doing something with LMS the Home assistant team have decided to build their own audio solution with Music Assistant.

Mpd has it’s own various server and client offerings, then there’s Plex, Emby, Jellyfin etc all trying to integrate audio delivery that suits, in the primary instance, the developers needs.

S2 App coming back?  Before they have to layoff more?

The majority of Verge articles about Sonos comes from @chriswelch, including this article, and he’s almost always accurate.  To the point that people have speculated that Sonos intentionally leaks info to him.  I have no doubt that management has considered reverting the app, but as stated in the article, it’s discussed, not a sure thing.

I can’t speak to any other part of The Verge.

Fair enough @melvimbe 

I would expect the app being rolled back has been discussed a few times already internally. Between the extended length of time support volumes and queue times have been sky high and feedback from the forums, even without any publicity I’d be very surprised if it hadn’t been discussed.

I would hope it was part of a rollback plan for the original rollout.

Just seems an odd article to write without any real news or outcome.

Every company I’ve worked at would have been having daily then as things get better weekly crisis meetings. Senior management were always involved and updated. In terms of ways forward nothing was ever off the table.

I just hide behind the sofa thinking “WTF have they broken now!!” 

The last time there was a big about turn from Sonos was back in March 2020 when a public uproar forced Sonos to reverse the bricking of old speakers tactic as part of the discount for new speakers, with an apology from Spence. At that time Sonos apologists had said for weeks prior to the about turn that Sonos does not do about turns. There was no little consternation from said apologists at that time when Sonos about turned; from one of them even about how upset he was that other users would not have to suffer from what he did via his old speakers being bricked in his rush to upgrade with the 30% discount on offer. Those that know how to search, will find this sentiment in his posts from that time.

The same set, by and large, have been vocal this time around as well - reversal not happening, they have been saying since May 10th.

The quote above must have them worried now, about yet another possible Sonos reversal that will again leave them with egg on their faces.

Question: why not just permit a move back to S1 for those that are ok with the feature set there, along with the option to use SMB Ver 1 to enable local libraries to the extent they were usable in March 2020? This will not be as good as a reverting to a S2 as it was at the beginning of May, but may be easier/faster to implement? With a revert to S2 made available some time after?

Sonos can then take time do a proper job of crafting whatever the brave new world this new app is to be part of, before unleashing it on the user community.