End of Software Support - Clarifications

We should all buy Google Home, that’ll piss Sonos off

Bluesound makes Sonos look cheap, and has poor reviews.

Since I posted in this tread yesterday I have spoken with the people I referred to Sonos, a few people at work and my sister all bought Sonos based on how good I said it was, they have also referred people themselves. They are all furious with the current situation and none will consider ever buying their products again given the current stance, we all had plans to expand our systems at some point soon. 

The thing that none of us can get past is that these are just speakers, we are not asking them to do anything more than play music. Even if they cannot support new features there is no reason they cannot be made slaves to a more modern piece of tech in the system like a new bridge, they just need to relay commands and play what they are told and they could last 50 years, I would buy a new bridge or speaker in a heart beat if it did this. 

As it stands we simply do not believe what Sonos is telling us about it not being possible to integrate legacy items and have no idea how long a new speaker is now expected to last even if I did replace them, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years? I can’t invest in premium priced tech on that basis.

I have a five room Sonos system built up over a number of years. I also have a sublime Mission hi-fi that is 30 years old.

...and I am incredibly surprised that there isn’t more outrage at the Sonos announcement re. legacy kit.

I used to be a real advocate for Sonos (“the best gadget ever”).

That said, the chance of me ever buying more Sonos kit diminishes by the day.

Exactly. I have much lower capacity products which are also used for Spotify. Those are working without problems because actually you don’t need so much capacity for streaming Spotify. It’s very simple thing.

And as we have told multiple times. The capacity issues are not the real reasons. The real reason is the money and it can be found clearly from the latest SEC report. There is nothing about lack of capacity, but you can see many rows text about making more money with closing support for old products.

Please explain what you mean when you say that you will support products that you sell for at least 5 years.  I bought a CONNECT:AMP in 2018 to add to the 3 CONNECT:AMPS ans 2 CONNECTS that I bought in 2015 (less than 5 years ago - but it will be 5 years in May when you discontinue support).  If the one I bought in 2018 is still “Modern”, why aren’t the others?

There were apparently some hardware changes without a corresponding device name change. Sonos realizes this was a very bad idea and probably won’t do it again.

According to my sources the original Connect and Play 5 had 32mb of memory, the connect:amp and play 1 have 64. The newer connect has 256mb as does the Gen 2 play 5.
The newest models have 1024mb (1 gig) so it is safe to say that the older models with 64 and 256mb are likely not long for this world. And when 1 gb is not enough, they will get tossed too. This will NEVER end and the cost of ownership it through the roof. 

Posted by another forum member (apologies I can’t locate that original post… it’s a swirling vortex of post activity the past 48 hrs.)

Oh how I now wish I’d purchased my Connects just 13 months later.

It’s precisely this kindof chart which would prevent me replacing my Gen 1 Play:5 with a Gen 2 as surely that (and my existing Play:3’s) are going to hit the same issues soon. 

 

Thanks for posting the chart, all.  This actually explains pretty well why it is becoming challenging to keep the earlier models working over time when using their existing architecture where every device needs to work at the level of the “lowest capability device”.

Real big eye opener and explains pretty well the issues they are facing. But we all agree here that not supporting the older models with new software is fine. Thats life, it happens. What were all “annoyed” about is how it effects our other devices, they shoundnt be penalised/staunted/held hostage. Sonos has clever developers, they just need to find away to allow modern to update, legacy to stay still and basic fucntionality (grouped music) still work. Just have a caveat about newer features not working on legacy devices.

This doesn’t explain why speakers that play music now won’t be able to music in the future.  I understand why they won’t have additionally features; but, this doesn’t explain at all why music won’t be able to be played.

Their system is designed at present to require all devices to interoperate in several ways (wireless compatibility, sharing the songs library, etc) so they have backed themselves into a technical corner.  When one segment of devices can’t “keep up” they have chosen (or forced themselves to choose) to let that device limit what other devices can do.

Of course their solution, rather than do some creative engineering, is to shoot themselves in the foot, which is sad and hopefully they change their mind.  A new system architecture, that takes into account varying capabilities without limiting more capable devices because of legacy limitations, would be the responsible corporate thing to do.  

I don’t just mean good PR, I mean they boast of their good corporate values and environmental ethos.  So, making sure legacy devices are still usable even if functionality on those devices is limited is a much better ethical and environmental solution than their current update&brick approach.  That is, it would be a PR win (or at least a step in the right direction) but it would ALSO be a boon to current owners, and to the planet.

How about standing-by the quality of your products and generating new customers? Instead of screwing your existing customers and ruining your brand and brand loyalty.

This is interesting.  Which SEC report is that? I would love to read it.

Let’s try to get a US News group to pick up the story.  Attached is a link to Fox News.  Select “send a story or news tip”.  I’m sending it right now.  Fox may respond if they get enough incoming tips. 
 

https://help.foxnews.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Another option you should all consider is to contact the California State Attorney general.  They will be interested in this scheme Sonos is running.   

I just logged in to tell you I will never spend another penny on Sonos after this robbing move you  have made, I hope the company fails.

I’ve had my play 5s for less than 5 years and now my whole system will be renewed obsolete, and you think a 30% discount is a good deal, bunch of jokers,

They will be able to play music in the future!

I’m affected by this news (4 out of 6 zones are ‘legacy’) and wholeheartedly agree the announcement was incredibly badly handled, that the forced creation of e-waste is abhorrent, the splitting of zones into ‘legacy’ and ‘modern’ networks negates half the reason for owning a Sonos system and that the 30% ‘upgrade’ discount isn’t enough, but this thread is becoming more and more hyperbolic!

No one’s equipment is suddenly being ‘bricked’ and the share price, while falling, is not ‘sinking faster than the titanic’. By all means continue to voice displeasure, it might have an affect, but at the moment its hard to see past the melodrama and people patting themselves on the back for lowering a company’s score from 4/5 to 1/5 in various places. Why would anyone from Sonos come on here to comment currently? - nothing constructive would come of it.