End of Software Support - Clarifications

I have tried for 3 days to work around this problem, and it isn’t the first time it has happened. I even had Bestbuy Geek Squad out. They couldn’t figure it out either, other than to say the new App isn’t compatible. So, think before you try to make someone look bad.

The first point to note is that your speakers are not 'legacy' but are still fully supported.

I am happy to try to help. Let's give it a go. What is the current situation? Are you currently using the S1 or S2 Sonos system and app?

If you mean the little bars going up and down was an indication that music was playing  it doesn't indicate that 

Do you know what they reset? Just the app or also the speakers?

If necessary, do you have an Ethernet cable that would allow you to wire one of your speakers to your router?

Do you have the S1 controller installed as well as the S2?

Sorry for all the questions. 

OK I have to respect that.  I have to say that 'Best Buy' and 'Sonos expertise ' are not concepts that sit well with each other.

Your speakers are still fully supported and capable of functioning perfectly.  I would urge you to call Sonos Support for help.

The transition from 'old Sonos' to S1/S2 has not gone smoothly for some users but is resolvable

I am sure it must be very frustrating. 

If you haven't tried it already, try powering off the router and your Sonos speakers. Then power the router fully on, then power up the speakers. 

Good luck. 

No. I was wondering about just making absolutely sure you weren't still on S1 but it doesn't seem like you are. 

I will try that tomorrow. Thanks again for your kindness. Have a wonderful evening.

I am delighted all is well again. You were very poorly served by the Best Buy Geek Squad and their lazy and incompetent advice.  The symptoms simply did not fit their diagnosis. 

The problem was in the way your router was identifying and communicating with the Sonos speakers.  A fresh start was all that was needed.

Anyway all's well that ends well. Happy Christmas. 

Not that this will do me any good other than expressing myself, but I am really steamed about the S1/S2 situation.  I live in a large, 3-story post-Civil War victorian house in which wiring was not an option.  I’ve been a Sonos  customer for over 10 years, expanding my system over time to function throughout the house, inside and outside. I had to build this system incrementally over time because  Sonos products are not cheap and in most areas, but not all, it was used with receivers and multi-channel speaker systems.  I used Sonos speakers outdoors and in a couple of other places where a complete system was not appropriate.

We recently expanded the house to add a family type room off of the kitchen and I wanted to get a Sonos sound bar and satellite speakers for that space.  Coincidentally, I opened the controller on one of my computers and got the messages about the new controller software.  Unfortunately, it informed me that ALL 17 of my Sonos devices are incompatible….

I don’t mind using two different controllers, but I REALLY mind not being able to play the same music in that room as in all the others.  To me, that is inexcusable and unbelievably inconsiderate of Sonos. Having been in the software development business no one can convince me that Sonos could not have found a way to incorporate at least a minimal capacity to play content from an S1 or S2 device on the others.

There are multiple ways Sonos could have done it--and still could--including a modification of existing units, an add-on device or dongle for one or both of the S1 and S2 products, a firmware upgrade to one or the other, etc.  Any of those would be substantially less expensive.  I would be happy to pay something to make that happen, but certainly not 70% of the retail cost for an entire new system.  

The fact that they have not done any of those, and made no effort to do so in the initial design of the new products or in response to the outcry from customers, makes it clear this is nothing more than a very ugly effort to boost sales by victimizing the loyal customers who made a major commitment to this company.

Shame on you, Sonos.

Ken--

FYI, of the 17 devices listed in my system, 3 or 4 are no longer used--a few docks and a hand-held controller.  But the rest are used regularly for casual music listening.  For serious listening or theatre we also have high-quality receivers and speakers.  

Thanks for your suggestions.  I thought of some of them already but don’t think they solve the problem.   Maybe you or others can think of something that will work, but first I need to subject you to a long description of the physical constraints.

The catalyst for all of this was the addition of a new room extending the side of the house adjacent to the kitchen and sitting area in front of a fireplace.  We tore out the walls and large windows on either side of the fireplace, leaving a free-standing fireplace/ chimney, opening to the new room on either side.  The plan was to mount a large flat screen on the exposed brick on the back of the chimney which used to be part of the exterior wall.  I am a surround sound addict and the question was what to use for a sound system.  

We didn’t want a cabinet, shelf or any other furniture above or below the TV and my AV guy highly recommended a Yamaha YSP-5600 soundbar with wireless sub-woofer.  He said it created as good a surround sound environment as my multi-speaker setups. That was ideal because it eliminated the need for a receiver or any extensive wiring.    

We needed to accommodate smaller items like the cable box, AppleTV, network switch etc., so we mounted the TV on an arm and removed several courses of brick behind it creating a recessed area to conceal those components. We ran power and network cables up the sides of the chimney in small floor-to ceiling wooden channels and ran the wires through holes drilled in the side of the chimney to the space behind the TV.  The arm folds into the open space so the TV appears to be flush-mounted on the wall, but can be extended if needed.

My standards for speakers are different from my AV installer and a soundbar would not ordinarily be something I would think I’d want. He’s far more current on products than I, however, and the Yamaha is a pretty fancy piece of gear.  Many of my friends said they love their soundbars so I figured it would be fine in this room.  The lack of integration with Sonos was a factor but there’s a 6.1 system in the kitchen so I didn’t think it was a major issue.  I was wrong on both counts.

As highly rated (and expensive) as the Yamaha may be, for me it simply doesn’t come close to providing the detail and spacial image of a multi-speaker system.  I’m getting a little older too, so clarity--especially dialog--is more of a factor than it was.  Without raising the volume, voice enhancing capability in a soundbar doesn’t cut it for me and I’ve seen lots of people say the same thing.

At this point I need to be very clear:  all of this is a rarified first-world problem which I dearly hope is the worst thing that ever happens to me. Iin light of what’s going on in the rest of the world I feel a little stupid even talking about it, but this room transformed where we congregate in our house and we spend a lot of time together watching and listening to things to a much greater extent than ever before.  If something is a constant irritant you either have to do something about it or shut up.  As you can probably tell, I’m not a shut up kind of guy.

Timing is everything. We bought the Yamaha shortly before an upgraded model was released supporting MusicCast wireless surround speakers. If this unit had that capability I’m sure that would have been the end of it but it doesn’t.  As an experiment I tried a low latency bluetooth speaker but it was too kludgy.  I’ve gone to great lengths to synchronize picture and sound between the adjoining spaces and introducing another element inevitably causes lag somewhere.

So, after 2 ½ years I finally decided to ditch the Yamaha and replace it with a soundbar supporting wireless surround speakers.  If I were to do that, it only made sense to use a Sonos product and integrate with everything else.  The Arc was the obvious choice.  

I haven’t added Sonos gear for a while so I wasn’t aware of the issues about S1/S2 and older products until I was about to order the Arc and discovered it couldn’t co-exist with my other units and my entire system was on a  path to extinction.  That set off the rant you saw above.  Admittedly, I may have been a little harsh, but I’m far from alone in expressing those complaints and I felt justified saying what I did.  

Nevertheless, with all that background, here’s where I am: 

• Can’t use an Amp.  No place to put it and running wires to or from somewhere else is not practical at this point.  I presume the Amp would drive a non-wireless soundbar so I’d still need to solve the surround problem, perhaps with another Amp, but I’m not sure what I’d do about a sub-woofer.  
• Can’t use a PlayBase because it’s not designed to be wall mounted and there’s no place to put it.  
• The Beam is primarily for smaller rooms--which this is not--and I can’t imagine it sounds as good as the Yamaha which costs 4 times as much.  Also, I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion about sync issues with LG TVs, which is what I have, and that’s an issue I’ve spent hours overcoming as it is.
• A PlayBar is the only possible contender, but it’s a 7-8 year-old product, costing almost as much as the Arc, lacking many capabilities commonplace in virtually every current product on the market, including those costing far less. It’s one thing to deal with issues about components I already own, but if I’ve learned anything from this episode, it’s don’t buy a discontinued product.   

I’ve been wracking my brain to come up with a solution. One idea is to integrate a small Sonos device between the HDMI source and the soundbar--like a Connect but with a digital line-in capability. Is there a comparable S1 device with digital line-in?  

Otherwise, I’m out of ideas, and it does continue to irk me that I’ve hit a wall with expansion of a system in which I’ve invested so much time, money and energy. I still firmly believe the company could have figured out a solution if they really wanted to, and still can. They could almost certainly produce a small adapter for legacy products allowing them to communicate with the S2 controller.   

But what do I know?

So you are grouping and playing all devices with Airplay and don’t use either Sonos controller?

And what do you think of the Arc?  Do you have surrounds?

So I just looked at some of the new products.  Are you suggesting I could do a line-in to a Port from my existing soundbar and group 2 Sonos One SLs as the surrounds via AirPlay?  And conversely I could send the digital out to a different input on the soundbar to play whatever is streaming elsewhere?

I understand that, but the implication from Ken_Griffiths was I could use Airplay to run my entire Sonos system, both S1 and S2 devices if I incorporated a Sonos Play One SL with the S1 devices.

So what about my question regarding hooking my existing Yamaha soundbar to the line-in on a port, and then adding a couple of Play One SLs as the surrounds?