End of Software Support - Clarifications

It's a shame because every member on here now unhappy are probably the ones who helped put Sonos on the map as class leaders in multi room.

The deal should have been better to be honest and the response following on basically upsets others now who have jumped in and spent more money. It's insulting both those who want to keep their systems intact and those who have jumped to the tune and spent more money upgrading.

Basically this forum thread will simmer down over the next few days, Sonos will ride it out and then move on. Hard facts but there you go.

Definitely left a bitter taste though!

sm75382

Anything caught your eye that you think could replace a playbar?

I dont see how we can trust Sonos anymore, I too like many have spent over 2k+ on Sonos and recommended a friend very recently to invest,  I now feel guilty for doing this.. 

I cant see me purchasing anymore sonos equipment or recommending them even after the CEO update, so sad that they care so little about those who keep them in business.

Gutted and disappointed in you Sonos.

The irony is, the cheaper the speakers the more future proof they are.. they’ll last indefinitely.

Got klipch igroove, use it with iPod classic, 10 years old Ish & still going strong.( also has line in for Bluetooth etc)

 Not as good as my Sonos play 5 … but still a  v good speaker, that won’t be deemed irrelevant by lack of support & updates.

Sonos latest debacle is completely of their own  greedy making.

No speakers with the price tag that Sonos have, should have a best before date!!!

That’s what’s confusing at this point though. Move on how? Sonos doesn’t have any hardware advantage over competitors at this point, it’s not like when they launched and multi room audio wasn’t really available.

So what do they have? Well, an established customer base and a strong brand. Except that’s exactly what they’ve trashed at this point.

The management are either monumentally stupid or there’s some strategy in play that they think is more valuable than their entire existing base of customers, brand loyalty and reputation.

i have the playbase

i will likely get wharfedale dx2 speakers and yahama rxv 585 av reciever. its for my bedroom so i am limited on physical size of speakers.

but, i think yahama and denon will have hdmi 2.1 av receivers out this year (march -april annoucement) so might wait till then to buy.

the receiver is £280 at the moment and gives u the option of 7 speakers. might be cheaper by the summer.

seems richer sounds (uk) is the best place to buy from

Realy believe this is the best way forward. Good stand alone speakers and a power amp will last. Already do this in 3 zones in our house, with 2 more to come. And if I have to buy a new port/streamer for each room every 8-10 years (period of sales + min 5 years service) to stay updated with the the technology that is manageable. It also makes it much easier to change platforms from Sonos to other streaming options as only the streamer has to be replaced. 
 

it would reduce the Sonos offering to just one product a “port”, but with a (still it seems) superior app and user experience that could still be a platform.
 

If Sonos wants to keep making stand alone speakers Sonos could make the port like component modular in the speaker so eg a future play 5 speaker is mainly just amp and a good speaker integrated with a line in, and then the “port” streaming component is a module that can easily be user replaced and switched out to the latest technology every 8-10 years (at a sensible cost obviously) or even the line in can be fed with a third party streaming component of the future. 
 

If the speaker was designed with space for the modular component it could still give the look and feel of a simple integrated wireless speaker, just with ability to upgrade the technology component or accept a simple line in for longevity. 

@JSU @FredBloggs Head over to the linked thread for more on the above thinking:

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/the-sonos-brexit-and-a-pragmatic-way-past-it-6836056

Note that streamers like Echos that can now work without voice commands are so cheap that you can even change them every 3-4 years - less than USD 50 a pop.

And the HiFi brand names offer active speakers now, with built in amps, so you don't even need that bit of kit. If you don't mind their industrial looks, there also are the active speakers for the pro audio market that can serve, that on an average sell for half the price of their HiFi counterparts.

I am a bit curious - Sonos had other crises in the past, for instance the one around requiring registration, as illustrated by the following cut-out from Amazon.de:

How did Sonos manage to stear through this crisis - and the previous round of retiring products? What arguments or acts ended up calming down their customers again?

As for the registration, I myself got annoyed but then just registered; as I remember it with a kind if reasoning for myself that I was registered with so many other vendors (and also already with this one), so it wouldn’t make much of a difference for me. But others were unhappy - did they leave, did they end up accepting the new terms, or what happened?

No replies to this?

I had a feeling, and this could perhaps confirm it, that nothing happened - Sonos didn’t need to do anything to repair the damage. Instead, the customers just moved on after the first few days of complaining as if nothing had happened. And now the change is part of everyone’s life with their Sonos products.

So, now I wonder if the CEO, seemingly an intelligent person, is calculating with this behavior? Maybe he simply expected a couple of days of uproar, followed by business as usual - apart from the change introduced. Afterall, it is the easiest way forward for everybody involved - customers will just start replacing old equipment and soon be ready for the next attack that will also quickly be forgotten.

That's not really comparing apples to apples though. 

Entering your email address into the app vs Sonos mothballing £1000's of of kit (per customer) can't have the same outcome and anyone who thinks otherwise must be on something!.

I have to add my comments. I was notified that 13 Sonos pieces I own would be suddenly effectively obsolete. I had bought them between around 2010-2013. More than $4000 worth. I also own another More than 10 pieces, sound bars, playbase, subs, Sonos ones etc. 

I found this absolutely shocking. And the announcement had no mention of an apology in any way. 
 

I went from a loyal Sonos user to someone determined never to buy another product again. 
 

The CEO note is better, and encouraging. So let’s see how they deliver. 
 

Were they surprised by the reaction? What did they expect?!