But they won’t will they, because they won’t connect with, “Modern” devices. Unless of course you treat you new devices the same a legacy and stop all updates for brand new gear as well. What will happen is they will operate in isolation, you will no longer have a, “Whole of house” system. You’ll have two independent part of house systems.

I have a play5 generation 1 & play 3.

like many feel this decision is based on greed.

These are high end speakers, that you would not expect not become nil & void.

i understand it doesn’t effect my speakers at the moment, but no doubt will shortly.

These are not £30 speakers!!!! 
Will never buy or recommend Sonos again.

Very bad form.

In fairness I ‘think’ if this point is 100% clearly answered by the company then a lot of the frustrations (not all) will be addressed in practical usage terms if not emotional and financial ones.

The old products not getting the ‘whistles and bells’ is sort of ok but if totally unusable any time soon then clearly not. BUT it’s the co-existence that is key.

Question is partially answered. If we can get that 100% answered so that not just tech folks but folks who just play music (me) can understand then the issue would be greatly reduced. 

Hey all,

             So, like very many of you I suspect, I am wondering about the future of my Sonos system and how I proceed. I currently have a Play 1, Play 5, Bridge and a Connect into my standalone system. Everything works fine, although I have lost the ability to stream directly from my phone or iPad and instead need to stream from my computer library, which is only a minor inconvenience meaning the computer is on more of the time.

I’m wondering what to do after the news that Sonos are no longer supporting my system as it is “Legacy” and I now face the prospect of losing further functionality?

Q: If I buy another new Sonos product will it integrate into the legacy system and open up the streaming from phone via airplay?

I’m seriously considering ditching Sonos altogether and certainly won’t be buying any more products until I am assured that the legacy ones will continue to work. I’ve been a massive fan up to now but this latest direction is hugely disappointing as a customer. I cannot afford to replace my equipment every few years and my system is not that old!!

Thanks in advance for any replies

Simon

Exactly. Why do older chips in the speaker have anything to do with their ability to continue to work. Sonos has always said that all units need to be running the same version of software. But why is this so. Sounds like bad engineering if this is the case. And couldn't the software be written to allow SPEAKERS (we are not talking rocket science here) to do what they are intended to do…..play music. Why would a speaker care what the source of the data going to it matter. Streaming or mpg etc.

Does it not make sense to have a component do all processing and send that data to the speakers.You can update this unit as needed.  Software version on a speaker???? WHY??? Sonos have you put any thought into adding a unit to do exactly this. Someone here mentioned how you are missing a tremendous opportunity here. Create a component that will do exactly this.  I think this person was exactly right.

The design of the software is horrendously complicated and backward...I am talking about the player for your computer here. BUt it was also the same for your player software on phones. Click here, swipe there, click click clik scroll scroll scroll. Back, back back,... Have you seen the simple straight forwardness of WinAmp and MacAmp? If you look at the coding for these guys,,,it is elegant and simple. It has improved over the years, but it is still a hodge podge.

I fear that the hardware is designed to work together the same way...overly complicated architecture. Why cant a unit (that may go extinct depending on how tech evolves) be made to do this. Have it do the processing etc and all that other fancy stuff that you do so well in linking all the speakers to work together. But the speakers should work downstream from that unit. And if they are a lower software version...it should not matter. And if it does...this is really bad engineering. Bricking in perfectly good play 5’s is a ridiculous way to fix this problem.

If you look at the architecture of a desktop computer….the speaker version does not matter to its functionality. You can upgrade your chip on the motherboard, add new software, Install Winamp 🙂 etc. It does not matter to the speaker what has gone on in the computer. It does what it was designed to do. Be a speaker. Sure...once and a while, you may need a new driver to control the hardware. You dont say you cant update the computer because you have an old speaker.

If SONOS had an ounce of compassion they would be offering to replace these items free of charge. Basically they sold a product that wasn’t fit for purpose. Come on SONOS imagine the free positive publicity that this would give you. Conversely if they won’t do this then we should think about a class action for compensation. Now SONOS imagine the even worse negative publicity that you would get from this.

It is interesting to study the comments in this thread, as they all seem to be based on certain assumptions:

• “I am a good customer” - well, you may have bought things during time, but to Sonos it may well be so that a good customer is one who will buy something now and in the near future. Old customers are not contributing to the bottom line.
• “I have been loyal to you, you should be loyal to me” - Sonos is not your friend! Sonos is selling electronics, of which you have bought some. They produce, you consume, end of story.
• “My system of Sonos products is valuabe because I paid a lot for it” - My bet is that Sonos sees each product as a piece of plastic with some cheap electronics inside, and probably see the economical value only for as long as there is still a warranty to honor; as long as the product can still cost Sonos some money. After that, it is just an old piece of plastic.
• “We 2,000 people who complain are such a force, they must listen to us” - Haha, Sonos has sold millions of devices and probably calculate in bigger numbers than that. Saying goodbye to 2,000 customers, of which some can probably even be won back, should not matter much.
• “The press and internet media is supporting us” - As I read the articles out there, journalists have a hard time seeing the unreasonable in it all; as they all start with the official “Sonos is seeking to retire the oldest of its units, designed from 2005 to 2009”. Not many readers will feel pity for you who had support for such a long time on simple home electronics. And after a few days, these articles will be forgotten.
• “Sonos depends on loyal customers” - As said, if you are not buying, you are not a customer. A business depends on selling something to real customers, not of having a fan club of former buyers.

I myself would like to believe in all these assumptions, but realistically speaking, there may be no response from Sonos, no change in the program, no reward for having complained about Sonos’ decisions and behaviour. After the storm fades in a few days, it will be business as usuall - Sonos trying to find paying customers where they can, and you trying to decide what to buy and what not to.

It is obvious that we are consumers trapped in the illusion of being kind of partners - and for this, Sonos rather deserves praise: they managed to spread this idea and maintain it for so long, helping them to build a company. Cleverly done, useful to them when needed. Now it is not needed anymore, as the company is growing and developing different needs, such as a vision for the economical future, and later, some more solid quarterly reports for the shareholders.

It is tempting to cite The Matrix: “Welcome to the real world!”.

As someone who is on a low wage but believes in the "buy cheap buy twice" philosophy, I saved for YEARS to be able to afford purchase my sonos products. I was extremely dubious about the wireless only set up which leaves you at their mercy, however I decided to trust sonos spin about their products being "an investment" and started to build my home sound system, what a fool I was as my initial fears are now being realised with sonos my play 5 becoming a "legacy" product, how long before this happens to the rest of my sonos products?????? 

I was in the process of saving for another sonos item next year but after this fiasco I won't be purchasing one more single item from sonos, you people have taken a considerable amount of money from someone who could barely afford your products but had so much faith in your products that they decided to "invest". A kick in the boyos for my trust in and loyalty to sonos, I am absolutely disgusted and that trust is now gone, this doesn't even take into consideration the environmental impact of scrapping perfectly good items just to enable sonos to make more money. Well some of us cannot afford to be treated like fools, I'd now have to save up just to replace any legacy items before I could even consider any further expansion of my set up, it's a continuous cycle of handing you lot hundreds of pounds just to be able to use items we've already paid for. It's not a case of "buy cheap buy twice" with sonos it's a case of "pay a fortune and keep on paying" NO THANKS!!!!!

I'd also like to add that 30% off a new version isn't affordable to some of us, in fact it's downright insulting, it won't cost me anything to use the items until they stop working altogether and then they can be scrapped, just like my loyalty to sonos. 

Sonos’ own financial statements say the opposite. 38% of their sales (if I recall - others have posted the information multiple times in this thread) come from existing customers growing their system. 

In response tp Attacama70’s response - but it won’t be ok if legacy cannot be grouped with “modern” units running on the same software- key feature of Sonos is/ was “through the house in sync” and being able to stream from a variety of sources.  Having a line in on Play 5s likely continue until it dies is hardly facilitating the full Sonos experience.  And what about those without Play 5’s (Fortunately (lol) i have three of the damn things…..

Suggest the anti-Sonos media campaign continues until someone makes a decision to stop this avoidable madness….and community people adopt an Extinction Rebellion attitude and go and glue themselves to a Player in their nearest retailer…. (joke)…. in the past, if I’ve been in a Currys or John Lwis store and I’ve heard the poorly briefed sales guy making a hash of explaining the features of Sonos, I’ve interrupted to explain how they actually work --- just need to continue this intervention and explain how they WILL actually work….

Spread the word….

they also cant guarantee that amazon/spotify etc wont release some sort of change in June that will immediately render those services unusable, it will be no longer in their gift.   The “gradual” is nothing short of a guess

I would like to take advantage of the upgrade offer for older speakers (January 2020), I have a house full of them. However, judging you by your recent announcement I won’t as the products you advertise today will become “legacy” products in a couple of years. When the speakers no longer work I will replace them with speakers from a company who value their customers rather than one that just wants to rip them off. Goodbye Sonos!

Yeah and if that is the case then I’m as annoyed as anyone else on here. 

I got the impression from some comments that this ‘might’ be sorted in May? 

As a non tech (or limited tech) I got the impression that there be a group of ‘old stuff’ receiving no updates and ‘new stuff’ getting the new toys. 

As you say (and I agree) IF the two groups can co-exist and simply play music in sync then my problem is 70% sorted. If this will never happen then serious serious problems.

Is not too say I’m happy with this process. And I have to say (if anyone at Sonos is listening) … I have zero social media, am way too busy in life to do this stuff and is the first time ever at 55 years on this planet that I’ve participated in such a discussion and felt this aggrieved at a companies actions and comments.

I have to replace 1 connect, 1 play 5 and 1 bridge: £700! with the discount!!!!

Seriously. £700 for absolutely nothing new to show!

What next? In a year you are going to obsolete all the Gen1?

I have 2 play 1, 2 play 3 Gen1: This is another £500?

I understand the tech change but at the price of your products it is very difficult to accept!

You should probably respect your customers and not ask them to spend their cast on product that will be obsolete in 5 years because you are only obliged to support your product for 5 year.

I am fuming! 

I'm no longer investing in Sonos equipment. I bought a Connect about three years ago and now you’re telling me it's EOL?

Of all the ways you could have designed around this, you’ve possibly chosen the worst possible path. My biggest take-away is that despite believing your pitch that the system is extensible and future-proof, it's actually high-cost disposable stuff. Fool me once, and all that.

I'm moving in a few years and am going to need to wire my house with a new whole-of-house sound system. I'll probably be spending well over $20k by the time I'm done and guess what won't be in the mix? Any new Sonos gear.

I'm happy to standardise on Airplay / Airplay 2 and go with a dedicated multi-zone amp system. At least Apple's still supporting stuff from 2004.

For the sake of slugging me with a $400 upgrade you’re going to lose $20k+ and a vocally supportive customer. I’ll also be making sure that everyone I talk to who’s looking for a streaming sound system understands that Sonos should really be seen as being in the same category as Logitech or UE; devices that have a limited lifespan and should be seen in isolation, not as a platform or an ecosystem. Bose is probably a better bet, as dirty as that makes me feel to say it.

This is pure dumb.

I have spend 20.000 dollars on SONOS products divided into 2 houses…. I was supporting you in the early days almost 10 years ago . - the products are working fine - they play music !!!  I expect it to keep on working fine …. top managment really fucked up but in order for you to prevent a huge shitstorm and disaster you need to rethink this…. FAST….

I am utterly disappointed with this.

I have spend thousands of pounds on Sonos products and at no point was there any indication that the products I bought will go out of date and be unusable.

I cant believe that this is legal for Sonos to make this move?

You have totaly alienated me from your company with this decision and I was a big fan

I do hope that you re-consider this and find a way for existing loyal customers to retain their old kit

Your offer to replace the old kit and give a discount to buy new kit is quite frankly an insult and I see it as a money making exercise  

While Sonos talk of gradual degradation of service from old devices, it’ll only be that if you consider it across all their devices, or if you use all the services.

Let’s say you only use your device to listen to spotify.  Spotify change their API.  Your Sonos then doesn’t work.  That wasn’t very gradual was it?

Yes, there are workarounds (line-in?), but they’re extra cost, and extra complexity that remove the Sonos’s key usability points.

I’m actively looking at other manufacturers right now, and hope between now and when it stops working I find something half decent.   Even if I was sticking with Sonos, what is with the Play5 to Move trade -in suggestion?  Talk about bonkers… looks like no discounts for me, hence looking elsewhere.

Just because you spent 1000s shouldn’t give any priority over somebody who spent only 150.

Buy into a closed system and you’re quite likely to be left high and dry at some point. 

I've taken a couple days to catch up with all the info and post here and general opinion.

I feel terrible about the way SONOS have gone about this decision. I understand tech can become obsolete but something just sits wrong with me about this whole situation. My brother in law in the UK

had a SONOS system that I fell in love with when I visited. My wife knew I was hooked and the first of

our SONOS products got bought not long after  2x  Play5s  and 1x Play3, so a large initial outlay,

a boost is added and some more Play1s, so we’re all in, I nearly pulled trigger on a Beam for living room

on Black Friday, I also considered the 30% trade in but glad now I did my reading.

Terrible decision and short sighted allround, I’m considering my options to move away to another brand now, and like others had been proud to show of and promote how good my SONOS was as a system

Yes, I have seen this - and it appears to me that it may be referring to  their hitherto business, used as part of an analysis of going into a different direction. Maybe things are changing in any case, maybe the old customers have now fille their houses with devices and are not likely to buy a lot more - or maybe the new Strategy for Sonos is simply to after for a different customer segment; bigger and with a more immediate focus?

Like many others here I am so furious about this I will not buy Sonos again unless they back track. A Sonos convert for nearly 10 years I have embraced the whole home concept and invested in 3x connect amp, 3x playbar, 6x play1, 3x sub, 3x play3 and 1x bridge (which I no longer use as I use wifi now). I have recommended Sonos to very many people too, no more. I just gave my son my old Bose system bought 20 years ago. It still works, sounds great and makes me regret the path I have taken. I was about to add to my inventory to replace the Bose, now I will not.

Also agree with others here. 30% is a joke, 20% is a regular discount and then the reseller makes something too I guess 30% makes Sonos more money direct than selling through resellers. This is a profit and loss decision, your profit, our loss.

Bye Sonos. RIP.

So a signal passed through wifi via the Bridge or direct LAN etc cannot be supported?

A speaker is a speaker it receives audio, the software is the source of arranging the signal...such contempt you have for customers as a company.  Like many others who have spent 1000s for products that you deliberately have fudged.  

Ohhhkay…

Well either way I am going to get rid of all my Sonos gear and never purchase or recommend you again. Also the CR100/200 controller which did not need to be fudged...yes I was fuming when you dd that and again it still would work absolutely fine indefinitely.  

SO LONG SONOS - you will never be taking my money EVER again - GOOD RIDDANCE 

They started at a time with not much competition and had a leading product at a time when Planned Obsolescence of competitors was a thing and SONOS was different. I would think they have/had a loyal following with a lot of referrals from existing customer. These days it’s different with quite a few other options to choose from. The current lawsuit vs Google is sure about $$$ 

If somebody has just one player might be not a big deal. If you have outfitted your whole house with them it’s quite some investment. 

Speakers for casual playing, Amazon’s own you and pick up for a bargain from time to time for 50% no discount coupon needed next day free delivery.

Quite the nihilist view there. One important missed factor: Sonos built its reputation over the last decade and a half on favorable reviews, favorable tech press, and word of mouth. It has all been generally rosy but for a couple of hiccups along the way; overall sentiment has been positive. I’ve been here for a number of years now off and on since 2014, and though there’ve been some instances of discontent, the level to which folks are flocking to this board is absolutely unprecedented, and dwarfs anything I’ve ever seen and by an enormous margin. 
Damage is being done and it isn’t just limited to this forum or Reddit comments. Onboarding new customers amid a backlash of this scale is going to be quite a task in my opinion. Again, I’ve never seen this many people (yourself included by the looks of it, welcome ) here on the board. Ever. And no one showed up to ask how to create a playlist or connect a turntable. It’s of a singular reason for these thousands of posts. And the level of anger in those posts seems to be one that won’t be soon forgotten by the authors… They will talk, talk to many not present here -- word of mouth -- and that talk will be further damaging.