End of Software Support - Clarifications

I already knew it Ken_Griffiths, but thanks anyway.

@ursula1000 : I have about 12 sonos speakers in 4 audio only zones, because I have never in the past felt that Sonos made sense for my home cinema needs for which I have a dedicated room - and even so, with just a quality stereo amp and 2 HiFi speakers for the audio needs of a large plasma screen. The speakers are so good that I don't even need a subwoofer for movie effects.

In my case, I am using most of my zones in mix and match mode already even for pure audio because of poor Sonos voice control capability - I have Echo devices from the simple Dot to a more featured Show 8 wired to line in jacks on my Sonos devices.

Therefore for me, this Sonos decision merely accelerates my departure from Sonos where mix and match will mean staying in legacy mode, and replacing such Sonos kit that suffers hardware failures in future years.

With some application of mind, it is possible for anyone that wishes to leave the Sonos bandwagon, to do so with no inconvenience.

Agree totally

Thank you for accelerating my decision to get rid of my Sonos products.  It is amazing how quickly one decision can destroy a brands reputation.  Good luck, I will never buy your products again….and will share this with others. 

I’ve been following this for a long time, and have 5 zones, of which only two are “modern”. Ironically of the two Connect:amps only one is S2 compatible, plus a Play 3.  And a Boost, also S2.

Now what I still utterly fail to understand is down to this: Sonos net is a mesh network, porting digital audio around the house over WiFi, in my case mostly from a NAS drive with FLACs, a little internet radio and Spotify occasionally.  My existing Connect (actually a ZP90, though I have a spare unused Connect still in its box which somehow Sonos think I’ve registered!) manages this task beautifully despite having a tiny amount of memory and storage.  Audio quality (into a high end Audiolab/KEF setup) is absolutely excellent and it never buffers, yet this is achieved with only the smallest amount of memory in the entire range.  As far as I can see, the Connect is not on its own doing any of the clever stuff required to play Spotify or access internet radio.  So - why can’t there be just ONE “smart” component that can do the clever stuff and then simply send the audio to all the other components?  If I was designing an optimised system, that is what I would do.  Why on earth is this not possible?  Come on, Sonos, the world isn’t full of millennials with a couple of Ones, plus an iPhone, who only stream online music.  We know that a single component can be used to add new features to a system, witness the addition of one Airplay-compatible component (e.g. a One or a Symfonisk) can currently add AirPlay compatibility to the entire system. So the smart features DO NOT need to be in every component!

Until this fundamental question is answered, Sonos stand accused of pulling the wool over a huge community of users. Give us a smart new Boost, it needn’t have any audio output, let it it feed audio to all components over WiFi, job done.  We would happily buy a new Boost every few years to keep up to date.

If this mythical “Smart Boost” were viable, and Sonos is really “pulling the wool”, why are the legacy units all limited to just 32 MB RAM/storage, and all the modern devices have more?  The Play:3 and Playbar are far older than the modern Connect units.   If Sonos is truly pulling a cash grab, those ancient devices would go too, RAM/storage capabilities be damned, right?  

Or maybe the mythical “Smart Boost” isn’t viable after all.  Occam’s shaving implement. 

You’re making assumptions about what smart features are going to be added to S2, and that they are all component based.  We already know that one of the features is Hi Res audio.  That obviously would involve changes in how the audio is transported digitally between components in some way.  How would that be a feature for some devices but not all.  Would it be acceptable that the system not allow grouping of Hi Rez capable speakers with non-capable speakers?  Maybe some sort of system where the audio sent to legacy devices get a downgraded signal.  And how would that work with the mesh network, where it’s going to be sending signals in different paths depending on the resolution of the current signal.  Will that be stable.  And does it make sense to make all the changes for Hi Res audio, but some other feature can’t be worked around in a similar manner. 

So the new Sonos Five is officially on the way. Man would I be PO’d if I had traded up to Gen 2’s.

I’ve only seen rumors and speculation so far. Can you point to confirmation, please?

See   Pocket-LInt : “New Sonos Five and Sonos Sub suggest a major refresh is coming.”

Also 9 to 5 Mac :   “ Upcoming ‘Sonos Five’ and 3rd-gen Sonos Sub pictured in leaked photos”