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Hi

I have a couple of speakers that mean I have to use S1 controller app, can the new Roam be used with this or is it only S2 compatible 

I have most things Apple and the homepod Mini’s are fairly decent for their price point, currently £90 each in John Lewis which would be a great pairing for £180 if you bought two for your home office. I guess you could use Airplay 2 instead of Sonos to merge your Sonos Speakers and the Homepods for listening to music but I have found Airplay 2 to be a little problematic at times.

 

 

My point for posting that link was to show Apple discontinued the product a scant 3 years after launch, and have no replacement product.  The Homepod was a bit of a flop, and with Apple, they tend to bury their flops (Ping, Pippin, G4, Apple Maps) as soon as possible, acting like they never existed (especially when it comes to support).  

 


Bottom line is that Sonos really screwed people that bought a few years ago.

 

if you started buying into Sonos a few years ago, then all of your speakers would be S2 compatible and you wouldn’t have an issue.   

Also, it would not cost you 6k to replace 10 amps, since Sonos is offering 30% discounts for each of your older amps.  Your price per amp would be $455...under 5k when you add tax.   And you would then be able to sell you’re old amps for something possibly.  I’m not saying that’s cheap, just that you should have the discount if you were not aware.

 

Can you not use both the S1 for older speakers and the S2 app just for the Roam? That’s what I’m doing while I still have a Gen 1 Sonos 5. 

Yes, you can operate an S1 and S2 system in the same house.  However, you would not be able to group speakers/rooms from the 2 systems to play together.


Can you not use both the S1 for older speakers and the S2 app just for the Roam? That’s what I’m doing while I still have a Gen 1 Sonos 5. 


In conclusion its time to return my Sonos roam I just preordered and sell the rest of my Sonos so I can move over to Apple homepods

 

 

You mean Homepod Minis - https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/apple-homepod-speaker-discontinued/

 

 

I have most things Apple and the homepod Mini’s are fairly decent for their price point, currently £90 each in John Lewis which would be a great pairing for £180 if you bought two for your home office. I guess you could use Airplay 2 instead of Sonos to merge your Sonos Speakers and the Homepods for listening to music but I have found Airplay 2 to be a little problematic at times.

 


It is unfortunate that Sonos, like so many other electronics companies, has been hit by the world wide chip shortages, much less the whole slew of issues caused by the pandemic. I feel your pain.


a very very long time customer.  While i am disappointed in the split.  I am less disappointed than those who bought a few years ago. My sonos amps are over 10 years old - so i feel that I’ve gotten my money out of them.  Having said that replacing 10 amps is not going to be cheap - but availability has been awful. the whole roll out of s1/s2 was really bad; half of my components updated when they should have asked so i had to spend a few days rolling back.  

Bottom line is that Sonos really screwed people that bought a few years ago.

I’d like to be able to buy enough amps so that i can upgrade at least one of my houses. but they’ve been backordered for a while. (I don’t want to drop 6K with a promised delivery date), i want them to ship.  


 

It appears to be a rather loose interpretation of Moore’s law, which most interpretation tend to be.  I’m not quite seeing how it would apply here though.  I guess the expectation is that S3 will happen in...10 years? If the law did apply though, I don’t know why that would be a fault of Sonos since Moore’s law is universal.

 

Yeah, I’m not getting the reference.  The power of a CPU in the future has no bearing on how long a CPU in the past can be made to run.  At least not implicitly. 


Moore’s Law will take of that.

 

Moore’s Law was stated in 1965.  So exactly what Law was Sonos acting under when it squeezed almost 20 years (2002 - 2020) out of the original Sonos devices?  In addition, Moore himself stated that the Law is not infinite. 

 

It appears to be a rather loose interpretation of Moore’s law, which most interpretation tend to be.  I’m not quite seeing how it would apply here though.  I guess the expectation is that S3 will happen in...10 years? If the law did apply though, I don’t know why that would be a fault of Sonos since Moore’s law is universal.


Moore’s Law will take of that.

 

Moore’s Law was stated in 1965.  So exactly what Law was Sonos acting under when it squeezed almost 20 years (2002 - 2020) out of the original Sonos devices?  In addition, Moore himself stated that the Law is not infinite. 


Moore’s Law will take of that.


It took around 20 years for Sonos to go from S1 to S2, so you’d have a long wait. 


Guess I should wait for S3 or S4 to obsolete the Roam and then buy in


In conclusion its time to return my Sonos roam I just preordered and sell the rest of my Sonos so I can move over to Apple homepods

 

 

You mean Homepod Minis - https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/apple-homepod-speaker-discontinued/

 

 

Id rather use my real audio equipment to listen to music at this point. I’m not going to be forced to do anything I don’t want to do in life, this isn’t jail, we have options. 


As above, what does the Roam do that the Move doesn't?.

 

 

Here’s one:

With an all-new feature called Sound Swap, you can hold the play/pause button on the speaker to switch the music to the nearest speaker on your system, making it easy to move music from room-to-room.

But that’s beside the point.  No company is going to continue to co-develop for two apps for devices that didn’t even exist when the old app was retired.  New devices require the new app.  Period. 

 

This already exists on the S1 controller that’s not special 

 

 

The sound swap feature of the Roam is not done through the controller.  

 

The Roam is only possible because Sonos development is no longer restricted by its oldest devices.

What does the roam do that my Sonos move can’t do? Other than fit in my pocket and produce half of the sound output?

 

Go back and read the first page of this thread to see that was already answered, if you’re actually interested.  


In conclusion its time to return my Sonos roam I just preordered and sell the rest of my Sonos so I can move over to Apple homepods

 

 

You mean Homepod Minis - https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/apple-homepod-speaker-discontinued/

 

 


I am a electrical engineer and design microchips and networking systems for a living. This whole S1/S2 thing could have easily been addressed with a bridge module that proxied the features and music for all the S1 components from the S2 network. The S1 components would all be served by that bridge. This would have taken some engineering but very doable. I even suggested this to several of my friends that work at Sonos. Fell on deaf ears in upper management.  Sonos chose not to go that route because they could sell more gear with this approach of obsoleting the older devices. Deal with it, they are a corporation that has to show continued growth in sales and profits….

So if Sonos is selling out and forcing me to choose between Sonos or Apple, I’m sorry but this is going to be the end of the line. Time for some homepods


Thanks, I thought the Move was announced subsequent to the launch of S2.

Look, I get it. If I’m being honest, I simply have heartburn about the cost associated with enabling the move to the S2 controller. However at the same time, I’ve yet to see a very compelling reason to make that $1,200 investment at this time and I know I’m not alone. Would replacing my original Play 5’s with Five’s be an upgrade, sure, but for me personally, I’ve yet to see any real value prop outside of obsolesce that makes me excited to give them my money. S2 isn’t going to make my existing speakers sound any better and I don’t own an ARC, so again I’m left scratching my head. For me personally, it’s just money better spent elsewhere at this time. 

 

If I was in your situation, I would stay on S1 as well.  I’m not sure I follow where the heartburn is coming from, since you’re happy with where you are.  Is it more of a feeling that you want to be on the latest and greatest, or having some of the current products (to a lesser extent), but can’t justify the added cost of upgrading your whole system?  I get that.

For most of it’s life Sonos has been a system that you can just add on as you wish without replacing anything.  Now there’s a gap where you have to do more to get a little more.  It’s almost like buying a new car.  Nothing wrong with the car you have now, but you do like all the little improvement a new car has….it’s not enough to justify buying the new car.

In conclusion its time to return my Sonos roam I just preordered and sell the rest of my Sonos so I can move over to Apple homepods


Thanks, I thought the Move was announced subsequent to the launch of S2.

Look, I get it. If I’m being honest, I simply have heartburn about the cost associated with enabling the move to the S2 controller. However at the same time, I’ve yet to see a very compelling reason to make that $1,200 investment at this time and I know I’m not alone. Would replacing my original Play 5’s with Five’s be an upgrade, sure, but for me personally, I’ve yet to see any real value prop outside of obsolesce that makes me excited to give them my money. S2 isn’t going to make my existing speakers sound any better and I don’t own an ARC, so again I’m left scratching my head. For me personally, it’s just money better spent elsewhere at this time. 

More like time to start selling our Sonos systems and buying apple home pods 


As above, what does the Roam do that the Move doesn't?.

 

 

Here’s one:

With an all-new feature called Sound Swap, you can hold the play/pause button on the speaker to switch the music to the nearest speaker on your system, making it easy to move music from room-to-room.

But that’s beside the point.  No company is going to continue to co-develop for two apps for devices that didn’t even exist when the old app was retired.  New devices require the new app.  Period. 

 

This already exists on the S1 controller that’s not special 

 

 


The s1 s2 gap stops me buying any more sonos...  I have ten sonos components. Three only work with s1. 

 

I cancelled my roam order as s2 only. Sonos driver to a non customer....as  To replace 2 connects and 1 p5 would could me around £1200 for a £140 roam.  So in short as a big time sonos customer I can not longer add new products to my system and spend money with sonos.    so essentially now am no longer a sonos customer because sonos make it impossible with spending 1000s to get as is function I already have.   Suggest you review....

As I said before, If Sonos hadn’t made the S1 / S2 split they would not have been able to develop new products and features anyway.  So they still wouldn’t have been able to sell you anything more.  Sonos can’t change the S1 / S2 split, and they won’t.  The Roam cannot work on S1.

So now you don’t have a portable speaker, what are your plans?  Do without a portable speaker, which you apparently thought you needed a few days ago?  Or buy another brand of portable speaker?  One that won’t work with Sonos S1 or S2.  

 No you simply buy a Sonos move... 


The Roam is only possible because Sonos development is no longer restricted by its oldest devices.

What does the roam do that my Sonos move can’t do? Other than fit in my pocket and produce half of the sound output?


I am a electrical engineer and design microchips and networking systems for a living. This whole S1/S2 thing could have easily been addressed with a bridge module that proxied the features and music for all the S1 components from the S2 network. The S1 components would all be served by that bridge. This would have taken some engineering but very doable. I even suggested this to several of my friends that work at Sonos. Fell on deaf ears in upper management.  Sonos chose not to go that route because they could sell more gear with this approach of obsoleting the older devices. Deal with it, they are a corporation that has to show continued growth in sales and profits….


Interesting thought.
 

Since the speaker’s initial design was not intended to be opened, based on their ‘when you open them, you lose any warranty’ position the company has always had, how would that work? Who would be an ‘authorized’ upgrade company, for people unwilling to do that work themselves? What countries would that service be available in? How much of the internals would need upgrading? Is it just the RAM and CPU, or is the power supply require updating as well? Are those pieces pluggable, or are the soldered on to a board? What happens when DIYers electrocute themselves when attempting to do their own upgrades? How many Android or iPhones, which are somewhat similar network devices, can be opened and upgraded?

Lots of things I suspect the company considered when forced in to their position. And likely more that I haven’t, as I suspect they had more minds and more time thinking about it trying to avoid it, since I suspect they were well aware of the backlash that would ensue once the information got out. 

 


The Roam is only possible because Sonos development is no longer restricted by its oldest devices.

No way. It’s totally just marketing. Some ‘features’ can’t run on the older devices. Airplay2 being a good example. But the system could carry on without them easily (for those opting to use S1 equipment). The S1/S2 divide is pure sales and marketing from the same mindset that brought us the ‘brick your speaker to upgrade’ debacle. 
What they should have done is put the electronics on a plug-and-play removable module and then just sold a £50 ‘upgrade module’ for each speaker when they went S3. New processor, new wifi chip upgrade etc

People would buy into that I think. 

No point trying to persuade you.  It doesn’t really matter what either of us thinks is the reason.  The Roam is not, and will never be, S1 compatible.


The Roam is only possible because Sonos development is no longer restricted by its oldest devices.

No way. It’s totally just marketing. Some ‘features’ can’t run on the older devices. Airplay2 being a good example. But the system could carry on without them easily (for those opting to use S1 equipment). The S1/S2 divide is pure sales and marketing from the same mindset that brought us the ‘brick your speaker to upgrade’ debacle. 
What they should have done is put the electronics on a plug-and-play removable module and then just sold a £50 ‘upgrade module’ for each speaker when they went S3. New processor, new wifi chip upgrade etc

People would buy into that I think.