The best bet (IMO) if you want to stick with S1 for a while, is just use any good blue-tooth speaker with Spotify or Amazon. It won’t be integrated with your S1 system, but it will save you thousands of dollars.

The Roam is only compatible with the S2 app.

Of course Bruce!  But you aren’t going to persuade the OP by reason and sense, he and they have clearly parted company.  I just thought it not worth the effort.

Ridiculous!  No company (*cough* Bose *cough*) is going to abandon an entire current lineup of products (*cough* Bose SoundTouch *cough*) and come out with a brand new lineup (*cough* Bose Smart Speaker *cough*) that is completely incompatible with the old one.  Simply ridiculous!

Is it OK if I challenge this assumption, at least a little bit?

If Sonos was indeed concerned about their stock market price falling, wouldn’t they have completely abandon S1 as a concept, and force everyone to purchase new speakers? That would have surely generated much more revenue, supporting the stock price, if there was no longer any function for older speakers at all, and everyone was forced in to purchasing S2 capable speakers. 

I would think continuing to support S1 systems is counter profit oriented thinking. But I’m not a market analyst, just a user on a forum. 

Total rubbish.  It's because Sonos is worried about stock market price falling if users don't replace the components they've spent loads on.  It is straight forward to allow S1 components to run on S2 controller. Sonos chose not to allow this.

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).  

Thanks, I will check into that.  I have a Move and it works great (as designed) on my S1 network.  That's why I wish the Roam had been designed the same way.

But then it would have had to be a small Move, lacking the additional features that the Roam actually has. The Roam CANNOT be S1 compatible. The whole point of the S1 / S2 split was to lose the restrictions of the older devices. Roam on S1? An impossible and self-contradictory request. 

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.  

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. 

I've got a ZP90, was going to buy a set of headphones to twin with that.

Sonos headphones would indeed be excellent (I asked for some years ago), but I don't know if I could go back to the incessant updates again, it's quite peaceful now on S1!.

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

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. 

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.

It isn’t that the device cannot support the S1 software, it’s that the S1 software cannot support the device.  If you haven’t understood that then you really haven’t understood why the S1/S2 split was essential.  There would be no Roam if it were constrained to work on S1.

It's not a blunder, it simply cannot be done.

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

Seems it has an equally poor standby time to boot?.

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?

It’s perfectly acceptable to have that desire. Many do. The part I am calling foul on is the assumption that because melvimbe has an alternate opinion, he must be a Sonos employee. 

You may want to look at third party controllers. I’ve read that there may be the option to simultaneously run S1 and S2 products, but I don’t have any personal experience. However, neither the Roam nor Move will ever operate on S1, the operating system doesn’t have the ability to recognize those devices.

I do concur with melvimbe that it would be highly unlikely to be an intelligent thing for Sonos to officially support running S1 on either device. The challenges outweigh any potential benefits, especially for a vanishingly small population. Sonos will likely continue to prioritize their software choices for the masses, not the individual corner cases. 

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.

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.

Why is it that if someone disagrees with your perspective, they must be a Sonos employee?

I’m pretty sure that Sonos employees are required by the company to have ‘Sonos employee’ on their account, much like all the moderators do. I also feel fairly confident in saying that not only is melvimbe not a Sonos employee, but that his analysis is correct. 

Yes, I’m refusing to pay more money for exactly the same level of service so I can spend more money to buy more of their kit.

As it stands, I’ll replace my TV rig with a dedicated TV set up when the time comes, my music setup - getting replaced with a dedicated Amp/Speakers that don’t obsolete - wired they may be, but so be it. 

Bruce,

I get his analysis... I just wish Sonos had opted to let this new small portable be available for all users, S1 and S2.  I will look into how the experience would be having both an S1 and S2 operate in your house.  

So . . . for the price of a Boost, you are crippling your use of all your other devices, and also eliminating the ability to purchase a new device which you seem to like if it weren’t S2 only?

Makes me think of a nose, spite, and a face.

Also, what other manufacturer are you moving to that has eliminated the possibility that in 12-15 years after launch, they would have to split the line?  Be careful what you answer, for some well known speakers makers are known for far more egregious moves than Sonos’ when their lineup can’t keep up with growing technology.  We are talking eliminating an entire line of speakers that were sold right up to the day they were abandoned, and coming out with an entirely new line which is incompatible with the old.