Does the Play:5 Gen 1 have enough power to stream modern services?

Hi ​@AsgMog, welcome to the Sonos Community!

I’m sorry to hear that you’re having issues with your Play:5.

Looking at your cases and what you’ve tried, I would say that your Play:5 has reached its limit. There’s a chart of the memory of Sonos products in the link below, where you can see that the Play:5 Gen 2 has a double the memory of the Gen 1, and the Five has sixteen times the memory.

With music services now supporting lossless playback, Spotify being one of these services, I doubt the Play:5 can handle this type of streaming, at least not without issues. You’ve tried most of the workarounds I would suggest, however, turning off crossfade and shuffle if these are enabled can help reduce the load on the Play:5. Another option to reduce load for the Play:5 is to lower the streaming quality from the Spotify app.

If you haven’t looked already, then I would suggest checking out our upgrade programme, where the Play:5 is eligible for a 30% discount towards a new product.

I hope this information helps!

Thank you

The Play:5 doesn’t support lossless, i think, but I will try lowering quality further as well as making sure that crossfade and shuffle is off.

I like the discount, but I’m not very enticed to buy new Sonos products, when they reach EOL so fast...

EOL so fast? When was the Play 5 gen 1 last sold?

Looks like 2015, that is a long time for a computer product to be supported.

The Play 5 Gen 1 supports lossless just not the current fad of "high resolution" music. Many long discussions here of that fad so I won't start another. Try feeding it CD quality audio and it should be able to keep up.

​@Stanley_4 

My problems started in 2022/23 and i bought the speaker in 2014 so lets say 9 years. 9 years for a ≈$550 speaker is not a lot in my mind.

Sonos could have been foresighted and make it repair-/upgradeable

That would be nice but at what cost? 

Probably not double but certainly more than a 25% premium due to the need to redesign both the electronics boards and connection methods and the safety requirements to make it user serviceable rather than a sealed unit.

Then there is the cost of creating and paying for a repair facility. Seems high enough that nobody(?) is offering third party repairs. Maybe one place in England?

My problems started in 2022/23 and i bought the speaker in 2014 so lets say 9 years. 9 years for a ≈$550 speaker is not a lot in my mind

My Gen 1 Play 5s are long gone, I took the 30% upgrade deal so I can't try to duplicate your issues. You could test to see if they work with lossless audio at CD quality. Still 9 years is a pretty long time for a computer product lifetime. Check competing brands for the lifetimes of their offerings, Sonos is doing a lot better and hasn't just dropped any speaker from support or the 30% upgrrade offer.

You could get longer with passive speakers and a dumb amplifier, but not a smart one as they seem to go out of support in just a few years.

You could get repair options on some gear, my last experience was at a third of the purchase price and 90 days in the shop, plus shipping time. Second failure, in less than 10 years and repair wasn't available.

It’s not a speaker.  It’s a sophisticated smart device that houses it’s own computer, just like a smart phone or a laptop, and 9 years (actually designed 16 years ago) is a huge life for a smart device.  

If you wish to use it as just a speaker, it will still work just fine.  Enable Autoplay and hook up any analog source to the Line-in.  Instant dumb speaker!

As to making it repairable/upgradable, how much would you have paid for the device back in 2014?  Approaching double?  Because that’s what it would have cost to include 2026 levels of memory and storage in a device back in 2014.  Never mind 2026 levels of processing power, which didn’t even exist back in 2014, nor did the capability to include a universal easy upgrade to future processors.  That kind of stuff just doesn’t enter the equation due to ROI in the deep end of the red pool.

That was back in the 16/44.1 Red Book CD quality days.  Just play that stuff.  Most of my local library is exactly that.  I think services can also be set to limit the audio quality.  I may be wrong about that.

Sonos products in essence have components similar to computers such as chipsets and memory. When the Play 5 (gen1) was launched it used components that were available in 2013 and met the needs of the time.

Full blown computers of that era are obsolete; and if in service are severely limited in functionality. More accurately they have reached EOL.

No manufacturer is going to install components that far exceed what’s needed based upon possible needs 13 years in the future. Technology changes too rapidly to justify the cost and risk.

The Play 5 (gen1) has not reached EOL as it still functions as a speaker. EOL means a device is no longer functional in the current environment such as a Sony BetaMax player.

As another example of computers… your cell phone has more computing capacity than the space capsules of the 1960’s. As they were mission critical capsules for human life do you not believe they had the best computer components available for the time? By the same token so did the Play 5 (gen1) in 2013 as a speaker based upon what was needed to be a viable non-mission critical consumer product.

So please take the advice of ​@Jamie A to continue enjoying your Sonos Play 5 (gen 1). 😊