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I’m still of the opinion that the new architecture of the Sonos products is doomed.  If it was solid a lot more of the issues people are experiencing would be fixed by now or would not have occurred in the first place.  My gut tells me that the only reason that they can’t roll back the app is because there is now a new device in the mix that relies on it: the headphones.

Anyway, my opinion is that Sonos could simplify their architecture and speed up product development if they introduced a new product to manage the in-home Sonos network.  I’m not talking about a Sonos-net wifi here a-la Boost.  What I mean is a central HUB to manage communication with the cloud and to monitor and report on the in-home speaker configuration.

Think of the simplification that this would provide for the engineers.  Think of the reduction in inter-speaker chat that would result in not having the speakers to keep track among themselves about what is playing where.  They could just focus on streaming the music.  If there is a patchy Wifi link to one of the speakers, then the HUB could monitor it and provide proactive help through the app.  Think of the caching it could provide.  Think of the other benefits that I haven’t even thought of yet 🙂.

For small speaker setups Sonos should still support peer-to-peer mode, but as in-home speaker setups get larger or more demanding products get added, then I think the HUB would enable a more reliable solution.

Obviously I don’t know how we would get from the current mess to the nice clean new architecture, but it’s nice to dream..

Thoughts?

 My gut tells me that the only reason that they can’t roll back the app is because there is now a new device in the mix that relies on it: the headphones.

 

If true, one questions that way of thinking. Keep the foot on the neck of most of the user base and not limited to the users that uses local libraries, just to prop up a product that is in many ways just a me too? 

Here is another bubble, based on the fact that my 5 zone Sonos set up dating back to 2011/2014 hardware, remains rock solid in an S1 environment that I never deserted for S2. As it does for many using even much older versions of S1 compared the one I use, which is the latest version.

From June 2020 till May 1 2024, what did S2 offer in terms of enhancing of the user experience, that S1 users missed out on? And for whatever it did, was S2 left in a more precarious state by the tinkering done to deliver any enhancements, a state that is being claimed for it by Sonos as a major reason for this brave and now shown to be foolhardy leap by Spence and his senior reports into unknown territory?

If yes, this disastrous new app misstep is just the latest of many.

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