WHY I am NOT dumping Sonos

All good points, with a different approach to address item 5 for new buying:

For the next buy do not buy any product that bundles the app+smart bits along with the expensive to build sound reproduction electronics and speaker drivers and other components. Bundling means that you end up having to replace the whole bundle when the front end throws a hissy fit as seems inevitable with it, being as software driven as it is. That event makes audio hardware in good working condition go to a landfill, just to accommodate a change in the smart stuff at the front end.

Yes, but most seem to want boxed plug'n'play alternatives, eg. Bluesound, Bose, Denon, naim, etc.  Most of these have only Spotify, Tidal, none have podcasts or audiobooks.  As for radio, they all just offer one aggregator. Sonos has a good spread of radio services. 

Even in a situation like the one with Sonos just now, many users have to wait for Sonos to fix their broken systems for as long as Sonos will take to do so, because of the considerable investment in the hardware.

The other advantage of unbundling is that it allows users to get better sound that what Sonos offers, excellent though that is. And, if desired, spend more to get it knowing that the service life of that part of their kit can be in decades.

As an example, if I was looking at something like WiiM, I would look to get the one without amplification and wire it to a quality third party amp or active/powered speakers.

If you must have everything in the Sonos stable, then you must also deal with times like these with some equanimity!

That's something in short supply these days, I'm afraid. 😎

I noticed!

I think that there are very few users here planning to dump Sonos. The app is bad but given the investment people have very few will be able to afford dumping Sonos at this point.

The majority here are indicating that they will not be investing in future speaker upgrades and will decide on what platform to use later.

Inevitably the app will be fixed and that will play a role in determining how many people leave Sonos in the future. The longer we carry on like this the bigger the future impact will be.

Quite: you are accurately describing me in 2020 in the quoted bits above. All 12 of my Sonos units are still in use, but I do not use the Sonos app. Where I do, I use the S1 app for music from my local NAS. What I did in 2020, by getting off the Sonos apps bandwagon, is paying off for me just now.

The other consideration is that as I don't use alarms and no longer have a music library, preferring to stream. The negative aspects of the App haven't caused me much disruption.  Sonos market research indicates that 80% of their user base are in the same category.

I'm not diminishing the impact on users that do use music libraries,etc but personally my only impact is that the app is different, rather than missing functionality that I personally consider critical. 

I still consider Sonos to be the best multi room sound system available for the price and, again personally, I trust Sonos to fix the issues with the App in a fairly short time scale.

In addition, I suspect that the new app has been created to support an extension of the product range, possibly requiring different functionality and app architecture.

I too still rate Sonos.

I agree they will fix the app just think it will take longer than they expect because there seem  to be more bugs and issues than they were either prepared to admit or expected.

Fixing code while adding missing feature is never easy for the developers who will be under a lot of pressure because of poor management decisions.

The hardware side of the product still remains great, it’s the software side that is letting SONOS down.  I’ve been using SONOS for over 10 years and would tell anyone how good it was as it “just worked”.  Over the last few years, the app has got worse and that really affects the use of the system - I wouldn’t recommend SONOS to anyone currently.

People have spent hundreds to thousands on these products and so will feel stuck with a product that doesn’t meet expectations.

I’ll try and remain optimistic that all of these issues will be resolved, but in the meantime I’m stuck with streaming via Spotify Connect as that “just works”.

Yeah I have too many Sonos units, by the time a sold them all, the app will probably be fixed. I’m getting used to work arounds the current limitations so will wait it out. Hopefully they will keep to their schedule.
 

But I am concerned about the instability, slowness and inconsistencies I see with the app which will probably take longer for them to fix. 
 

I’m happy with the overall app design and if they can make it actually work properly it should be good. 

Here are some additional reasons why I won’t be leaving Sonos anytime soon.

• I have a large investment in Sonos products already.  Obviously, this doesn’t apply to everyone.  I would not look for to the effort in selling the speakers and then finding a suitable replacement system (I could make some sacrafices here) and then to find that the grass isn’t greener on this side.
• I value Sonos voice control.   I’m not aware of any other music system that has voice control without the cloud.  I’d like to see SVC expand to smart home features or blend it with anther local voice control system somehow.
• Sonos has the Mayht woofer tech and BLE audio patents that I expect to see them use in actual products and features over the next few years.
• Despite recent issues, I believe Sonos still has a strong brand and valuable patents. I can see a change in management happen, or perhaps a sale, but the brand isn’t going to just go away with consumers stuck with a dead system.  That definitely could happen with other smaller companies or larger companies who have completely abandoned a product line in the past.

…..That is all very well and true Castalla, until they (Sonos) launched this new app from hell. If some of you can acces and operate your Sonos systems, thats great, even if you have to accepts that some functions and services are not working yet...but A LOT OF US simply cant get the new app to work; we’re caught in a never ending loop of updates, updates that always crashes or ends in “error 1000” messages, and with zero possibility to turn off updates or return to the old functioning S1-app.

Thats just a terrible way to launch an app. And at first I thought it was a little bit funny, since Sonos have spammed my inbox and tech-media with news about this new Jesus-app, the one to save us all. And then somehow they forgot to test it before launch. But now, I’m getting pretty tired of not being able to play anything on the system or just a single unit.

Best regards and congrats on somehow having an app that works.

@Sune A

Yes, I agree with you.  I've heavily critised the new app - it's horrendous. But many who are in despair are probably jumping from the frying pan into another proprietary fire.   If you have money to burn, then go ahead, but be prepared to be disappointed and frustrated.

The Sonos range is high quality and very good sound. Let's see if they can pull themselves out of this ridiculous almost kamikaze dive with the new app. 

Can't you try one of the workarounds? 

I think the key message is that when you get married, divorce is messy. So either don't get married or postpone the divorce as long as you can.

I would not move to anything that is not Roon ready. Roon may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, BUT, I think the separation of the hardware and the software is imperative. For Sonos the hardware is where the $ is, for Roon the software is where the $ is. Huge difference. Roon works great with any number of different speakers. 

If you can find a Sonos work around great for those of you. But, the independent software opens up a whole new world. Sonos was sold on marrying the two, but clearly thats really not the case. There are tons of brands that let you use Roon, some are inexpensive, some are super high end. Great solution for me. Glad I found it.

I would never spend another penny with Sonos, after this app for one thing. And, just as important, Sonos clearly would like to get away from the local librarys. Lastly, Roon was sold to me as a subscription, thats what I bought. Sonos, which might be trying to get some of that recurring income was sold to me as one and done.

Fair enough - but with a little techno elbow grease you can achieve a Roon-like solution via open source at zero cost.  But I appreciate some want a turn-key solution.  😊🔑

Yes @castalla you are probably right about a switch to another product and there is a reason why we are so many writing, complaining etc etc; because we where very happy with our speakersystems...and then...not so much ;)

Trust me, I’ve tried all work-arounds suggested in all forums; updated firmware on the devices, other devices, factory reset, re-installed the app, new wi-fi (no booster/extender)  and so on and so on...the same thing happens everytime:

1. S1 app kicks me on to the new app with a message that “all my units are compatible with the new app but may need updates”.
2. Enter new app, automatic update prompts and always ends with either crash of app, or simply “error 1000” message and a new try on the update. On and on.

But thanks for chattin’ and supporting ;) I sincerely hope that they’ll fix it someday soon.

Looking at the other side of the mess, the possibility of picking up some gently used and under-priced Sonos gear really needs looked into.

I’m looking for a few S1 capable Play 1s, the ones with real push buttons to add to my mom’s system.

Even at retail new, the play 1 were excellent buys and barring the absence of a line in jack, were the best single product Sonos has ever made. Excellent sound in versatile and flexible set ups.

And the simplicity of hardware buttons - My bedroom set up now has both Echo Spot and a S1 Connect, wired to two pairs of audio input jacks on high quality signal sensing Pioneer powered speakers. Since my NAS/Sonos has 2000 track plus long self curated playlists organised by genre, once picked for play in shuffle mode I don't change it for days. Playing it then just needs reaching out for a button press as does stopping it, no need for the phone/app. And it is easy to choose something on Spotify as well, usually by voice command to the Spot, where I get album art for every track that plays, via the same Pioneers.

As little that comes between you and music play the better, so this no phone/no app thing suits me perfectly. But then I am old and therefore old fashioned and not app happy. 

PS: With this arrangement of easy physical access to the buttons on the 2011 vintage Connect, I find that I am playing music from the NAS much more often than when I needed to open the Sonos S1 app on the phone, wait for it to connect to Sonos units, and then play from the NAS. Button press, music from the loaded playlist starts almost instantly. Button press, it stops. Couldn’t be simpler. One important precondition for this are powered speakers that have a robust signal sensing to wake from standby feature.