Discontinuing service and software updates for older legacy Sonos speakers?

I was not happy with the controller phase out. Not providing the expect updates to keep it running was really not smart, but considering that people have free app solution to continue running the system, ok. But to discontinue one speaker and forcing me to purchase a new speaker to keep the ecosystem that might be discontinued shortly as well ? I will probably find new market solutions that are less expensive

"Finding market solutions that are less expensive" is going to be difficult. Here's the competition:

Bose: 4th full product line revamp in 5 years, with significant compatibility problems between the lines. Slightly more expensive.
Denon: 3rd full product line revamp in 4 years, sued by Sonos for patent infringement.
Bluesound: Significantly more expensive.
Yamaha: Failed at multi-room music 3 times already.
Samsung/LG/etc.: Not even denting the market.

Meanwhile, Sonos has been in business since 2002, with products released in 2005, of which only the CR100 is not supported. They have never had a revamp of the entire line that had significant compatibility issues with older units, a brand new Sonos One or Beam can be grouped with an original ZP100 and play every source Sonos has. This cannot be said for Bose et al.

For example, Alexa and other cloud based voice control is backwards compatible to nearly 14 year old devices. It is only Airplay functionality that has been added to recent items and not to older devices due to hardware issues (and yet you can still group the older units in and play an Airplay 2 source). Can you name one brand new digital technology that is backwards compatible to 14 year old devices?

The OP (and others) should understand that just because a product will no longer receive updates or direct support does not mean it will no longer function. For example the Playbar, Play 1, Play 3 will not natively accept Alexa voice commands nor are they natively capable of Airplay 2. However, I can command Alexa via a SonosOne to play music on a Playbar.

I'm not a Sonos employee so I don't have knowledge of what is to come. However, the only Sonos speaker I see on the endangered species list (i.e. no longer produced) is the Play 1 as The Sonos One is a logical successor. Therefore spending the extra $50-USD to me is worth it to future proof my Sonos system. The Play 3 is questionable; but still offers some advantages over a Sonos One. The Playbar IMO is the only Sonos speaker without a clear successor (to date) because of placement versatility versus the Playbase and sonic capacities versus the Beam.

The Gen1 Play 5 had to be replaced with the Gen2 Play 5 otherwise Sonos would have fell behind the curve to offer a sonically competitive product versus other wireless (and wired) speakers.

Finally, everything reaches EOL cycle but it doesn't mean they should be tossed. I just resurrected (after 8 years in storage) a Sony DA777ES receiver (with no HDMI capabilities) to run a set of Definitive B5 bi-polar speakers and a end-table size Definitive Sub so I could incorporate a Sonos Connect. I'll probably opt for the new Sonos Amp when released in February 2019; but for now the Sony DA777ES is the go to solution.

Cheers!

Actually, the Connect:amp appears to be the next product to no longer be for sale. From Ryan on the Sonos amp intor thread:
It does look the play:3 is on longer being sold as well since it's not available at many locations. The play:1 seems to be surviving since it's still available a year after the Sonos One was release. I can see where it still has a place in the ecosystem for those who have no desire for voice control and/or in use as surround speakers

I agree about the Connect:AMP being 86'd. However, I was more focused on actual Sonos speakers. It's a Sonos call...but the Play 3 (sonic capacities aside vs. the Sonos One) IMO has some worth regarding positioning. I'd prefer to see a successor for it mush in the same way as the Play 5 (Gen1 to Gen2). A smaller speaker (vs. Play 5) with good punch for horizontal and vertical positioning is still a good idea.

I replaced my Play 1's x 4 (sold em' on ebay @ $145 each before they were officially discounted) with Sonos One's as I can just turn of the Alexa microphone. However, that was a personal decision as I suspected Sonos (and retailers) would discount them after the launch of the One)

Cheers!

As someone said, Play 5 1st gen was discontinued for new sales. Updates are of course being provided. I have one.

The point is simple. If updates that are required to play (therefore use it) stops to be provided that will be unacceptable in my point of view.

The sonos controller is an example. If I wanted to keep using it, I would be forced to do not update all other units. There was no option to keep the controller and using updated speakers.

By the way, I don't remember any sound system, player, laptop, cellphone that was forced to stop doing what it was designed to do.

I have an old Nokia cellphone that still make calls , I have an old laptop that still turns on, play music, access internet and do all the things that I had when I purchased it. (Both are not used anymore because I decided to move on to have new features and power capacity)

And finally, I have speakers that I earned from my parents that have more than 30 years that I still use it plugged now in my connect:amp

I am not saying that it will be the future of Sonos, but if so, having units that are not able to stream because they decided so, it will be a breakthrough for me.

Alexa is fancy, voice control is nice , but I bought it to play music all of them together . If updates are required to keep it like this for 30 , 50 years, I do expect to have it.

By the way, I have the first iPod for example and it still plays very well.

Sonos is not a speaker, so expecting it to be like a speaker is nonsense. Sonos is an integrated multi-room music streamer, with significant reliance on an external ecosystem which includes things like cloud services, streaming services, voice services, etc. To expect 13+ year old technology to operate within this ecosystem in perpetuity is not only unrealistic, it is foolish. To expect it to be like the old pair of Advents you bought back in 1972 is downright absurd.

Furthermore, to expect Sonos to continually support every software/firmware release which occurs prior to an older unit no longer being supported is also unrealistic. Sonos is a for profit company, and how much profit is to be made if they waste manpower on a configuration which will eventually lose most if not all functionality, for a forever dwindling user base, who by definition will never buy another Sonos device? Answer: Not much.

You could use a laptop and cat5 from that to a sonos Ethernet port to set them up.
Actually a mobile phone is now the preferred option to set sonos up easily, no firewalls etc etc..

Just to bump this old thread. Very pissed off now that my Sonos Play 5 Gen 1, bought just seven years ago, is effectively obsolete. Sonos inform me that I now have the choice of junking it or not allowing my whole system to update.

I used to rave about Sonos to other people. I’d now suggest they approach with caution because I suspect this is a policy designed to extract ££. What do you reckon? Am I wrong?

Before anybody says “just seven years ago?’… yep. I don’t think that kind of lifetime is remotely acceptable these days. 

I’ve been with Sonos for 20 years now.  I’ve purchased just about every product you’ve ever made from the beginning.  Over $10,000 worth of your equipment and I’ve sold even more for you with recommendations.  I’ve already thrown away the Controller 100, two Controller 200’s and 3 Bridges.  Now you want me to “Upgrade” and give you more money.  I’m finished.  Bluesound here I come.  It’s better anyway.  It has High Resolution.

What this will have me do is consider non-Sonos products that are Sonos compatible to replace my two Play:5 speakers. I’m looking at Ikea’s Symfonisk bookshelf speakers. 

I was an early adopter of several Sonos products and have purchased quite of few of them between 2013 and 2017. So this unexpected notice of the end-of-life of three of my products (one Bridge I still use, and both Play:5 speakers) is sad and will likely be costly.

Sonos also needs to do a better job of letting Bridge owners know there is an update to the Bridge, the Boost, and provide a “trade-up” discount for current owners of EOL Bridges to the Boost. 

I understand that tech advances. But I’m not happy about this and am thinking through options.

Sonos is not a speaker, so expecting it to be like a speaker is nonsense. Sonos is an integrated multi-room music streamer, with significant reliance on an external ecosystem which includes things like cloud services, streaming services, voice services, etc. To expect 13+ year old technology to operate within this ecosystem in perpetuity is not only unrealistic, it is foolish. To expect it to be like the old pair of Advents you bought back in 1972 is downright absurd.

Furthermore, to expect Sonos to continually support every software/firmware release which occurs prior to an older unit no longer being supported is also unrealistic. Sonos is a for profit company, and how much profit is to be made if they waste manpower on a configuration which will eventually lose most if not all functionality, for a forever dwindling user base, who by definition will never buy another Sonos device? Answer: Not much.

 

Pardon me but Sonos calls their products “speakers”.

Would have no problem with this if across very webpage and ad that Sonos (and every other company offering similar ‘ecosystems’), presents to the buying public it was very prominently made clear that it was “a licenced hardware ecosystem reliant on ongoing hardware support which will eventually inevitably be withdrawn as specific hardware is deemed by Sonos to have become obsolete for whatever reason”, even if on a ‘long’ life cycle. 

They don’t do that because they know that if they did, their market (and the whole market for similar systems) would not have grown to the extent it has.  Such conditions will no doubt be buried within the small print of the licence but they know that no-one reads that when looking at the glossy ads or are in an outlet about to purchase. 

I have two Sonos systems in different locations and one of those, in a large urban location with a lot of wifi competition, the signal, with or without a boost, is not strong enough to serve data fast enough to all speakers around the house concurrently and this one is a only an 8 speaker system although I can only get up to 3 speakers to work concurrently without dropouts.  Something else the “up to 32 devices claim ” and “stream...[wirelessly] all around your home” advertising fails to highlight.

In the other rural location with different layout Sonos works pretty well - but the knowledge that this is always on a knife edge and can still encounter regular blips, spoils the whole thing.

Having invested heavily I will do the best I can with the speakers I have and will adapt to get them to work for as long as possible but I have now decided that I will buy no more. I might even resort to wiring some of them but that sort of defeats the obviously major selling point of a ‘wireless’ system. 

These are the conceits of this model of music ‘delivery’.

At some point I suspect I’ll be going back to the old way of doing things probably with a number of Brennan B2’s or somesuch, around the house and my Sonos components will, one by one, gradually be added to a large scrapheap.

Just to bump this old thread. Very pissed off now that my Sonos Play 5 Gen 1, bought just seven years ago, is effectively obsolete. Sonos inform me that I now have the choice of junking it or not allowing my whole system to update.

I used to rave about Sonos to other people. I’d now suggest they approach with caution because I suspect this is a policy designed to extract ££. What do you reckon? Am I wrong?

Before anybody says “just seven years ago?’… yep. I don’t think that kind of lifetime is remotely acceptable these days. 

Totally agree and with the comments by others about how environmentally unfriendly and utimately, unsustainable this model is.

...I will not bin my old products, so will just stay on the older os with the ‘legacy’ units until sonos try to kill my system, and then they will be facing a legal case……..

 

How do you do that when Sonos now insists on updating or withdraws your ability to use the system by disabling functionality?

I am sure that Sonos and other similar companies have covered themselves in the licence agreements we all consent to when LICENCING these products from Sonos (we do not buy them). Something else that is not made utterly transparent in the very slick marketing.