Sonos legacy products

  • 21 January 2020
  • 13 replies
  • 576 views
J
Userlevel 2

Anybody else a little bit infuriated by the latest e-Mail from Sonos about end of software updates.

I think it’s crazy that because my Play 5 is “legacy” my Play 1, Play 3, Beam and playbar could be rendered useless unless I basically pay a ransom of £300 to replace it with a new one (taking into account the 30%).

There should be a third option to be able to at least move your legacy system to a separate app or something so you can still at least make use of the rest of the system that most of us have spent hundreds of pounds building up.

Rethink this Sonos or maybe I’ll also make a threat that I will start building up a Bose system instead.

 

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13 replies

Airgetlam

You may want to reread that email? Your devices will not be rendered useless, they’ll just stop receiving software updates. The functionality would not be changing. 

Bruce
J
Userlevel 2

Hi, my e-mail says “Over time, this is likely to disrupt access to services and overall functionality”.

i read that as my Sonos is going to eventually be as useful as a wind up radio. This is like saying the Volvo I bought 8 years ago will still get me from A to B, but the ABS brakes and the airbags might lose overall functionality  if I don’t chose to buy a new one. A bit dramatic, but these speakers aren’t cheap, they should be supported for life, or if Sonos can’t stomach that then they should take them back and replace with speakers that they will support for no extra cost. 

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

This is like saying the Volvo I bought 8 years ago will still get me from A to B, but the ABS brakes and the airbags might lose overall functionality  if I don’t chose to buy a new one. 

Not quite, more like the radio in the Volvo may quit working with stations that choose to drop support for the current software version.

T

This is like saying the Volvo I bought 8 years ago will still get me from A to B, but the ABS brakes and the airbags might lose overall functionality  if I don’t chose to buy a new one. 

Not quite, more like the radio in the Volvo may quit working with stations that choose to drop support for the current software version.

Poor analogy.
More like: Your Volvo will be illegal to use in countries where they decide to do some basic roadwork.

C

My worry now is how long before other newer Sonos products follow this path,  Sonos products are not cheap and I cannot afford to replace my units even with the 30% discount.  I have been with Sonos for nearly 10 years and this action even though I sort of understand it technically,  will make me think long and hard before I purchase anymore units from them.

A
Userlevel 1

As someone with over $17,000.00 invested in this system/equipment (to include high end 3rd party connected speakers to my AMPS). Upgrading is not an affordable option, I have 2 of the newer AMPS and 4 Play One’s with the remainder AMPS and Sonos speakers being legacy products. Which translates that my newer $2,000 worth of Sonos products will no longer be updated after May as well, unless I separate the systems. What’s the point in whole house system if it is not whole house anymore?. THIS REALLY SUCKS! I’m selling off my equipment and moving on. I see no other viable option. Just awful….never seen this coming from Sonos. I’m praying that Sonos reverses this before I pull the trigger on this decision. I’m angry and sad! Looking for my safe place now...smh

M

I’ve given Sonos products as gifts over the years and have slowly expanded my collection of hardware. My Gen 1 Play 5 was the first Sonos product I ever bought and never did I ever imagine that it would be rendered useless one day. :(

 

Does this mean that my Playbar and Sub (which were not cheap) will be rendered useless one day as well?

B
Userlevel 4
Badge

My worry now is how long before other newer Sonos products follow this path,  Sonos products are not cheap and I cannot afford to replace my units even with the 30% discount.  I have been with Sonos for nearly 10 years and this action even though I sort of understand it technically,  will make me think long and hard before I purchase anymore units from them.

Who would have to be a mug to purchase from Sonos again

 

#sonosboycott

P
Userlevel 3
Badge

I am terribly disappointed with sonos.  I have been an avid customer over the last 10 years and I have bought 15 pieces of equipment from sonos including 4 playbars and 8 connects and 3 amps as well as a sub.  Now all my connects will stop being updated?  ?    and now I’m supposed to replace them all at 300+ per connect because sonos told me they won’t support their product anymore?  this is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable.  I feel like I’ve been robbed.  ROBBED

C

Think the biggest issue for Sonos now is the lack of trust in the company,  over the years I have recommended their products to many people who have gone out and bought their expensive products,  embarrassing turn round for me now,  can only assume that the senior management within the company now,  are that arrogant they feel they can go on a sales drive forcing existing customers to purchase more products (although at a 30% discount) which will undoubtedly have the same obsolescence built in.  Instead of looking for a technical H/W upgrade route for the older products,  I would consider paying for that route! 

Used to work for Nokia, remember what happened to them? small innovative tech company which turned into a gigantic mismanaged global company.  Watch out Sonos.

Anyway course of action for me is to carry on using all my products until they start to fail, then move on or maybe even back to a record deck and normal hifi which is where I started.

 

V

This is a simple decision for me.  I am not going to mess around with different apps and have to disconnect legacy products in order for “modern” products to work, 

Sonos need to rethink, issue a retraction and an apology or I will vote with my feet and my wallet.

This is some of the most expensive audio equipment I have bought in the last 30 years and the shortest lived. Unbelievable 

A

I’m a big advocate of Sonos and have two play 1:s, a Playbar and Sub all within one room. The feature I liked best was that I could play music from my iPhone directly without requiring a NAS or a connection to my pc (which isn’t always on). This feature worked for 2 or 3 years without an issue. However, last year I started getting issues with sound drop-outs and tracks skipping because of other devices running Airplay within the house (Sky Q boxes). Sonos’ technical support was fantastic in diagnosing this. They gave me a workaround (which was to disable all Airplay connection in the house) and I was happy. However, last year they deprecated the playing of music directly from an iOS device and said that they would support Apple’s Airplay instead. This sounded like a step forward until I found out that none of my equipment would support Airplay 2 - my devices didn’t have the processing power. I can understand if Apple change their technology then Sonos cannot guarantee they can support it. Why couldn’t they keep the old option though with the workaround of disabling other Airplay devices? Instead, I had to send music to my Sky Q box via Airplay 2 and have the Sonos receive the music via the optical cable to the Playbar. My TV is 9 years old and I didn’t feel the experience of the resulting sound was as good. I read a lot on the subject and was told that if I get one device that runs the newer technology e.g. a Play: One then I can group the “legacy” equipment. Reluctantly, at Christmas I sold the Play:1s and bought two new Play:Ones. This now works better, however, it isn’t perfect. The Play:1s were set up as rear-channel speakers. You cannot use Airplay 2 with speakers set up as rear channels only. I’ve had to group everything. I could, ungroup and set them up as rear channel speakers when I want but I don’t want to be constantly grouping/ungrouping and reconfiguring. To get the configuration as it was when I first bought it in terms of playing music directly from an iOS device, I would have to get a new Playbar. That would mean only the Sub remaining from the original devices that I purchased. I don’t think this is sustainable from a customer point of view and an environmental perspective. For now, I will live with the current configuration having lost money but I think Sonos’ reputation has suffered because of this issue. The further deprecation announcements could seriously damage Sonos’ reputation.

 

 

S

This is a simple decision for me.  I am not going to mess around with different apps and have to disconnect legacy products in order for “modern” products to work, 

Sonos need to rethink, issue a retraction and an apology or I will vote with my feet and my wallet.

This is some of the most expensive audio equipment I have bought in the last 30 years and the shortest lived. Unbelievable 

 

Likewise,  this is a kick in the gonads to Sonos customers.  I have over $5K in “legacy” devices.  I have another couple thousand in “modern” devices.  Assuming I were backed into a corner to replace the 11 legacy devices, how soon after that will my “modern” devices be obsoleted.  This policy is a travesty. 

These are primarily Speaker boxes (well, except for the Connects and Connect Amps) and as such only a small percentage of the componentry in the boxes are chips and memory to drive the speakers.  Why Sonos couldn't have developed a replacement chip/memory package to swap out the older electronic with is baffling to me.  Alternatively, at least for the Play 5s, Sonos could have provided a small box that would tackle the system work, but plug into the Aux In of the Speaker Box to keep them in play. (something similar to but cheaper than a Connect (or Port))

The Sonos reps (I do feel sorry for them having to field the calls from an army of irate customers), read dutifully from the script that all technology advances. They compare their operating system to Windows or Apple's OS.  My counterpoint is that operating systems can for the most part be device independent.  A $200 upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is easily justifiable,  Throwing out my $3K Desktop at the same time is not.  I'll be tossing out perfectly good speaker systems

Not only have I invested $6 to $7K in Sonos components over the last decade, but I also bought 1500 shares of the stock.  I sold it yesterday because I can't be a party to these business practices. 

Shame on Sonos for this despicable tactic to advance the bottom line and dessert their customers.

 

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