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Will there be a Sonos Five soon? 2020?

  • 9 February 2020
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I’m currently planning to buy a pair of Sonos Play 5 2nd gen to replace my current Play 5s gen 1. But I’m concerned that there will be a new Sonos Play 5 3rd gen or Sonos Five. My guess is that the Sonos Five would be release next year because Sonos release the 1st gen in 2009 and 2nd gen in 2015, that would be 6 years apart. So from 6 years form 2015 would be around 2021. I’m just worried that the Play 5 2nd gen would only support for 5 years.

Any thoughts would be appreciated 

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Best answer by Airgetlam 10 February 2020, 02:04

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35 replies

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I’m currently planning to buy a pair of Sonos Play 5 2nd gen to replace my current Play 5s gen 1. But I’m concerned that there will be a new Sonos Play 5 3rd gen or Sonos Five. My guess is that the Sonos Five would be release next year because Sonos release the 1st gen in 2009 and 2nd gen in 2015, that would be 6 years apart. So from 6 years form 2015 would be around 2021. I’m just worried that the Play 5 2nd gen would only support for 5 years.

Any thoughts would be appreciated 

If it's me I'm holding off until the new one. If they bring a new one out soon after you buy you might only get 5 years of updates which would suck. 

 

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I’m currently planning to buy a pair of Sonos Play 5 2nd gen to replace my current Play 5s gen 1. But I’m concerned that there will be a new Sonos Play 5 3rd gen or Sonos Five. My guess is that the Sonos Five would be release next year because Sonos release the 1st gen in 2009 and 2nd gen in 2015, that would be 6 years apart. So from 6 years form 2015 would be around 2021. I’m just worried that the Play 5 2nd gen would only support for 5 years.

Any thoughts would be appreciated 

If it's me I'm holding off until the new one. If they bring a new one out soon after you buy you might only get 5 years of updates which would suck. 

 

I’m not sure thought because a lot of people say that the only upgrade that the Sonos Five would get is maybe voice assistant and improve the sound quality a little bit. IDK...

Sonos doesn’t lay out a roadmap in advance of when they’re going to release speakers. Usually, it’s within 30 days of the release, so that they can get the necessary marketing coverage from the press. There have been many guesses in the past, and certainly all of mine have not been correct. 

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I’m currently planning to buy a pair of Sonos Play 5 2nd gen to replace my current Play 5s gen 1. But I’m concerned that there will be a new Sonos Play 5 3rd gen or Sonos Five. My guess is that the Sonos Five would be release next year because Sonos release the 1st gen in 2009 and 2nd gen in 2015, that would be 6 years apart. So from 6 years form 2015 would be around 2021. I’m just worried that the Play 5 2nd gen would only support for 5 years.

Any thoughts would be appreciated 

If it's me I'm holding off until the new one. If they bring a new one out soon after you buy you might only get 5 years of updates which would suck. 

 

I’m not sure thought because a lot of people say that the only upgrade that the Sonos Five would get is maybe voice assistant and improve the sound quality a little bit. IDK...

The new Sonos devices like the One, beam, amp etc are completely different devices with very capable computers inside. The current 5 is not at the same level, but the next gen will be no doubt.

Userlevel 1
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I’m currently planning to buy a pair of Sonos Play 5 2nd gen to replace my current Play 5s gen 1. But I’m concerned that there will be a new Sonos Play 5 3rd gen or Sonos Five. My guess is that the Sonos Five would be release next year because Sonos release the 1st gen in 2009 and 2nd gen in 2015, that would be 6 years apart. So from 6 years form 2015 would be around 2021. I’m just worried that the Play 5 2nd gen would only support for 5 years.

Any thoughts would be appreciated 

If it's me I'm holding off until the new one. If they bring a new one out soon after you buy you might only get 5 years of updates which would suck. 

 

I’m not sure thought because a lot of people say that the only upgrade that the Sonos Five would get is maybe voice assistant and improve the sound quality a little bit. IDK...

The new Sonos devices like the One, beam, amp etc are completely different devices with very capable computers inside. The current 5 is not at the same level, but the next gen will be no doubt.

Actually the Sonos Play 5 2nd gen is the 2nd generation of Sonos line up which includes One, Beam, all products that support airplay 2. However, what I'm worried the most is the ram of the play 5 which is 256mb, which is 1/4 of what the beam one have

I guess I don’t understand the worry here. For 15 years, give or take, Sonos has been able to keep the OS running inside 32 MB in all speakers, including the earliest players they released. Hard to think that the OS will blow up so quickly from 32 MB to over 256 MB so quickly. Sonos still sells the PLAY:5 gen 2 on their web site, and have pledged to continue supporting it for a minimum of five years after they stop selling it. 

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I guess I don’t understand the worry here. For 15 years, give or take, Sonos has been able to keep the OS running inside 32 MB in all speakers, including the earliest players they released. Hard to think that the OS will blow up so quickly from 32 MB to over 256 MB so quickly. Sonos still sells the PLAY:5 gen 2 on their web site, and have pledged to continue supporting it for a minimum of five years after they stop selling it. 

Yea true they support their devices for quite a long time, especially compared to bose and other smart speakers. IIRC, bose change their system from soundtouch to smart speaker around 2017 which completely destroy the whole ecosystem and they don’t even work with each other. I know that sonos speakers are very expensive but TBH for an internet connected device, 10 years of support is really good, IDK why people keep complaining about it.

Just curious, would you still buy future products from Sonos even after the EoL announcement?

Yes, I will indeed purchase new devices. I have not yet determined what I will do with my ‘legacy’ devices, trade them in, or maintain a separate system, but there’s not enough information yet to make a determination. They’ve certainly lasted much longer than any of the several iPhones and iPads Apple has forced me in to purchasing to run the latest iOS version. 

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Yes, I will indeed purchase new devices. I have not yet determined what I will do with my ‘legacy’ devices, trade them in, or maintain a separate system, but there’s not enough information yet to make a determination. They’ve certainly lasted much longer than any of the several iPhones and iPads Apple has forced me in to purchasing to run the latest iOS version. 

Thank you for your opinion! I think I would also buy future devices from Sonos as well. We should wait until after May 2020 see if there is any solution for this. IMO, the worst case scenario is that they have to be on different networks. I’m mainly waiting for the Playbar 2 to replace my current samsung 5.1 home theater. I’m also very curious for the Core Sub, I think it would sell for 400$ which is perfect for Beam user, and IMO the Sub is overkill for a small to medium bedroom.

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If it's me I'm holding off until the new one.

That’s what I’m doing.

 

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. I know that sonos speakers are very expensive but TBH for an internet connected device, 10 years of support is really good, IDK why people keep complaining about it.

 

People are complaining for a lot of different reasons, one of them being that they only got 5 years of updates. A situation you could could be in 5 years if you buy now.  

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. I know that sonos speakers are very expensive but TBH for an internet connected device, 10 years of support is really good, IDK why people keep complaining about it.

 

People are complaining for a lot of different reasons, one of them being that they only got 5 years of updates. A situation you could could be in 5 years if you buy now.  

Yea I do know that, but the devices are still going to work. Just not as good as it should be

@hongkien66 - you seem to me to have absolutely the right, common sense attitude to this.  Even if a the gen 2 P:5 were withdrawn from sale within the next couple of years, say, with the amount of RAM it has I would expect it to get full update support for much longer than 5 years.

As others have said, there is little point in doing anything until May, but I would buy any of Sonos’ current products without the slightest concerns about its longevity, with the single exception of the Playbar.

 

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@hongkien66 - you seem to me to have absolutely the right, common sense attitude to this.  Even if a the gen 2 P:5 were withdrawn from sale within the next couple of years, say, with the amount of RAM it has I would expect it to get full update support for much longer than 5 years.

As others have said, there is little point in doing anything until May, but I would buy any of Sonos’ current products without the slightest concerns about its longevity, with the single exception of the Playbar.

 

Ok thank you for your feedback, cause I'm also planning to buy the Play 5 2nd gen, Ones 2nd gen, Port and Amp. And the Play 5 is the oldest so the most concerned for me

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So the last answer here is 2 months old , and we are nearly into May very soon I will have to work out what I am going to do about the play5 1st Gen I have on my system . 

I really don't want to go for a split system it defeats the whole reason for having Sonos, but the gen2 has been around for awhile, Is there any info on if this is going to be phased out, or have a major update, or a gen3 ? I don't want to spend £500 on a unit that is going to be superceded in a short space of time , I would be happy to wait and spend the cash on the " latest" unit even if it meant waiting awhile anybody have any ideas ?

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Sonos advertises $150 of the Playbar and the Sub “while supplies last”. I would expect these to be superseded first.

I’d hold off.  I’ve got a similar situation.  Have a play 5 gen 1 and a connect in my current set up.  Both going EoL in June.  Lots of rumors about a Play 5 : Gen 3 being released in June so i’ve stuck my play 5 in for 30% rebate.  Brings the current play to £345.  Going to hold off buying anything till post announcement then make a choice.  The play 5 won’t stop working but may need to split off for short period.  Plan to do same with connect but not sure if the codes are separate and would like option to buy couple of pla5 5’s over a few months.  Probably just going to live with the old connect as its in office and don’t really use it unless working on desktop so no big loss to have a separate app running it.

Sorry, I object to your term EoL. They will not be at end of life, they will only stop receiving new software features. They will continue work as they do at this moment.

In my opinion, there are other Sonos devices that need an ‘upgrade’ more than the PLAY:5 does, in fact, the only thing I could conceive of changing in the device is an addition of an array of microphones for voice control. That doesn’t seem to be enough to garner a new generation to me. I don’t think it would be enough of a differentiator to garner enough sales for Sonos to look for a big profit on. 

Fair enough EoL from the sonos eco-system application standpoint.  Should still work with the current app and reducing number of 3rd party plug in’s and direct indefinitely. 

 

I have 2 plays 3’s which are probably the oldest things in the sonos line up so was surprised that they were included the S2 compatibility line up.

I was surprised both my PLAY:3s and PLAY:1s made the S2 list, until I looked at the available memory they came with for the software driving them.

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I just picked up a play 5 Gen 2. I had one already which I won a couple of months ago. I picked up a refurbished play 5 from Best Buy. It was Essentially new. And now I have stereo. 

I  think you would get more than 5 years of support. The Playbar has 128MB of ram and if they can squeeze 5 years of support out of that we should get more out the the play 5.

Also, I get the feeling that if Sonos can support a speaker they will for as long as possible. I don’t think they use this to force and upgrade. 

And they are still technically supporting older devices with bug and security updates. 

All in all, for a ‘tech’ company they are doing a great job of keeping equipment useable as long as possible. 

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Britishwonderings do you work for Sonos ? lol!!!

unfortunately a lot of people on this forum willl not share your thoughts on how good a job 

Sonos do at trying to ensure that your system stays relevant and up to date . 

 

 

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Ha! No I don’t work for Sonos! I do work in Technology and I don’t deal with many technical companies that support their products as long as Sonos do. 

My wifes car is 2015, no s/w updates, no carplay or any such luxury. iPhones get you around 5 years, android phones less. Tablets etc… long list of stuff. 

But off we go and buy another iPhone etc. And we understand that for features we need this. What if you just want a couple of video apps and text messaging - you still need to buy a new phone even if you old one works. To stay secure and have apps that still work you need a phone that’s less than 5 years old. Please note - that is secure and works. A 7 year old iPhone might work but it’s not been secured for two years. 

Sonos is a tech company. If we want new features, Atmos etc then what do we do? 5 years from now if Sonos don’t offer new features they will start to be come less relevant to consumers. 

At the end of the day S1 devices still work, still sounds great and are still supported with patches and security updates. These devices are 10-15 years old. They will continue to work and continue to be secure. And if I want a new one I get a 30% discount and I can keep my old one (The ‘brick’ option only concerned me from an environment perspective not a business one).

I don’t work for Sonos but I just don’t have any complaints about them regarding this. I want good quality whole home audio that is modern and relevant. I want new technology to be available to me. To get this I understand that there is tech element and that will age out much faster than an Amp and Speaker combo. 

I am mystified by other perspectives - I understand them on an emotional level but intellectually I just can’t see a big problem. 

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Britishwonderings i guess Sonos has to decide if its a tech company or a speaker company, if its a tech company then i understand that new things have to be introduced to stay relevant, but if your a speaker company then a certain amount of longevity is expected as well. It would be interesting to see how many people use the new “tech” ? I for one was quite looking forward to Alexa and Google voice control ,never use it ! I think a lot of people like the idea of cutting edge “tech” but in reality day to day how many really use the full range of features ? I am going to have to upgrade my play 5 1st gen, so i hope Sonos if the rumour of a new P5 is true, have built a decent amount of longevity into it , Put decent memory into the unit dont put just enough to run the unit as it is, memory is cheap you can go big without much cost . Sonos has annoyed a lot of people this year they can probably pull the stunt one time only and get away with it , I will upgrade my P5 so i am on one system instead of a split system, but i will only do it once . 

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We’ll find out later today!