Sonos end of life?
Discussion
One of the things I really like about Sonos is how even the old hardware (CR100 excepted) have been kept going and still work as well today as they did on release.
Had an email today about their "Trade Up" program - I have an old ZP100 that I bought secondhand years ago. https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/tradeup
They're offering it for any Connnect / Connect:Amp (or the earlier variants - ZP80, 90, 100, 120) and the first gen Play:5. Take up the offer and they brick your device ("recycle mode") so no-one can use it any more.
I'm guessing this is the carrot (of a 30% discount) before the stick of cutting off software updates - from the FAQ: Once a product stops being sold, it is guaranteed to receive software updates for five years. We have a track record of supporting products for much longer, but these products lack certain capabilities and enhancements due to the limitations of the computer hardware.
I get the supportability thing, and I've had more than enough value out of my cheap ZP100, and to be fair it was last sold over a decade ago. Not wild about paying £420 after discount for a new Sonos Amp to replace it though.
Had an email today about their "Trade Up" program - I have an old ZP100 that I bought secondhand years ago. https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/tradeup
They're offering it for any Connnect / Connect:Amp (or the earlier variants - ZP80, 90, 100, 120) and the first gen Play:5. Take up the offer and they brick your device ("recycle mode") so no-one can use it any more.
I'm guessing this is the carrot (of a 30% discount) before the stick of cutting off software updates - from the FAQ: Once a product stops being sold, it is guaranteed to receive software updates for five years. We have a track record of supporting products for much longer, but these products lack certain capabilities and enhancements due to the limitations of the computer hardware.
I get the supportability thing, and I've had more than enough value out of my cheap ZP100, and to be fair it was last sold over a decade ago. Not wild about paying £420 after discount for a new Sonos Amp to replace it though.
Worrying. I have a few ZP100s.
They are still selling on Ebay for £200 used.
The Sonos website is horrific . Evey time you click on "Amp" (after having to scroll horizonally - wtf?!) you just get a bloody video.
When I eventually found the price I nearly fell over. £599!!!
Since they bricked CP100 remotes I stopped buying Sonos and won't be buying any more.
They are still selling on Ebay for £200 used.
The Sonos website is horrific . Evey time you click on "Amp" (after having to scroll horizonally - wtf?!) you just get a bloody video.
When I eventually found the price I nearly fell over. £599!!!
Since they bricked CP100 remotes I stopped buying Sonos and won't be buying any more.
I think they have lost their edge now, everyone is doing multiroom systems, the dominance of Alexa and Google as control platforms make Sonos look overpriced for a product than can be blown away by cheaper,more versatile competiton in most segments.
Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
bristolracer said:
Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
Their main strength is speaker/audio quality. Alexa's etc have rubbish actual sound quality, and other Bluetooth systems lose fidelity when you start spreading them around the house. Lazadude said:
bristolracer said:
Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
Their main strength is speaker/audio quality. Alexa's etc have rubbish actual sound quality, and other Bluetooth systems lose fidelity when you start spreading them around the house. The benefit of Sonos is that your smart device is literally acting as a remote to control the music playback on the Sonos Network (and any associated music accounts).
There may be other systems doing this now, or workarounds that I'm unaware of.
bristolracer said:
I think they have lost their edge now, everyone is doing multiroom systems, the dominance of Alexa and Google as control platforms make Sonos look overpriced for a product than can be blown away by cheaper,more versatile competiton in most segments.
Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
"Alexa, pause" to the Sonos One in my home office when the phone rings is about the extent of voice control that I can be bothered with. App or windows controller is fine the rest of the time.Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
I like the speakers, I like how it works, just mildly disappointed that my old unit may be getting cut adrift soon when it seems to still work great.
If they're still fetching £150+ on ebay I might just do that and pick up a pair of the IKEA Sonos speakers to replace it.
Kewy said:
Lazadude said:
bristolracer said:
Multiroom voice control is the current thing, what else does Sonos bring to the party that nobody else has?
Their main strength is speaker/audio quality. Alexa's etc have rubbish actual sound quality, and other Bluetooth systems lose fidelity when you start spreading them around the house. The benefit of Sonos is that your smart device is literally acting as a remote to control the music playback on the Sonos Network (and any associated music accounts).
There may be other systems doing this now, or workarounds that I'm unaware of.
Bluetooth can carry stereo audio but the range is very limited.
Sonos's strong point for me are / were:
Perfectly synched multiroom audio
Convenience - having several CR100's around the house and garden meant music was played a lot more than it is now. Such a shame. A phone / tablet app is just not the same as having a dedicated device.
Sound quality - I've got ZP100s in my garage and den - with good Q acoustic speakers. They sound great.
I think my next step might be plugging Echo's into small amps.
RogerDodger said:
I think my next step might be plugging Echo's into small amps.
Since buying Echo's for our system and using alexa to control the speakers (now that they have sorted the preferred speaker setup), our system gets used more than ever.But I will be really angry if they effectively brick the units by making future updates necessary to access streaming services.
king typical, I've just installed a mint connect amp to power my balcony speakers. Quite why I'm not so sure when the Sonos app on my iPhone is so bloody useless.RogerDodger said:
It's more about they fact the are networked and act as one system, rather than how they network (Sonosnet or Wifi). Sonos pretty much push you towards wifi now as the main network, rather than Sonosnet - I guess they want to ditch it. Sonosnet was their way of linking all their devices before having home wifi was absolutely the norm (I bought into Sonos back then, as the start, and no home had wifi coverage much further than their Internet router - if they had one at all). Now we all have good coverage wifi, and sonosnet takes over where there isn't any.
Bluetooth can carry stereo audio but the range is very limited.
Sonos's strong point for me are / were:
Perfectly synched multiroom audio
Convenience - having several CR100's around the house and garden meant music was played a lot more than it is now. Such a shame. A phone / tablet app is just not the same as having a dedicated device.
Sound quality - I've got ZP100s in my garage and den - with good Q acoustic speakers. They sound great.
I think my next step might be plugging Echo's into small amps.
I'm not an overly techy person. But am I not right in saying that yes, you connect to Wifi and access your streaming services etc. through it – but Sonos still creates a closed network within your house (I'm calling it SonosNet), and all syncing and control of the speakers is done over that network? Bluetooth can carry stereo audio but the range is very limited.
Sonos's strong point for me are / were:
Perfectly synched multiroom audio
Convenience - having several CR100's around the house and garden meant music was played a lot more than it is now. Such a shame. A phone / tablet app is just not the same as having a dedicated device.
Sound quality - I've got ZP100s in my garage and den - with good Q acoustic speakers. They sound great.
I think my next step might be plugging Echo's into small amps.
It's been a while since I've had to tinker with mine as it's been setup nicely for a while now, but I remember when there were teething issues I had to change some network settings to get them to play nice and it was all relating to this 'closed' network. I also had to stick a speaker in a room between two other rooms to complete the network as there was a gap in the house and despite all being connected to Wifi, I kept getting drop outs.
Probably not explaining it great but makes sense in my head!
You used to need a Sonos Bridge or Boost for the special Sonos wifi mesh network, but they did away with that as a requirement years ago.
You can still use one to do that, or if you use a wired connection on one speaker it'll create a mesh network for the others to connect to. For most people though they just sit on their regular home wifi network.
You can still use one to do that, or if you use a wired connection on one speaker it'll create a mesh network for the others to connect to. For most people though they just sit on their regular home wifi network.
sjg said:
You used to need a Sonos Bridge or Boost for the special Sonos wifi mesh network, but they did away with that as a requirement years ago.
You can still use one to do that, or if you use a wired connection on one speaker it'll create a mesh network for the others to connect to. For most people though they just sit on their regular home wifi network.
This is what I'm thinking!You can still use one to do that, or if you use a wired connection on one speaker it'll create a mesh network for the others to connect to. For most people though they just sit on their regular home wifi network.
Why anyone wouldn't take advantage of the mesh network I don't know.
I have a Play:5 plugged directly into the router, then two Play:3's and three Play:1's that all connect wirelessly very nicely to that.
robbieduncan said:
When did they stop selling Connect:Amps? I’m sure they were until earlier this year. So these will have the best part of 5 years support from now. By then I would hope the new Amps are much cheaper on the second hand market
There are still some new ones for sale! There are no plans to brick any items of these items. It’s just a sales tactic.
They are just pushing for some sales and binning a load of working product, then telling everybody it’s a green initiative!
It’s just a sales initiative / marketing ploy.
Sonos have been a market leader and will continue I think. It just works so well and is great value for money. Their sales / marketing departments are pretty poor though.
Just don’t fall for the buy / trade in direct on the Sonos website trick, as you get only get a 2 year warranty, vs a 6 year from some retailers.
rix said:
I have a few Alexa devices and have never been able to multi room them with Spotify - seems like its only amazon music... am I missing something? (Sorry for the hijack!)
Apologies in advance if I misunderstood the question..I had to add my Spotify to Alexa, had to be Spotify Premium :-
Sonos refuse to play higher bit rate files or MQA when everyone else is.
Play from this phone no longer works, very annoying. I used that a lot.
Their connect amps and pre amp are no longer bit perfect, and worse than that they do automatic volume levelling.
This is a not good as they try and volume level all tracks on an album, however, many albums are meant to have quiet tracks and loud tracks. I listen to a lot of classical and film soundtracks and it is really annoying.
The sound from the connect is also really flat, very 2 dimensional.
Their support is crap.
I have had 2 Play 5s with a blown mid driver, they will not replace or sell you a part.
It is a £30 part, but they want you to buy a new unit with 20% off.
30% off to brink your unit is also crap, how is that 'recycling'?
Sure it would be better to say "If you have an older device, send us your serial and you can have 30% off any new product."
I would buy a new Play 5 if they offered that, the old one could get moved to the office or bathroom or something, bricking it after 30 days is silly.
However.....
At least all the streaming services work with Sonos, like Soundcloud, Mixcloud etc.
It is a proper casting device, you can start it playing and turn your phone off, I know many do this now, but many still do reply on Airplay and Bluetooth, which is not ideal.
I was hoping airplay 2 was going to be casting.
Play from this phone no longer works, very annoying. I used that a lot.
Their connect amps and pre amp are no longer bit perfect, and worse than that they do automatic volume levelling.
This is a not good as they try and volume level all tracks on an album, however, many albums are meant to have quiet tracks and loud tracks. I listen to a lot of classical and film soundtracks and it is really annoying.
The sound from the connect is also really flat, very 2 dimensional.
Their support is crap.
I have had 2 Play 5s with a blown mid driver, they will not replace or sell you a part.
It is a £30 part, but they want you to buy a new unit with 20% off.
30% off to brink your unit is also crap, how is that 'recycling'?
Sure it would be better to say "If you have an older device, send us your serial and you can have 30% off any new product."
I would buy a new Play 5 if they offered that, the old one could get moved to the office or bathroom or something, bricking it after 30 days is silly.
However.....
At least all the streaming services work with Sonos, like Soundcloud, Mixcloud etc.
It is a proper casting device, you can start it playing and turn your phone off, I know many do this now, but many still do reply on Airplay and Bluetooth, which is not ideal.
I was hoping airplay 2 was going to be casting.
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