Sonos end of life?

Author
Discussion

gizlaroc

17,251 posts

225 months

Monday 11th November 2019
quotequote all
Oh, and some of the users on their forum are just fking idiots.


Jgatie and a few others.

Total fan boys, tell people that a pair of play 5s is as good as any hifi at any price, start being proper smarmy tts when we were discussing the volume levelling issue, they make me want to ditch Sonos more than anything else.

twokcc

832 posts

178 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
sjg said:
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.
First time ever agreed to auto app software update going to have a look at how to reverse that if its going to brick some of the gear
Also getting e-mail for 30% discount for "Boost" to replace "Bridge". but its still £70(after 30% discount) against the £30 for a bridge
Really like the kit and extended house coverage over last 5 years but won't be adding to system until its clear where development is going

Miserablegit

4,024 posts

110 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
I’ve moved on from Sonos as a result of this enforced obsolescence and I’d advise anyone looking to buy to do so with eyes open.
When I first bought a Sonos system about 12 years ago they were the best at what they did at the price point. Entry was about £800 for controller and a ZP.
Set up did not require a Sonos account and a new player could be added without internet connectivity. Since they arrived others have got in on the act and offer higher resolution options.
When Sonos moved to the requirement to sign up to a Sonos account and then required internet connectivity for adding every new player they were building the platform for enforced obsolescence. The Sonos system has got no better over the years and there has been no good reason to remotely bork hardware. It’s not a very environmentally sound way of running a business either.
I’ve got a play 3, play 5, three connects and five play ones but will buy no more as I’ve got CR100s controlling them all.

Since having to move to other providers as Sonos’ usp ( the controller) was removed I’ve enjoyed the benefit of playing higher resolution tracks on Yamaha and Pioneer boxes.

Red 5

1,058 posts

181 months

Tuesday 12th November 2019
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
I’ve moved on from Sonos as a result of this enforced obsolescence and I’d advise anyone looking to buy to do so with eyes open.
When I first bought a Sonos system about 12 years ago they were the best at what they did at the price point. Entry was about £800 for controller and a ZP.
Set up did not require a Sonos account and a new player could be added without internet connectivity. Since they arrived others have got in on the act and offer higher resolution options.
When Sonos moved to the requirement to sign up to a Sonos account and then required internet connectivity for adding every new player they were building the platform for enforced obsolescence. The Sonos system has got no better over the years and there has been no good reason to remotely bork hardware. It’s not a very environmentally sound way of running a business either.
I’ve got a play 3, play 5, three connects and five play ones but will buy no more as I’ve got CR100s controlling them all.

Since having to move to other providers as Sonos’ usp ( the controller) was removed I’ve enjoyed the benefit of playing higher resolution tracks on Yamaha and Pioneer boxes.
When Sonos was first launched, it could play music files from your computer to multiple rooms over their mesh, which required the first actual player to be hard wired.
That was it really.

They had a CR100 as there was no such thing as apps, or smart phones/tablets that could do the job.
The app was naturally developed far beyond the capabilities of the CR100 though. It could never have kept up with the relentless march of tech over over a decade!

I don’t know many other touch screen devices of that age that are still able to cope with updates at that age.

Sonos (for all their faults) have lead the way in developing multi-room, multi source systems.
The fact they still dominate 15years later is amazing!
The competition have been left breathless trying to bring out competing products, let alone better overall mainstream systems!

Almost every single thing about the products and systems has improved beyond any reasonable bounds. They are doing exactly what they set out to do and make product better than 95% of homes need.


There is no obsolescence, be it planned or otherwise.



Miserablegit

4,024 posts

110 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
I’m not sure how the development of the app should impact the working of a dedicated controller.
The system was always able to access streaming sources and I used Amazon music for a while until an update removed that capability from the cr100.
Apart from voice activation via Alexa I’m not sure of what “improvements” were made over the years apart from adding new streaming choices.
My experience of voice control was that it was flaky and would only operate on streaming services rather than from a home NAS.

Sonos’ original BS excuse was a fire risk from the old batteries which was quickly retracted by them. A number of. Cr100 owners disassembled cr100s to show they contained the same internals as the zone players save they had less memory as they didn’t need to decode the music.

There was ultimately no reason other than Sonos wanting to streamline its offering prior to the float. It was anticipated then that Sonos would start to do the same with the original zone players / amps.

When people have invested a lot of money in a system they expect it to continue to work. To avoid borkage I’ve had to ringfence my system.

As far as the competition goes I think they have overtaken Sonos in the last 5 years. The usp of a wAterproof controller kept people with Sonos when others offered higher resolution playback. Now that is gone Sonos is behind the curve at present with Yamaha offering a higher resolution alternative to name one.
I just thought it was worth letting people know what might happen to Sonos. For people who upgrade every few years or don’t have an extensive system this isn’t an issue.
I tend to buy good equipment and keep it. I’ve still got a revox b77 that works and sounds wonderful. Revox made some wonderful compact cassette decks but didn’t go around chopping the plugs off people’s b77s.

Also, in full knowledge that I’m repeating myself, I think it is not acceptable in this day and age to remotely bork a working item - if Sonos are keen to get people to upgrade they should put in place a system to recycle/ repurpose the old equipment such as the zone players . These things will end up in landfill.



Edited by Miserablegit on Wednesday 13th November 07:02

Red 5

1,058 posts

181 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
I think it is not acceptable in this day and age to remotely bork a working item - if Sonos are keen to get people to upgrade they should put in place a system to recycle/ repurpose the old equipment such as the zone players . These things will end up in landfill.
Edited by Miserablegit on Wednesday 13th November 07:02
Totally agree. The more people tell me about their ‘Green Initiative’ the more I have a tendency to believe it’s anything but.
This is just pointless scrappage of working gear. The opposite of green isn’t it!

pidsy

8,008 posts

158 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
quotequote all
Sonos stopping playback from Apple devices meant I had to either buy a NAS and set that up too or get rid and go to a different system.

Sold all my Sonos gear on eBay.

sybaseian

1,826 posts

276 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
quotequote all
pidsy said:
Sonos stopping playback from Apple devices meant I had to either buy a NAS and set that up too or get rid and go to a different system.

Sold all my Sonos gear on eBay.
You can stream via airplay2

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1230?language=...


pidsy

8,008 posts

158 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
quotequote all
sybaseian said:
pidsy said:
Sonos stopping playback from Apple devices meant I had to either buy a NAS and set that up too or get rid and go to a different system.

Sold all my Sonos gear on eBay.
You can stream via airplay2

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1230?language=...
That’s fine for Apple Music or Spotify streaming etc but the functionality for playing your own stored files in your library has been removed.
There’s been quite a lot of upset about it within the “community” Various Americans talking about class action lawsuits etc.

Library streaming had been twitchy for a long time but Sonos never got to grips with a fix and Apple seemed to be skirting round the issue whilst plugging their own system.

gizlaroc

17,251 posts

225 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
I agree.

I have been ditching my Sonos as I used to play from my phone every day.

The fact is, that is one of the reasons I went with Sonos, for me I get sent mixes daily, I oput them on my phone and then when I get back I used to listen to them for an hour or two.
I would delete most of it that night and do the same the next day.

These are not mixes on soundcloud or anywhere else.

Sonos simply saying it was not main feature will get their fingers burnt. They can't decide what a main feature is, only the person using the kit can make that decision.

When I bought into Sonos they were making a very big thing about playing direct from your ios device. It was what got me to buy a couple of Play 5's, 2 connects and an amp.



pidsy

8,008 posts

158 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
gizlaroc said:
I agree.

I have been ditching my Sonos as I used to play from my phone every day.

The fact is, that is one of the reasons I went with Sonos, for me I get sent mixes daily, I oput them on my phone and then when I get back I used to listen to them for an hour or two.
I would delete most of it that night and do the same the next day.

These are not mixes on soundcloud or anywhere else.

Sonos simply saying it was not main feature will get their fingers burnt. They can't decide what a main feature is, only the person using the kit can make that decision.

When I bought into Sonos they were making a very big thing about playing direct from your ios device. It was what got me to buy a couple of Play 5's, 2 connects and an amp.
yes



mikeiow

5,390 posts

131 months

Saturday 25th January 2020
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
I’ve moved on from Sonos as a result of this enforced obsolescence and I’d advise anyone looking to buy to do so with eyes open.
When I first bought a Sonos system about 12 years ago they were the best at what they did at the price point. Entry was about £800 for controller and a ZP.
Set up did not require a Sonos account and a new player could be added without internet connectivity. Since they arrived others have got in on the act and offer higher resolution options.
When Sonos moved to the requirement to sign up to a Sonos account and then required internet connectivity for adding every new player they were building the platform for enforced obsolescence. The Sonos system has got no better over the years and there has been no good reason to remotely bork hardware. It’s not a very environmentally sound way of running a business either.
I’ve got a play 3, play 5, three connects and five play ones but will buy no more as I’ve got CR100s controlling them all.

Since having to move to other providers as Sonos’ usp ( the controller) was removed I’ve enjoyed the benefit of playing higher resolution tracks on Yamaha and Pioneer boxes.
I’ve just had an email from Sonos admitting their May obsolescence for some kit was wrong, & pledging to work to ensure if older kit cannot keep up with their development work or services, they will work to have it coexist.
Quite a result for the owning community (or fanbois if you prefer!)

I’m genuinely curious though: what have you “moved on” to that offers the same multi room experience?

page3

4,922 posts

252 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
gizlaroc said:
Oh, and some of the users on their forum are just fking idiots.


Jgatie and a few others.

Total fan boys, tell people that a pair of play 5s is as good as any hifi at any price, start being proper smarmy tts when we were discussing the volume levelling issue, they make me want to ditch Sonos more than anything else.
I'm a long time Sonos user, although ditching their stuff slowly as their App gets worse and worse.

Anyway, I’ve always found their forum to be one of the most unpleasant on the internet. Nothing bad can ever be said of Sonos. Every retrograde step is always for our own good.

NDA

21,627 posts

226 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
page3 said:
I’ve always found their forum to be one of the most unpleasant on the internet. Nothing bad can ever be said of Sonos. Every retrograde step is always for our own good.
It's quite anti Sonos on there at the moment.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-22898...

anonymous-user

55 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
mikeiow said:
I’m genuinely curious though: what have you “moved on” to that offers the same multi room experience?
I’d be interested to know as well.

NDA

21,627 posts

226 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
garyhun said:
mikeiow said:
I’m genuinely curious though: what have you “moved on” to that offers the same multi room experience?
I’d be interested to know as well.
Apple's AirPlay is multi room... perhaps it's this?

robbieduncan

1,981 posts

237 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
NDA said:
garyhun said:
mikeiow said:
I’m genuinely curious though: what have you “moved on” to that offers the same multi room experience?
I’d be interested to know as well.
Apple's AirPlay is multi room... perhaps it's this?
That’s a very different model. With AirPlay your phone or iPad is doing the playback and sending it to the speakers: if you leave the music stops. With Sonos it’s the amps/speakers themselves so it’s totally independent of the device that requests playback.

NDA

21,627 posts

226 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
robbieduncan said:
That’s a very different model. With AirPlay your phone or iPad is doing the playback and sending it to the speakers: if you leave the music stops. With Sonos it’s the amps/speakers themselves so it’s totally independent of the device that requests playback.
True - but you can have multi room playback if that's your thing.

I had multiple zones with Sonos, but hardly ever used the multi room capability. I say 'had' as I am in the process of moving away from Sonos - there are better sounding wireless alternatives.

gizlaroc

17,251 posts

225 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
NDA said:
It's quite anti Sonos on there at the moment.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-22898...
I bet that oxygen thief Jagitate is still telling everyone "you're wrong! Your opinion is wrong!"


Edited by gizlaroc on Sunday 26th January 10:50

anonymous-user

55 months

Sunday 26th January 2020
quotequote all
gizlaroc said:
NDA said:
It's quite anti Sonos on there at the moment.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-22898...
I bet that oxygen thief Jagitate is still telling everyone "you're opinion is wrong!"
I may have to take a peak later, just for fun smile