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Sonos

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:57 pm
by watchpalooza
I have been a fan of Sonos for a number of years, and have owned and used a Play:5 + bridge for streaming music in our apartment, Aside from the oddly frequent software updates, I have been really satisfied with the system and performance. Now Sonos has announced that systems like mine will no longer support software updates, and will at some indeterminate point cease to function altogether...not because the system is defective or end of life, just to force upgrade. They offer a trade-in for 30% off new components, but I am petty unhappy with the forced upgrade and that my perfectly fine components will not longer be usable. Anyone else have this issue?

Re: Sonos

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:44 pm
by MoT
No...

...but only because I've always thought Sonos fell in to the Bose camp; Adequate equipment with slick advertising sold at a price point contrary to the actual quality of said product.

(Full disclosure: In a past life I sold Bose, and for the sake of brevity, the company is.... scummy.)

As for forced obsolescence, it's abhorrent. If the product still works, why abandon it? Profit is the motivator, sure, but perhaps a nominal fee for software upgrades would be more palatable.

Re: Sonos

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:48 pm
by watchpalooza
ManOnTime wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:44 pm No...

...but only because I've always thought Sonos fell in to the Bose camp; Adequate equipment with slick advertising sold at a price point contrary to the actual quality of said product.

(Full disclosure: In a past life I sold Bose, and for the sake of brevity, the company is.... scummy.)
Totally agree re Bose, and will never buy one.

Re: Sonos

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:58 pm
by Robotaz
I have some SoundTouch speakers just because they’re simple. The sound sucks. I like being able to have three of them going in different rooms at Thanksgiving and stuff like that.

I’m waiting for someone to have Dolby Atmos wireless rear channels. It may exist finally but recently I was still SOL. The head unit has to play thru WiFi and I haven’t seen the hardware yet. Anyone?

Re: Sonos

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:08 pm
by Bbrou33
I've always been a fan of Sonos but never personally owned any. Figure as long as I live in a tiny NYC apartment, anything other than the sound bar doesn't make sense for me right now.
My brother however has the sound bar, woofer, and a few others and he's happy with it.
I think the forced phase out is pretty ****. Possibly enough backlash will be given to where that doesn't happen.
I can see no more software updates but to have the system be completely useless is mind blowing

Let's be Instagram friends @bbrou33


Re: Sonos

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:05 pm
by deckeda
To make things even weirder, I heard that if you take the offer of the upgrade, part of the terms are that they send a kill code and BRICK your old gear. That's how the "trade-in" works. You keep it and dispose of it.

There was also some speculation that because of their lawsuit with Google or whomever, that killing off the old gear was the most palatable outcome for them rather than supporting it (if they even could).

Re: Sonos

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 11:23 pm
by watchpalooza
It is true that they require use of a kill code before issuing the discount fro trade-in. Even worse, they are selective about what you can trade in. So I have a bridge and a speaker and both are now obsolete...but they have excluded the Bridge from trade-in. So even with trade-in, I have to purchase a new bridge at full price.

Re: Sonos

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:33 pm
by Robotaz
Are Sonos speakers just WiFi speakers with A/C plugs? Any tuning or is it all from apps?

Re: Sonos

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:50 pm
by watchpalooza
Robotaz wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:33 pm Are Sonos speakers just WiFi speakers with A/C plugs? Any tuning or is it all from apps?
Essentially, yes. Back in the day they were the only high-quality wireless system. The components are modular and allow independence or grouping to create independent play zones. So you can play the same thing across the entire system, or play different things in each room or zone. They include a native web server with access to many streaming services as well as native clients for Plex, itunes and DLNA. Tuning is all done via apps.