SONOS speaker and devices

S

Studio488commercial

Suspended / Banned
Messages
695
Edit My Images
No
Be very careful if you in the market for some speakers, SONOS have seriously lost the plot. They have stated that items they deem as legacy, some from 2011, will no longer receive support or updates, now that is fine you can live without updates, however if you add a NEW device to your old system then that will also not get updates as they all need to be on the same software. The company has basically pressed the self destruct button.

You can buy replacement products for your old stuff at 30% discount however once you take them up on you offer your old device is software bricked, it cannot be used and is killed by them, killing perfectly good hardware to sell you new stuff WOW !
 
Yeah I got that email today. The most concerning bit was that all devices on a network must run the same version. So if you have a dozen brand new devices and one "legacy" they will all be prevented from getting updates.

As for the software bricking - they are getting a lot of negative press about this for environmental reasons. It wouldn't surprise me if they rethink soon. It's unlikely I'll ever buy anything else from them.

Mind you, I can't remember the last time Sonos had a useful software update.....
 
JonathanRyan said:
Yeah I got that email today. The most concerning bit was that all devices on a network must run the same version. So if you have a dozen brand new devices and one "legacy" they will all be prevented from getting updates.

As for the software bricking - they are getting a lot of negative press about this for environmental reasons. It wouldn't surprise me if they rethink soon. It's unlikely I'll ever buy anything else from them.

Mind you, I can't remember the last time Sonos had a useful software update.....
Click to expand...

we are waiting for an answer to what happens when you add a new device with new software to a network with a legacy device on it !! (my mate owns a home automation company and is waiting for his Sonos rep to confirm the details)

At this moment I cannot see how the company will get through this mess !
 
This is not the first time this has come up in connection with Sonos.
 
This is worse than planned obsolescence. It's forced obsolescence. Speakers can work perfectly well for decades. I suppose it's like fixed-lens digital cameras (eg. Fuji x100), the lens and body are perfectly good, but the digital guts are out of date. I've heard this called digital rot.

But from software testing point of view, requiring all kit on the same version is a pretty standard requirement. Allowing old versions will exponentially increase amount of testing required.
 
wuyanxu said:
But from software testing point of view, requiring all kit on the same version is a pretty standard requirement. Allowing old versions will exponentially increase amount of testing required.
Click to expand...

Whilst that's true, I don't think Sonos have ever made more than a dozen devices. If they have, it's not more than 2 dozen. Certainly they would all fit on a decent sized desk and with automated testing wouldn't add more than a day to their test cycles.

Even Apple (who physically limit what OS you can put on older devices) don't try the "oh you want to buy a new box? You'll have to destroy your old one to make it work" trick.
 
Hardly likely to endear them to the buying public
I looked at and listened to some of their range, wasn't impressed anyway.
Ended up buying speakers from Kanto, their customer service is the complete opposite to Sonos
 
I got hold of some Sonos stuff a while ago second hand, I used it for a while then sold it on. I quite liked it but it was the software that for me let it down and the Sonos mentality of our way is the best, good luck to them on this venture. personally I suspect the reason they are doing this is because there hardware is quite good and they have simply reached a point where Sonos users are not buying new kit, also heavy competition from other big brans.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Glad i never bought any!
Click to expand...
Me too. Happy to use my Bose Wave as my soundbar as well and use the Bose soundlink for my computer and around the house. Simple quality sounds.
 
munch said:
Me too. Happy to use my Bose Wave as my soundbar as well and use the Bose soundlink for my computer and around the house. Simple quality sounds.
Click to expand...

I still have an old school HiFi system and Alexa (Amazon echo). Which cost peanuts compared to the Sonos.
 
To be fair to Sonos, when everybody else was struggling to make a multi room streaming system they made one that worked straight out of the box. Even adding a new second hand speaker to my system took 5 minutes. They had smart processing so there was no delay between devices and even added stuff to tune the sound to your room.

But now lots of people can make multi room work well enough (even Alexa can do it after a fashion). They are competing in a crowded marketplace and are relatively expensive. With all that in mind, it's bizarre (and possibly an indication of desperation) that they are now looking to alienate their customers in this way. A few weeks ago I thought "I really must sell my Sonos kit as I don't use some of it much - but it still works great. I bet it's worth a few quid.". Today it's worthless. Cheers Sonos - it's been fun but.....goodbye.
 
Two crazy almost spiteful decisions, from a company that is clearly showing contempt towards it's loyal customer base. If they were the only player in the market they might have got away with it but there are plenty of others ......
 
I have a mixture of their devices, don't see the issue. They'll still continue to work.
 
I'm surprised Sonos didn't make speakers upgradable. You keep the speaker cones themselves but have a removable module that can be upgraded to the latest technology. It would have been cheaper but perhaps less profitable.

As it stands, I bought a Sonos Beam during the Black Friday sales. It's really only used as a soundbar for the TV, so as long as it does that, I'm not bothered about wifi connectivity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top