SONOS Drops Support for Older Devices

[DonH56]

Just got an email from SONOS saying my older devices will no longer get updates. I have previously experienced problems when an update failed and even basic functionality (like uploading new songs to the library) was crippled until I updated the system. I have maybe a dozen speakers and other units (Connects, Bridge, etc.) around the house so several thousand dollars worth of old (yet perfectly-working) gear. They offer a 30% trade-in policy, which disables your old gear after 21 days (so much for passing it down to the kids, hello landfills), and would still cost me a lot of money. Plus they just raised prices 10-20% on a number of products. Most of the new features as far as I can tell revolve around Amazon integration and voice features I do not care about. I'm going to start looking for alternatives. SONOS has been great for what it is, but pricey, and this is probably the last straw for me.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article..._112709812&utm_content=copy-t2-readarticle_US

Grrrr - Don

 

[VMAT4]

Wish I had known/anticipated this kind of behavior on their part! Oh, well! I can Cromecast almost anything I would have streamed with either of my two Sonos Connects. But, those two are now worthless for all practical purposes. Those rat bastards!

 

[Soniclife]

It's this the first time they have cut off old devices?
I've come to the realisation that devices like this that don't have something like an analogue input I won't be buying, because no one wants to support their devices for more than a few years it seems. Expensive music steamers, no thanks, I'll use things like a Pi or Chromecast to get the bits.

 

[sergeauckland]

It's this the first time they have cut off old devices?
I've come to the realisation that devices like this that don't have something like an analogue input I won't be buying, because no one wants to support their devices for more than a few years it seems. Expensive music steamers, no thanks, I'll use things like a Pi or Chromecast to get the bits.

Which is why in large part, I've stuck to my Squeezebox Touch. The hardware has been discontinued, but the software is maintained by the Community.

I think it should be made illegal to discontinue support on older devices such that they stop working.

S

 

[q3cpma]

I may sound snarky, but this another lesson against proprietary software or simply software where it's not needed. A bit why I don't want to have anything to do with speakers with updatable firmware like the D&D or Genelec's SAM stuff; which is sad, since DSP based solutions are the future, allowing better crossovers and group delay reduction in the audible frequency range.

Those of us not using NSA compliant OSes like *BSD or GNU/Linux are used to this dance. Like Stallman and his colleagues who couldn't add a needed feature to the printer his workplace used even with all the combined good will and programming knowledge of the lab (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt), those companies never give source code (expected even if illogical, since you still have to buy their hardware) but never even give protocol specs that could enable someone to write a simple program for the platform they intentionally don't support.

 

[restorer-john]

Just got an email from SONOS saying my older devices will no longer get updates.

Don, time to go out to the shed, dust off that loyal and unloved CD player you banished to the colds of winter when you met those young and flirty Sonos things. Ask her if she wants to come inside and play music again with no strings attached, no updates and no bricking after a 21 day self destruct timer.

 

[Soniclife]

Which is why in large part, I've stuck to my Squeezebox Touch. The hardware has been discontinued, but the software is maintained by the Community.

It's possible something similar might happen here if they piss off the correct person who will do the work, probably not though.

 

[Soniclife]

I think it should be made illegal to discontinue support on older devices such that they stop working

Agreed, there certainly needs to be some clear legal guidance of minimum support length if there isn't already, it does not fit with the right to repair ethos.

 

[oldandintheway]

A Chromecast might not be the answer either. I recently bought a Topping D50s + Chromecast Audio (as recommended here) to add streaming to my existing stereo and liberate the music on my HP laptop (a modern i7). I like the D50s DAC, it seems to work well using a coax cable from my dvd/cd player. I was going to use it's Toslink input with the Chromecast. My issue is that Google requires you to install the Google Home app to setup the Chromecast and that app requires a modern iOS or Android device not a PC. My old iPad2 won't work, and anyway I am not wild about bringing the Google spying for marketers app thing onboard just to get the Chromecast to talk to the WiFi network. So now I am looking at doing something like an Allo streamer to pass music to the DAC, but that will drive the price up a couple of hundred dollars. Google is really intent on pushing the whole smart speaker/app/spying thing into peoples houses and cars. Fair enough I guess since they probably sold the Chromecast devices at a loss to get that entry. The Chromecast is only a bargain if you are willing to accept what comes with it. I'm not.

 

[RickSanchez]

Grrrr indeed. Like pretty much everyone I've got my share of planned obsolescence devices: iPhone, Denon AVR, etc. But this thread gives me even greater appreciation for my 40 year old Harman Kardon hk670 and my 50+ year old pair of KLH Model Six "coffin boxes". No software updates!

 

[dc655321]

Just got an email from SONOS saying my older devices will no longer get updates. I have previously experienced problems when an update failed and even basic functionality (like uploading new songs to the library) was crippled until I updated the system. I have maybe a dozen speakers and other units (Connects, Bridge, etc.) around the house so several thousand dollars worth of old (yet perfectly-working) gear. They offer a 30% trade-in policy, which disables your old gear after 21 days (so much for passing it down to the kids, hello landfills), and would still cost me a lot of money. Plus they just raised prices 10-20% on a number of products. Most of the new features as far as I can tell revolve around Amazon integration and voice features I do not care about. I'm going to start looking for alternatives. SONOS has been great for what it is, but pricey, and this is probably the last straw for me.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article..._112709812&utm_content=copy-t2-readarticle_US

Grrrr - Don

Grrrr, indeed.

Grrrr F**k! in fact...

Had this bit of news land in my inbox today too.
I have a pair of Play:5 and a Bridge that are now officially on there way to obsolescence.

Also have a Playbar, Sub, and pair of Play:1 speakers that better have some lifetime remaining.
After this announcement, I'm not very hopeful.
Could not care less about voice/non-music-service integration.

 

[sergeauckland]

Agreed, there certainly needs to be some clear legal guidance of minimum support length if there isn't already, it does not fit with the right to repair ethos.

20 years minimum would be my suggestion. I still have devices working perfectly well having been delivered with Win 95 drivers, albeit now are working on an XP laptop.

Considering that my main turntables and loudspeakers were made in 1985/6 and my whole study system in the mid 1970s and I have test equipment from the 1960s working fine, why does modern equipment stop working after only a few years? It really should be made illegal to do this. By all means being out new versions, but legacy equipment should not be bricked at any time.

S

 

[DonH56]

Don, time to go out to the shed, dust off that loyal and unloved CD player you banished to the colds of winter when you met those young and flirty Sonos things. Ask her if she wants to come inside and play music again with no strings attached, no updates and no bricking after a 21 day self destruct timer.

It's inside, sitting not far from me, an old Sony CDP-101 or something like that...

 

[VMAT4]

Which is why in large part, I've stuck to my Squeezebox Touch. The hardware has been discontinued, but the software is maintained by the Community.

I think it should be made illegal to discontinue support on older devices such that they stop working.

S

Maybe a law similar to the one which requires auto manufacturers to make replacement parts after a model is discontinued (for 5 years?)?

 

[DonH56]

I don't really need nor want to require them to continue support for legacy products well past their time. I just want them to not break them... If it would work like they say I'd be OK with it for now, but then if I buy a new product with gee-whiz new features I would not be able to use those features without buying all-new everything else. (You cannot update the system unless all devices are supported.) That is just sooo wrong. Then I look at the last few times I've done their updates and had limited functionality until everything was updated... Again, not just dropping support so the products won't have new features, but such that they won't even work with the old, is what bothers me.

Edit: @restorer-john -- It's actually a Sony CDP-620 ES II, think I got rid of the others. This one worked last time I tried it, after cleaning the motor and gears so it would spin up.

p.s. SONOS' forum is lit up with outraged customers, what a shock...

 

[restorer-john]

Edit: @restorer-john -- It's actually a Sony CDP-620 ES II, think I got rid of the others. This one worked last time I tried it, after cleaning the motor and gears so it would spin up.

Just give her a little TLC. Here's a nudie to remind you how well put together she is:

 

[pjug]

p.s. SONOS' forum is lit up with outraged customers, what a shock...

This looks like a disaster for Sonos. The Connect units designated as legacy are supposed to be manufactured before 2015 or something like that. But folks are reporting that they only just bought units from BestBuy or Amazon or wherever and received the email that their units are legacy ones.
Also, what BS that the Connect hardware had a major overhaul at some point with no labeling as a different product.

 

[ta240]

Ah, the modern world where 5 year old audio equipment is out of date and obsolete and 'legacy'. I've run into it with companies closing and suddenly being left with an electronic paperweight before.

This is the modern world where sometimes just because you own the hardware it doesn't mean you really own anything. We've gotten used to it with things like phones and even computers where the functionality and security drops over time even with updates but when we are used to audio equipment lasting for decades it is a lot harder to take.

Companies should, at the very least, have to be up front about how long they guarantee support for the products that require updates or connections to an online system to function. How many people would invest hundreds or thousands if the box had a label saying "After 4 years this item may stop working due to us dropping support of it"

I just hope the mysqueezebox.com site stays live

 

[DuxServit]

This is what happens when electronic devices depend on online/cloud services. As the service evolves, the hardware gets “impacted” (using Sonos’ term), that is the hardware gets obsoleted.

Sounds like the audio industry is catching-up on the PC industry strategies

 

[Pluto]

...I just want them to not break them...

I'm sure that such behaviour would be actionable, unless purchasers had accepted a license agreement that specifically stated that the equipment would cease to function at the end of its supported life.