Why I'm not buying Sonos again

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#2406525 25-Jan-2020 12:53

Leo Laporte : "I think in hindsight, it would be stupid to buy anymore Sonos gear".

😆

This all goes back to the whole 'buy a streaming component and add it to existing kit'.

Whether it's a HiFi, a home theatre, a micro system or even a defunct Sonos speaker.

Just like buying a 'smart TV' for streaming functionality vs an Apple TV or Roku...

alasta

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#2406529 25-Jan-2020 13:24

I am a Bose guy and have never used a Sonos product, but Bose has a similar problem emerging. Their legacy products are still available to purchase at clearance prices and rely on a platform called Soundtouch, while their new product range instead uses a different app called Bose music.

How long will Soundtouch continue to be supported? Bose are probably watching the Sonos situation with interest to see what they can get away with.

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread it is much more future proof to just buy products that support Airplay 2 rather than relying on apps that may have a limited lifespan. I believe Airplay 2 is supported on all of the new Bose products.

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#2406783 25-Jan-2020 16:42

Dunnersfella:
Leo Laporte : "I think in hindsight, it would be stupid to buy anymore Sonos gear".

😆

This all goes back to the whole 'buy a streaming component and add it to existing kit'.

Whether it's a HiFi, a home theatre, a micro system or even a defunct Sonos speaker.

Just like buying a 'smart TV' for streaming functionality vs an Apple TV or Roku...

The market clearly disagrees with you.

Sonos solved a problem that existed. They produced nice looking gear that sounded good, is very easy to use and worked reliably.

Most AV gear is a hot mess. Microsystems were probably the worst of all. Most of them were over priced plastic junk that sounded like crap. Where are the seperate systems that sound good (not amazing but good) and can work at a similar level of usability to Sonos?

mattwnz

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#2406787 25-Jan-2020 17:01

alasta:

I am a Bose guy and have never used a Sonos product, but Bose has a similar problem emerging. Their legacy products are still available to purchase at clearance prices and rely on a platform called Soundtouch, while their new product range instead uses a different app called Bose music.

How long will Soundtouch continue to be supported? Bose are probably watching the Sonos situation with interest to see what they can get away with.

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread it is much more future proof to just buy products that support Airplay 2 rather than relying on apps that may have a limited lifespan. I believe Airplay 2 is supported on all of the new Bose products.

IANAL. I would have thought the CGA would provide some protection, especially if people buy it for a certain reason, and they then remove that functionality.

richms

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#2406804 25-Jan-2020 17:35

Handle9: The market clearly disagrees with you.

Sonos solved a problem that existed. They produced nice looking gear that sounded good, is very easy to use and worked reliably.

Most AV gear is a hot mess. Microsystems were probably the worst of all. Most of them were over priced plastic junk that sounded like crap. Where are the seperate systems that sound good (not amazing but good) and can work at a similar level of usability to Sonos?

There are plenty of other standards for multiroom audio now, and with spotify connect its largly killed the need for sonos's own app to most people. Add on the voice assistant that you get with the echo and google products and you can see why sonos has to get moving on innovating. If the old products hold that back because of limited resources in them, then better to cut them loose and work on the more modern ones to get them competing with other offerings.

Right now what does sonos have that the big echo speakers, the big google home or even that big apple smart speaker dont have? I cant see anything.

Remember, sonos came from the era of a small local music collection on s NAS or similar and it playing from that, controlled by an app or a dedicated hardware remote that has long being discontinued. The old stuff should still do all that but that isnt what the market is wanting these days.

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Handle9

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#2406809 25-Jan-2020 18:10

richms:

Handle9: The market clearly disagrees with you.

Sonos solved a problem that existed. They produced nice looking gear that sounded good, is very easy to use and worked reliably.

Most AV gear is a hot mess. Microsystems were probably the worst of all. Most of them were over priced plastic junk that sounded like crap. Where are the seperate systems that sound good (not amazing but good) and can work at a similar level of usability to Sonos?

There are plenty of other standards for multiroom audio now, and with spotify connect its largly killed the need for sonos's own app to most people. Add on the voice assistant that you get with the echo and google products and you can see why sonos has to get moving on innovating. If the old products hold that back because of limited resources in them, then better to cut them loose and work on the more modern ones to get them competing with other offerings.

Right now what does sonos have that the big echo speakers, the big google home or even that big apple smart speaker dont have? I cant see anything.

Remember, sonos came from the era of a small local music collection on s NAS or similar and it playing from that, controlled by an app or a dedicated hardware remote that has long being discontinued. The old stuff should still do all that but that isnt what the market is wanting these days.

I'm not really sure what that has to do with my post. I was commenting on why most "normal" people would buy a Sonos (type) product (or indeed a smart TV) instead of buying a streaming device and connecting it to their audio gear.

Whether Sonos is the best in class any more is a somewhat different point.

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mattwnz

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#2406811 25-Jan-2020 18:24

I was interested in getting some of the apple Homepod speakers, but this thread has made me think again, because you have to put all this trust in a company that they will continue supporting it. I don't even know what functionality would be lost if they did stop supporting it. It seems anything that relies on remote software has a certain support life that often they will publish. Apple though do tend to be pretty good at supporting products for a long time, but I would expect speakers to last a lot longer than most devices.

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#2406901 25-Jan-2020 22:16

richms:

Right now what does sonos have that the big echo speakers, the big google home or even that big apple smart speaker dont have? I cant see anything.

Better audio quality.

dafman

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#2414223 7-Feb-2020 13:49

Sonos today emailed me asked for feedback. I gave them the following (I think they will get the message I remain unhappy):

"This will go down as defining moment in destroying a business. For 10 years I was avid fan of both your quality and service. And if you had released a new range of speakers with the caveat they will not work with old, that would have been fine. Instead, you are breaking up my existing network of connected speakers which I invested close on $4,000 to build up. Never again, I'm not going near a new Sonos product again."

mattwnz

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#2414276 7-Feb-2020 15:27

dafman:

Sonos today emailed me asked for feedback. I gave them the following (I think they will get the message I remain unhappy):

"This will go down as defining moment in destroying a business. For 10 years I was avid fan of both your quality and service. And if you had released a new range of speakers with the caveat they will not work with old, that would have been fine. Instead, you are breaking up my existing network of connected speakers which I invested close on $4,000 to build up. Never again, I'm not going near a new Sonos product again."

It doesn't seem to have affected their stock price https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sonos-tops-expectations-as-new-products-promotions-drive-strong-holiday-sales-2020-02-05

richms

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#2414277 7-Feb-2020 15:30

Did people by these connected devices and really expect them to last forever?

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mattwnz

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#2414289 7-Feb-2020 15:52

richms:

Did people by these connected devices and really expect them to last forever?

You are asking someone this question 10 years too late, which was when many were purhcased, which was around the time the time the original iphone and ipad came out. Back then this built in obsolesce wasn't an identified issue as much as it is today, and many buyers wouldn't have a clue. But even these days with devices like the amazon echo, they don't advertise that the product will only last until a certain year. I do wonder how long those devices are supposed to last for before they cease being able to communicate with the server.

Dunnersfella

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#2414373 7-Feb-2020 19:55

mattwnz:

dafman:

Sonos today emailed me asked for feedback. I gave them the following (I think they will get the message I remain unhappy):

"This will go down as defining moment in destroying a business. For 10 years I was avid fan of both your quality and service. And if you had released a new range of speakers with the caveat they will not work with old, that would have been fine. Instead, you are breaking up my existing network of connected speakers which I invested close on $4,000 to build up. Never again, I'm not going near a new Sonos product again."

It doesn't seem to have affected their stock price https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sonos-tops-expectations-as-new-products-promotions-drive-strong-holiday-sales-2020-02-05

The stock price will reflect their gain in sales / market share before any of these events transpired.

It will be interesting to see if sales continue to grow, but ultimately the thing that will change their projected growth with be the lawsuit vs Google.

dafman

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#2414688 8-Feb-2020 18:59

richms:

Did people by these connected devices and really expect them to last forever?

No, I never expected them to last forever.

But I did expect them to remain connected with each other until they failed. That, after all, was the whole point of difference with Sonos.

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#2414762 8-Feb-2020 22:20

dafman:

richms:

Did people by these connected devices and really expect them to last forever?

No, I never expected them to last forever.

But I did expect them to remain connected with each other until they failed. That, after all, was the whole point of difference with Sonos.

I thought they did keep working, but with no upgrades and may not be compatible with newer models. If that's whats happening then what you've got will keep working or have I misunderstood something?

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