Public service announcement: Do not buy Sonos!

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Public service announcement: Do not buy Sonos!

dafman

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#318098 14-Dec-2024 18:33

Ok, I am at my absolute wits end with Sonos.

The key problem with Sonos is that they control how you access their system. And when that access goes bad, like it has it recent months, you are stuck with expensive hardware kit that feels next to useless.

Several months ago, Sonos completely re-worked their app for accessing Sonos products. The old app was fine, the new app was a total mess. The user interface is a complete impenetrable mess. But that’s the least of it, as for months after the upgrade the app regularly failed to find my system on start up. Despite numerous updates, the app remains slow to load and is buggy. This afternoon, it failed to connect to any stations, so my entire system was useless.

A quick review of recent App Store reviews will confirm above.

I have five Sonos speakers so it will take some time to slowly replace them, but I am determined to do so.

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#3320603 14-Dec-2024 18:36

We have some of the gen1 Sonos stuff and it works great.
Not gonna get rid of it!

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

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Delorean

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#3320608 14-Dec-2024 19:32

Bose has recently updated its app as well, so now the newer products rely on it too. In fact, this is the third version of their app if you include the older SoundTouch system.

This is one of the key issues with SaaS-based products: they’re constantly tied to software updates and app functionality. Meanwhile, I still have my classic Bose 901 speakers and amp, along with some Mission speakers from the 80s and 90s. They continue to work flawlessly—no app, no updates, just great sound.

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Handle9

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#3320609 14-Dec-2024 19:45

It really depends how you use your Sonos gear. We have three of their Ikea speakers (basically a Play 1 in drag) and they are great and continue to work very well. We only ever use them with airplay or in the Spotify app so we don't use the Sonos app after setting them up.

eracode

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#3320622 14-Dec-2024 20:56

Historically there have been Sonos-haters here on GZ and I’m sure they’re still here. We have had Sonos gear for about 15 years and currently have two HT set-ups:

Arc, Sub and two Era 300s
Beam gen2, Sub and two Era 300s
Move

Their app went through that appallingly shite ‘from the ground up’ revamp earlier in the year - which could have sunk the company - probably nearly did. It’s surprising CEO Patrick Spence still has his job.

At that time I was really pissed off with them. However they have been working on fixes in successive app upgrades over recent months and it’s now good again. We have zero issues with all our gear - it works faultlessly day in, day out.

I don’t have any problems with the app and the frequent upgrades haven’t caused any issues.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

richms

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#3320632 14-Dec-2024 22:11

Could be worse. Could be like my LG music flow speakers where they just abandoned it.

Richard rich.ms

Handle9

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#3320643 14-Dec-2024 22:51

richms: Could be worse. Could be like my LG music flow speakers where they just abandoned it.

Yeah. That was garbage, much like the system. The speakers themselves were ok but LG just bailed on them.

I was very happy to sell mine.

eracode

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#3320651 15-Dec-2024 06:51

@dafman Given the wide disparity between your Sonos experience and other users' experiences, it raises the question of what speakers you have. At the risk of teaching you how to suck eggs, here’s a bit of back-story.

Sonos has been criticised for reducing support for some of their ‘legacy’ speakers that were produced 10+ years ago. They’re certainly not the only electronics company to do that - but that’s another story.

The original Sonos app was re-named S1 when they released their S2 app several years ago. Rather than completely abandoning the legacy speakers, they left S1 available to control legacy speakers - S2 was for newer speakers. It was S2 that was ‘rewritten from the ground up’ earlier this year. S1 is still available in app stores.

If you are trying to control legacy speakers with the current app, you’re bound to run into problems - but you haven’t said what speakers you have.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

cddt

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#3320669 15-Dec-2024 08:03

A little background: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/it-was-the-wrong-decision-employees-discuss-sonos-rushed-app-debacle/

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eracode

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#3320671 15-Dec-2024 08:21

cddt:

A little background: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/it-was-the-wrong-decision-employees-discuss-sonos-rushed-app-debacle/

I followed the app re-write debacle in close detail as it unfolded mid-year - even participated in their users' live blog 'ask us anything' event (which was totally hopeless). However when users were kicking up bobsy-die about it, I was pretty annoyed but actually experienced no real difficulty with the new app. It did look totally different to the old S2 - with a new UI - and it was not intuitive compared to S2. It was initially hard to use but on the whole it worked. There were some problems for power users and I suspect the outrage was from a highly-vocal minority.

Bear in mind that your linked story is three months old and, after countless updates, the new app is now fully functional. Now that I have got familiar with it, IMO it's great and I like it - it's now an improvement on S2.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Senecio

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#3320675 15-Dec-2024 08:50

The app rewrite was painful, but it was hardly a reason to abandon perfectly good hardware. It made it a bit more difficult to use their product but it still worked. Its continuing to improve but still has some way to go to get back to what it was.

gehenna

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#3320679 15-Dec-2024 09:23

I had a few bumps for a few weeks when the app was released, but stable and consistently reliable since the first or second of the version patches. As with most Sonos posts it's difficult to take a definitive position since everyone has such subjective experiences. That's why the default reply to most Sonos technical criticism online over the years starts with "it's your setup". Personally, I'm about to buy more Sonos (just the Sonos Port but it's still an addition), not reduce my footprint, and that's in context of all the issues that are described here and Reddit. I fully believe many people have had a very poor experience with the upgrade. What I'm not sure about is how well the environment was working for those folks before the upgrade, vs after.

Completely unrelated, I wonder how many orgs actually moved off Crowdstrike earlier this year...?

dafman

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#3320680 15-Dec-2024 09:36

eracode:

Historically there have been Sonos-haters here on GZ and I’m sure they’re still here.

Bit of an unnecessary troll this. Hardly a Sonos hater given I have purchased six Sonos speakers over the years. My historical experience has been good. Recent experience a nightmare, I’m simply sharing this.

eracode:

If you are trying to control legacy speakers with the current app, you’re bound to run into problems - but you haven’t said what speakers you have.

I have five current gen speakers and one legacy Play 5 which Sonos cut out off from the main app some years back. Now relegated to a garage speaker (I should have learnt my lesson back then, but sadly I gave Sonos the benefit of the doubt).

eracode:

Bear in mind that your linked story is three months old and, after countless updates, the new app is now fully functional. Now that I have got familiar with it, IMO it's great and I like it - it's now an improvement on S2

The new app is not fully functional. Yesterday, it failed to connect to any stations and the system was totally useless (per my initial post).

This morning, the speakers were playing, but the app said they weren’t. A restart of the app fixed that. Half an hour ago, the volume button disappeared on my partner’s app while she was trying to adjust it.

eracode

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#3320681 15-Dec-2024 09:38

dafman:

eracode:

Historically there have been Sonos-haters here on GZ and I’m sure they’re still here.

Bit of an unnecessary troll this. Hardly a Sonos hater given I have purchased six Sonos speakers over the years. My historical experience has been good. Recent experience a nightmare, I’m simply sharing this.

Not trolling - I was not referring to you at all - I did say 'historically'. I was half-expecting them to chime in as has happened in the past but haven't seen them yet. Most of the posts here have been supportive of Sonos.

Strange that most posters here say they have no current issues with the app or the hardware. It must be something specific to your set-up.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

dafman

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#3320684 15-Dec-2024 09:53

eracode:

Strange that many here say no current issues with the app or the hardware. It must be something specific to your set-up.

It’s great the app is working well for you, that’s not the universal experience; my experience matches countless of others online.

For eg. Take the most 20 recent App Store reviews as per today. 14 of the 20 are one star reviews.

cshwone

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#3320687 15-Dec-2024 10:12

Running a One, One SL, Connect and Roam without issue on the new app. It seems that experiences do vary!

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