Hard to think of a similar scheme to Sonos to be honest.

Probably the car scrappage scheme was close, but I appreciate that was to help out the car industry by getting people to buy new cars get polluting cars off the road.

The IKea speakers are just Sonos, so you’re supporting exactly the same company thats just screwed you over, if that worries you.

Its a bad doo this imo.

Sonos used to be proud that all its old kit was still in use. Last time i tried to use it it needed to upgrade and couldnt. I couldnt use it at that point. I had to re connect all my speakers via cable to the router and then update each individualy.

Sold it all and bought google home max speakers. No where near as good and i dont think they will be supported a long but there a lot cheaper and do the job.

For me I guess it hinges on what happens after May. If I can still play off my home server, Spotify, Pocketcasts and TuneIn then I don’t really care, I’ll keep on using it.

As I read it, if everything on your sonos network is legacy (i.e. in your case you only are using the ZP100, or you are someone with one or more gen1 Play5s and nothing else) then everything will continue to work exactly the same as it does today. It won’t receive any updates after May, but it will still continue to work.

15 years of support is a good run

This. I’m not sure I can think of any other software driven item that receives that length of official support – certainly not phones, TVs or PCs.
Obvs… I might be wrong though.

I’ve 5 Sonos units , won’t be buying anymore after this.
Was already sick of the constant updates , sound quality nowhere near as good as my proper hifi gear .
Good luck to sonos

If they keep working why is it an issue? Security??? Not sure why my Sonos needs security anyway? As long as it can access my music library and Spotify I’m not sure it really matters.
Also ref sound quality – this depends on what speakers you use. Pair a Sonos Amp with some decent quality speakers and they compare very favourably to similarly priced separate amps. Please don’t expect to buy a single little Play 1 or something and then compare it to an audio separates system. For what they are they sound great.

Connect Amps are in the legacy list not just the older ZP80!

Ah I’d missed that it included the Amps, I don’t have any.

I presume that everything will carry on working as normal after May until one of the services updates and breaks, and that one won’t get fixed.

And I agree with @andylc – sound quality for the Connect & Connect Amp is great if you hook it up to decent speakers or amp. And my various Play 1s are great for other rooms.

I guess I’ll be a bit more annoyed once my 5 Play 1s stop working.

On the plus side I’ve just checked and have an old controller that hasn’t been plugged in for over a year, apparently “recycling” that will get me a 30% discount on anything too, so I can keep the old Connect working if I want.

I guess it’s not just security updates but updates to keep integration with Spotify, BBC etc. working. I like the idea posted somewhere above about a cheap bridge/connect type product which gets replaced now and then but you get to keep your more expensive speakers. That’s probably what I’ll look into if/when my Sonos Connect and Play5 stop working although I guess my Play1s will keep working a bit longer although I think I’d need a new Sonos Connect.

Sonos have botched the announcement of this for sure. So much confusion and misinformation, seems to be people (not necessarily here) that are convinced their devices are going to be bricked, which is total nonsense. They have also now stated in response to some of the criticism that they are working on a way to separate out systems so your newer speakers can still be updated, but it’s kinda too late as complaints have already started to snowball.

Personally not entirely sure it’s a huge deal, devices will still work as they do right now. Everyone feeling smug that their 40 year old hifi still works, well a 40 year old Sonos may well still work, it just won’t be getting any software updates. Did your 40 year old hifi get upgraded to the latest technology for 10 years after you bought it? Probably not.
Seems akin to complaining that introduction of tape decks/CD’s/mini disc/MP3 was terrible because it was not backwards compatible with any other music format.

Yes, the point where it’s a problem is if a new streaming service comes along that you want to use, or if a streaming service changes something like the BBC did a while ago. Sonos roll the changes into an update that they push out, but only if your active units are all supported.

30% offer is pretty generous but I wonder for how long they will offer it? Would be worth over a grand of discount to me if I upgrade my entire system.

Did your 40 year old hifi get upgraded to the latest technology for 10 years after you bought it? Probably not.
Seems akin to complaining that introduction of tape decks/CD’s/mini disc/MP3 was terrible because it was not backwards compatible with any other music format.

That reasoning is a bit of a stretch. In a way all the new formats were backwards compatible as you could just buy a new separate and plug it into your amp. My 1990 Technics amp has a turntable, tape player, CD player and wireless module plugged into it!

And the manufacturer doesn’t have any control over how it works once I’ve bought it, it’s all easily fixable and sounds better.

it’s all easily fixable and sounds better.

Sounds better than what?

I bet my Sonos Connect sounds just as good as any other source you have plugged in to your amp?

I guess it’s not just security updates but updates to keep integration with Spotify, BBC etc.

But there’s nothing in those that would need hardware beyond what a Connect has – they’ve worked and continue to work fine right now. And the spec gap between a Connect and a Play:1/ Play:3 isn’t large – so will they be next on the chopping block?

And the spec gap between a Connect and a Play:1/ Play:3 isn’t large – so will they be next on the chopping block?

Play3…. maybe (I’ve got one and can’t decide what to do with it)

Play1…. Seeing as Sonos still sell them new, and they say they’ll support products for at least 10 years, then I doubt it. I would imagine there’s vastly more Play1’s in the world than Play5s or Connect Amps. It would be a massive deal to mess with that…. but who knows?

Anyway…. if anyone wants to sell their Connect Amp before it explodes…. then I may be interested 🙂

Personally not entirely sure it’s a huge deal, devices will still work as they do right now.

mine didnt. wouldnt work without an update.

Play3 will be next

Pretty smart (from the Sonos community)
“I froze my system in August 2018 at version 9.1, blocked the update server on my router so don’t get any reminders about updates.

It’s been working fine ever since, in fact it’s been very reliable, especially not having to continually update and then try and find all the speakers again.”

mine didnt. wouldnt work without an update.

Is this because the app saw that an update was available and wouldn’t continue to work until the update had been applied, in which case…

Just make sure that at least one legacy product is powered on and visible in the controller app at all times. Then Sonos will not apply any update to any part of your system.

…the app will not see that an update is available … so it should all still work!

Sonos are getting an immense amount of shit for this announcement – I suspect things might change.

too late for me moved to google 🙁

I bet my Sonos Connect sounds just as good as any other source you have plugged in to your amp?

Not when they decide they want you to buy the latest shiny toy and switch off support for it.

Evan’s fairly regularly have them, pretty sure there’s not a stream of refurbished bikes being given to worthy causes as a result.

@thisisnotaspoon – do you have any inside knowledge of that (re. “pretty sure”) – it directly contradicts what Evans say about it on their website, so it’s a bit of a scandal if they claim they’re all going to charity and they’re not. Not that such shenanigans from Mike Ashley would shock anyone.

On the Sonos “bricking” thing, my concern isn’t so much the individual loss of a potential resale, but the global impact of deliberately turning perfectly functional electronics (with those rare earth elements dug out of holes in the African ground in appalling conditions etc) into landfill. Not what we (as a species) should be doing, regardless of who makes or loses some £s along the way.

what i dont understand is why done they send them back and sell them refurbed?

andybrad

Subscriber

what i dont understand is why done they send them back and sell them refurbed?

Probably because it’s costing too much to maintain the old software/servers and a rewrite to modern standards would cost too much.

Often wonder whether I’m missing a trick by sticking with my 20 year old seperates hi fi ( with bluetooth dongle attachment for streaming) rather than using a sonos type system, this news suggests I am not! ill stick with my old rig for now

Play1…. Seeing as Sonos still sell them new

Not sure about this – I think it’s been superseded by the new One and OneSL, which are voice activated. Certainly Sonos seemed to be selling off original Play:1s cheap before Christmas

Sonos have close their own comments pages after 56 pages

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-updates-for-legacy-products-6835470/index56.html

Bought my last product (5, 3, 2X old 1 and a Connect). Will they offer trade in for a Naim?

I’m not convinced it will all legacy stuff continue to work as it does now either.
At some point you’ll get a new phone OS that they’ll drop support for.
So it will only stay working as long as you keep the same software environment throughout the chain.

Having seen the updated clarifications thread on Sonos Forums things look a bit brighter (from my point of view). Looks like you will still be able to run the old speakers, albeit at some point it is likely the streaming services will gradually drop off. I suspect much of that will be outwith Sonos control.
Some good suggestions above for when that happens..thanks for the replies @Sandwich and @tartanscarf

It’s made the BBC tech section today ,

Major S##t storm on bbc Twitter etc
Thousands of Sonos customers far from happy 😃

I’m glad this seems to be getting more sensible. I’m already a bit unhappy with Sonos and Connect/Amp products. Just had to replace a ZP80 as the memory board had so many bad blocks that it couldn’t cope and kept cutting out. When I innocently asked if this could be rectified by replacing the memory, I was effectively told to not be so silly and be grateful my connector has worked for 9 years. Hmm. What a waste of components for want of £20 worth of memory.

Anyhoo, on streaming, can you not stream whatever you like to any Sonos speaker using Google home on your phone? All of my speakers come up as available audio devices in the Google home app. Never tried to stream to them (no point as there is the Sonos app) but it looks like it should work.

If you don’t mind getting slightly geeky, you already have some decent hifi equipment and you fancy streaming stuff.

Raspberry pi or pi zero
Justboom DAC / amp or justboom zero amp/DAC.

Install Picoreplayer/LMS

Gives you Spotify Connect, Airplay, Tidal, Multiroom sync etc etc.

https://www.picoreplayer.org/pcp_feature.shtml

Other solutions on the same Hardware such as Volumio are available.

Multiple Sonos device owner here, none of which are impacted by this announcement

However, this is commercial suicide for them. It will kill sales going forward.

I can see them heavily revising and rolling back on the message and support issues

This is totally foreseeable, and so Sonos must have known about it at the design stage. Planned obsolescence has been their strategy from the outset. They want people to buy new products, not keep them forever.

A truly future proof system could have all the CPU and other WiFi gubbins as a replaceable module in each Sonos unit, which can be easily swapped out when it gets too old (either by the owner or specialist). A bit too late to suggest that…

The consumer rage they’ve stirred up will force them to find a solution. I suspect sending them back for a refurb will be the only way. Which people still won’t be happy with if it’s not free.

What a mess!

A disappointing announcement from Sonos for sure.

Even loyal buyers will think twice about buying future Sonos products if they go through with this.

A lot of calls to boycott Sonos on twitter so I’m hoping they will change their plans and support all products in their range. How hard can it be to do different updates for older speakers?

I thought deliberately bricking products was something only Apple did.

I’ll wait and see how Sonos handles this before I decide what to do.

does this tie in with their google lawsuit i wonder?

I have a play5 and 1, was not pleased to read about this, as they were expensive items (for us) to buy. Our ageing surround sound system (10+ years old) works fine but I want to replace with somethingmore modern and I’ve been trying to justify the huge cost of a sonos system (bar, sub, play1s). Will not being doing that now, if I fork out for premium kit, I expect premium support.

petefromearth

This is totally foreseeable, and so Sonos must have known about it at the design stage. Planned obsolescence has been their strategy from the outset. They want people to buy new products, not keep them forever.

A truly future proof system could have all the CPU and other WiFi gubbins as a replaceable module in each Sonos unit, which can be easily swapped out when it gets too old (either by the owner or specialist). A bit too late to suggest that…

I started writing pretty much this exact post yesterday, but gave up finishing it, as I don’t actually own any Sonos kit & couldn’t be arsed to comment.
It’s a real shame, not just with Sonos but with kit like this in general that the vast majority of the product will still function perfectly well, but has reached the end of a supportable life & so the whole thing gets ditched. A replaceable module for the part that is known to go obsolete would be a much more environmentally responsibly way to do this, but I am not sure whether it would be a good business model, or not.

Surely a legacy app is the sensible option. Keep an old version of the app for old hardware and everything works on that.

Newer hardware runs on the newer app and gets updates etc.

Surely a legacy app is the sensible option. Keep an old version of the app for old hardware and everything works on that.

Newer hardware runs on the newer app and gets updates etc.

This is what I’m thinking. I reckon some Dev in a shed is creating an App as we speak, for just this scenario. You may have to buy the App and subscribe to it like you do to Sonos… But market forces apply here. Theres literally 000’s of potential customers who just want to keep what they’ve got running and faced with an upgrade which could (incl the 30% discount) run into £4k would happily buy some App or Tech that keeps what they have.

And probably release before Sonos eat some Media Pie and create one of their own…

Obviously the ideal scenario for the the customers would be for Sonos to open source the hardware so others could develop for it. However I am sure they would see that at commercially damaging so won’t.

Logitech did it with the squeezebox and its still popular long after the company stopped supporting it.

This is what I’m thinking. I reckon some Dev in a shed is creating an App as we speak, for just this scenario.

Before Sonos I had Logitech Squeezeboxes. 2 years in to ownership they killed it off and stopped supporting it.

The software was open source and kept running by, presumably, a couple of guys as a hobby. It was ok but glitchy as hell and often broke. Sonos has been a dream in comparison, so I’m not sure the dev in a shed model is the way forward.