audioexchange

I received an email from Sonos this week to inform me that they had obsoleted a long list of my Sonos products – the ZD90, the original Connect Amp, several bridges, controllers and, seriously annoyingly, the two Play 5 speaker units that I bought soon after they came out. Generally, I have no problem with programmed obsolescence (PO) – based on the fact that products are made and sold inexpensively – they die, they are replaced and we move on. Thus was the way with computers in the 80s, 90s and 00s. My worse experience of PO was my generation 1 iPad – that was rendered obsolete (i.e. no longer supported by Apple) after a mere 18 months. I have a pile of Sonos products – many of which died not long after the warranty expired – in particular the excellent controller 200 devices (I had 3 of them @ €250) – and they all gradually stopped working. Indeed, looking back, my Bundle 250 (pictured below) – which cost €1000 in 2009 hardly lasted into the 2010s! Nevertheless, the various devices that I currently have – Play 5s, Play 1s, Play 3s, the Soundbar and Woofer work well. I have a ZD90 plugged into my hifi, and occasionally use it (that device was available for €350 until 2 years ago). Suddenly the company has obsoleted them – i.e. will no longer support these devices with software ungrades – so the system will either be frozen in time, or the speaker units will be frozen out. Here’s the rub- the Play 5 speakers still sound pretty good – and I like that they have a headphone socket: they are and remain Sonos’ best product for the price. Nevertheless, our kitchen Play 5 is now used very infrequently since Alexa (Amazon Echo) showed up you no longer have to look around for a phone or iPad to turn on the radio.

Pictured: Original Sonos 250 Bundle from 2009 – The Controller was particularly good but died after 18 months (followed by two others – which also died)

In fairness to Sonos – their products have always been reasonably well made and work well as a wireless multi-room setup. The sound is generally ok – but certainly not audiophile. I use the Soundbar/Woofer and a couple of Play 1s to give us surround sound in one room- Dolby Atmos it is not, but the movie watching experience is enhanced, somewhat (I always knew that paying €800 for a woofer that would only work with a single service was risky). All of the streaming services are supported, and that works very well, as does Tune-In radio. However the 65K track library has always been pathetic (I have never been able to include my whole digital collection – and had to, annoyingly, construct a limited library on a separate server for Sonos – having to add and subtract albums to fit the limit as new music arrived. In addition, there has never been, and probably never will be, any support for 24 bit and DSD files, so 24 bit purchases had to be transcoded and saved to work with Sonos. I’m not sure what the company is thinking when they say that the memory and the processor power of older devices is inadequate – any half decent computer from 2006 can play any audio file from now. Their backend software was out of date the day it launched! Oh, but there is good news – Sonos have told Gizmodo that they plan to support their products for 5 years – wow – that truly is impressive – I have a 1986 B&O CD player (34 years) that works PERFECTLY.

Sonos has offered a 30% discount (basically covers the VAT where I live) on replacement devices – I clicked on the offering for my Play 5s and was offered the battery driven outdoor speaker rather than the Play 6 (which will be obsolete fairly soon also, I’m sure). I have been strangely kept entangled in the Sonos universe, principally because everything worked together – now this is gone – I feel a certain degree of freedom. I will NEVER have to buy another Sonos product. And likely never will.

So why am I not particularly bothered by this whole obsolescence thing? Firstly, as I have mentioned in previous posts, it is absolutely pointless spending a lot of money on Media Streamers – as the technology moves on too fast. The “state of the Art” Benchmark DAC 1 preamp that I bought in 2010 doesn’t play DSD/MQA or sample rates above 96mHz (it still sounds great). An inexpensive Cubox and Project or Arcam DAC will have you streaming just about anything. Beware of digital amplifiers with built in DACS – these become obsolete quickly – a decent integrated amp from the 1970s with analogue speakers will still work and may sound great.

The second reason is that I long ago stopped using the Sonos app to run most of my Sonos speakers – Roon resolves all of the limitations of Sonos. Roon will create a library and metatag everything. It will stream to any device in your home. I use Roon to stream to Sonos devices all the time. One only needs one version of an album – Roon will transcode DSD or 24/192 to 16 bit to work on Sonos devices. Now every audio company is making wireless speakers, often with their own app or multiroom system – but the majority are supported by Roon.

I suspect that, with this decision, Sonos will lose it’s audiophile (not that they ever cared – the ZD90 was the same for 15 years) and longterm supporters. They stated as much in their Q4 2019 filings: “If we no longer provide extensive backward capability for our products, we may damage our relationship with our existing customers, as well as our reputation, brand loyalty and ability to attract new customers.” Yes – an you can kiss my ass!

By breaking the link with their older devices, I believe that the cult will also be broken – and this might make their future plans murkier. Of course, Apple have been obsoleting their iPads and iPhones for years, without looking back. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 (an excellent operating system) last week. It is the way of the technology company world. So, stick with Quad, Linn, B&W, Marantz, Denon, Yamaha, Sony etc. they have been in the audio game for decades and make products that will last.

The problem for Sonos is that, as compared with 2006, there are myriad ways of streaming music around your home – in particular the convenience of Bluetooth speakers. Apple Music has gone 24 bit, and I suspect, if they are clever, Amazon will start selling audiophile products at knock down rates to lock customers into their music/streaming/Alexa service via Amazon Prime. They already have the Echo Link (half the price of the ZD90) and Echo Link Amp (again significantly less expensive than the Sonos product).

~ by Pat Neligan on January 23, 2020.

Posted in Digital Music, Hi-Fi
Tags: Alexa, Amazon Echo, Audiophile, Sonos, Sonos Obsolesence, Streaming