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I have 3 sonos units - two of their speakers and one "amp" which drives in ceiling speakers. The hardware is great, but their constant software updates are TER

I have 3 sonos units - two of their speakers and one "amp" which drives in ceiling speakers. The hardware is great, but their constant software updates are TERRIBLE! I would never a product from them again and I tell everybody who comments / asks on our home set-up the same thing. Want to play music but they want you to update? Guess what? No option but to update right away. The app consistently changes UX and REMOVES functionality making it extremely frustrating. Feels like a company that is in harvest mode and driving towards irrelevance.

octorian 7y ago
I have many more Sonos units than that. The majority are Connect:AMP devices (connected to the in-wall speakers my home came with), but some are their standalone speaker units. For me, the biggest gripe is that its a pain in the arse to get networking to work when your configuration gets more complex than an "average person" living in a small house/apartment. Especially when there are multiple ways to make a wireless network connection across your property, and/or you have multiple subnets. At this point, I can bring down half my home network by connecting a new Sonos box, before I've changed some of its default configurations (which you can't do until you have it fully setup and connected). My second biggest gripe is that they don't make rack-able multi-channel units. I'd love to rack one or two of these in my wiring closet instead of having a stack of Connect:AMPs on shelves. Denon apparently now has a Sonos competitor that at least partially solves the second issue. I'm curious to see how it compares, but I've got enough Sonos gear that I'm not really ready to seriously consider replacing it. (And once all my stuff is setup, it does work rather painlessly.)
jumpingmice 7y ago
They do not require you to install updates to play music. Updates are never mandatory, except that if you update a zone player then you must update the controller to control it. If your controller is ahead of the ZP that works fine.
- insaneirish 7y ago
  > They do not require you to install updates to play music. This is flat out false. Far too often, I open the app and just want to play something. It prohibits me from doing so until I update software. It is an incredibly user hostile and annoying behavior in an otherwise good product.
  - jumpingmice 7y ago
    It's because you have your zone player(s) set to automatically update. I've ignored updates for months on end and never had the first trouble with doing so.

octorian 7y ago

I have many more Sonos units than that. The majority are Connect:AMP devices (connected to the in-wall speakers my home came with), but some are their standalone speaker units. For me, the biggest gripe is that its a pain in the arse to get networking to work when your configuration gets more complex than an "average person" living in a small house/apartment. Especially when there are multiple ways to make a wireless network connection across your property, and/or you have multiple subnets. At this point, I can bring down half my home network by connecting a new Sonos box, before I've changed some of its default configurations (which you can't do until you have it fully setup and connected). My second biggest gripe is that they don't make rack-able multi-channel units. I'd love to rack one or two of these in my wiring closet instead of having a stack of Connect:AMPs on shelves. Denon apparently now has a Sonos competitor that at least partially solves the second issue. I'm curious to see how it compares, but I've got enough Sonos gear that I'm not really ready to seriously consider replacing it. (And once all my stuff is setup, it does work rather painlessly.)

jumpingmice 7y ago

They do not require you to install updates to play music. Updates are never mandatory, except that if you update a zone player then you must update the controller to control it. If your controller is ahead of the ZP that works fine.

insaneirish 7y ago
> They do not require you to install updates to play music. This is flat out false. Far too often, I open the app and just want to play something. It prohibits me from doing so until I update software. It is an incredibly user hostile and annoying behavior in an otherwise good product.
- jumpingmice 7y ago
  It's because you have your zone player(s) set to automatically update. I've ignored updates for months on end and never had the first trouble with doing so.