I was sad when they integrated Alexa into the Sonos One. But it did make the Play:1 cheaper, and there's really not much room to improve on that speaker. Love it. I just hope they keep making Alexa free options.
Keep telling Sonos this. I do it at least once a month when I get stuck on a con-call where I'm waiting for others. Go to their site and pop open a chat. Tell them how much you like their products without "assistants", let them know how many of their speakers you own and then let them know that not having options without a microphone mean they will lose your business. Every time I do this they are very courteous and state they will put it in for management to review. Not sure what type of request they issue, or if it's just a patronizing response, but like others I like the product but will not continue to expand my Sonos ecosystem if forced to choose. I don't have a ton of their speakers but a Play 5, Play 3 and 4 x Play 1. Enough to be annoyed that I might not be able to expand that depending on the path they take.
But only on their newer devices! Would be ok if it was that you needed only one new “airplay 2” device on the network to act as a bridge but no, it will only work on the new ones (or a one and a play:1 in stereo)
They said if you have an AirPlay 2 capable device you can use it to pair with older speakers. It's right in their most recent press release on the matter.
I don't agree with Amazon selling Rekognition to law enforcement, and I don't agree with their warehouse conditions. I do know many folks who are at Amazon who work on hardware and software for Alexa. The Amazon bit isn't true. There isn't anything nefarious going on. It's really easy to jump on this bandwagon and crap all over these companies. You don't really know what you're talking about. I think Amazon is legit wrong on some things, and people who work there agree with me actually. But again, your claims about Alexa are conspiracy crap like you hear on Alex Jones.
You may be right but you missed the point. Amazon "could" start spying on you with a flip of a switch and there is no guarantee it will never happen. Even if their intentions were pure, they can be easily subpoenaed to do nasty stuff.