[loloquwowndueo]

So you’re saying everybody else on the internet who is experiencing the same problem somehow had the same exact bit flipped for mysterious reasons and there is no integrity verification in the update process to catch this kind of thing. Also, the “bit flip” doesn’t cause a random crash (as is usually the case when that happens) but changes the functionality in a way that correlates with the updates to the web page related to being plugged into mains power which conveniently appeared at the same time in the website.

Got it.

[stoltzmann]

From the article:

>Now, as a reminder - I own two speakers - both speakers have had their performance nerfed by this firmware update.

So even not counting everybody else on the internet with the same issue, I find it quite unlikely that there would be the exact same transfer failure on two separate units.

This definitely sounds more likely to be a software issue.

[vertis]

+1 for the CEO engaging

-10 for an implausible explanation.

[garyfirestorm]

Speaker output is tuned to input power and is probably stored in a file. Somebody grabbed a wrong file for the ‘speaker calibration curve’ while building the new update patch. Shouldn’t happen/doesn’t happen - we have seen internet infrastructure going down due to bad updates on routers - this is not entirely implausible.

I do work with audio stuff in auto industry.

[Aeolun]

That’s entirely possible, but then they shouldn’t explain their fix as: “You might have done something wrong during the upgrade process, please try again and if it starts downloading it should be fixed after.”

That’s just trying to hide the root cause.

[vertis]

Sounds accurate, but this is not what the CEO was suggesting. He's also now suggesting that they can't replicate it on their own devices.

[jespertt]

Previously, i mentioned the notion of it being a data corruption issue. We have integrity verification, so this is extremely unlikely, but as it is an easy check, we recommend trying this out. If you try to re-upgrade, and it skips the “transferring” step and goes directly to “Ready to patch”, it means that the previous upgrade had been successful with no corrupted data and that you have had the correct firmware on your speaker. (In this case it will be a very fast process) If however, it started to transfer files, it is worth to wait until the transfer step is completed to make sure you have the right firmware.

In the meantime, we will continue to investigate internally in SOUNDBOKS, and try to figure out why some users are experiencing this, when we are not experiencing it ourselves, and it has not occurred in any of our testing.

Again, thanks for your engagement!

[HelloNurse]

The suggestion to re-upgrade suggests that you have silently replaced the problematic firmware update with a different package.

Don't you see how not providing changelogs and explanation looks suspect? Can't you admit a mistake, if it's only a forgivable case of not testing far-fetched usage scenarios properly?

[jespertt]

Will liaise with the engineering team and revert!

[jespertt]

Fair point. As a note, it's definitely not all users that are experiencing the problem, but I will liaise with our engineers and revert!

[dpratt]

You’re correct, it’s not all your users, just the ones who set their output above ‘5’.

[jespertt]

Nah - that's just not true. We've pushed this update to tens of thousands of units over the past week - and we have not seen this issue reported before gHuntleys post, and then subsequently in the comments to his post in our community.

Previously, i mentioned the notion of it being a data corruption issue. We have integrity verification, so this is extremely unlikely, but as it is an easy check, we recommend trying this out. If you try to re-upgrade, and it skips the “transferring” step and goes directly to “Ready to patch”, it means that the previous upgrade had been successful with no corrupted data and that you have had the correct firmware on your speaker. (In this case it will be a very fast process) If however, it started to transfer files, it is worth to wait until the transfer step is completed to make sure you have the right firmware. In the meantime, we will continue to investigate internally in SOUNDBOKS, and try to figure out why some users are experiencing this, when we are not experiencing it ourselves, and it has not occurred in any of our testing.

Again, thanks for your engagement.

[dpratt]

I find it fishy that you haven’t connected the dots between “firmware update meant to mitigate speaker cone damage under specific power delivery circumstances” and “user experiencing unexpected power reduction at all power delivery circumstances”.

Blaming the user here is not endearing you to the community.

[sitkack]

Where is the blame? I see a lot of dog piling on a person who is genuinely trying to fix a problem.

[dpratt]

It’s probably because a bulk of his replies have been along the lines of “the update transfer was probably corrupted, you must have misapplied it. Can you try again?”

[jespertt]

For some reason i can't reply to your next post, dpratt - so i'll reply here. I'm not intending to blame the user. I am merely saying that this is not something that all users that set their output above 5 experience.

It is definitely possible that there is a link; as i said, we're investigating, and in the meanwhile we recommend to try to reupdate as we have customers where that has fixed the issue.

[dpratt]

My intent here is to not be hostile or seem dismissive, but rather attempt to show you what your responses appear like to your customer base.

An answer of “The best explanation we have right now is that you incorrectly applied the update” does not inspire confidence.

[AshamedCaptain]

It could also be for example that when the firmware fails to check out at boot, the speaker enters a "safe mode" where the volume is limited for some lawyer-related reason. And that the update tends to frequently fail to apply, or actually always fails to apply.

Still, "firmware update meant to mitigate speaker cone damage under specific power delivery circumstances" is pretty damning, and it's not the first time I see this. Nokia also did the same kind of update to a device I owned, a couple decades ago. The excuse was practically word-for-word, and also claimed speaker damage could occur if you didn't install it.

I didn't install it and the device actually had speaker damage... about 5 years afterwards, and because instead of a cable or a proper solder job, they had used a spring to connect the speaker to the PCB and it had wore out. Totally unrelated to the speaker cone or any type of high volume issue.