[vineyardmike]

Sonos has done a pretty decent job at keeping hardware alive. IIRC they still have S1 products alive but created S2 in the last few years because people wanted new features that required more CPU than their old devices could handle.

They still maintain an old S1 app for older devices and I think those devices should still all work. I don’t think there’s a plan to “turn them off”. A lack of new features is something that may or may not be a problem.

Actually, I think audio companies in general have been pretty good about keeping products alive. Even the old Amazon Echo Gen 1 I think still works… and that’s a full-on smart device that exists for the smarts not the audio quality.

[yccs27]

The problem here is the wildly different expectations. It's an audio system, and normally audio systems are expected to work for >30 years. But it's a "smart" system controlled through an app, and apps need to be maintained to keep working on new hardware.

[vineyardmike]

Yea I agree. I personally still come to the conclusion that it’s probably worth it assuming the business continues to operate as they have been. But eWaste does suck to generate knowingly.

I have a record player (and DAC) and an amp and passive speakers. I have the full HiFi setup - the record player is setup to avoid vibrations and the speakers are properly distanced from the wall etc. I can tell you without any hesitation that the price-per-minute-listened of my Sonos system is a small fraction of the HiFi (which will last 30 years). If I upgrade the Sonos every decade I’m sure it’ll still “make sense”. That’s excluding the cost of media for which records cost a lot more than streaming. Personally, I think the Sonos sound “more than good enough” to enjoy without missing anything from the record player.

That said, I don’t love the generation of eWaste, and I hope the Sonos lasts for more than a decade. And every day that Amazon/google keep their smart speakers alive is a good day for eWaste. I can only dream they’ll allow you to update the firmware when they finally EOL them. (I know they won’t though).

[CharlesW]

> They still maintain an old S1 app for older devices…

Their current app now supports S1 devices as well.

[squeaky-clean]

Most S1 devices but not all of them. Some really old S1 devices aren't supported, I think the most popular one would be the Play:5 Gen1

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786?language=en_US

[CharlesW]

Ah! That's annoying, thanks for clarifying.

I love my Arc system as a "point in time" purchase, but I don't have high trust in or loyalty to Sonos in general.