Sonos Controller app update conflict

Re: Music networking ?

Well rather than having an entire room full of cd's I have a little box sat in a cupboard providing all my musical needs through a number of speakers in the house, and if the wife doesn't want to listen to my stuff she can put her own stuff on a different speaker in a different room whilst she does her work.

Then there's streaming service that allows me to listen to music I've never heard and probably wouldn't ever have listened to if I had to go to HMV and flick through the vast banks of cd's and then pay the full cd price for it.

Seems to me to be a decent little innovation.

Re: Music networking ?

CDs?

What about online services, cloud services and so on?

The quality of Sonos is well known and the technology solid. It uses its own mesh Wifi network, unlike Apple and others who use the busier Wifi networks shared with computers.

I'm guessing you've never used one.

Re: Music networking ?

@Fihart

I'm very much a CD guy. I have lots of them and I listen to my music one album at a time. I like the restriction enforced by having to choose a CD, pop it in the player and sit back down. I have a short attention span so putting a barrier of effort between me an my desire to play amateur DJ is a good thing and I enjoy my music more.

BUT, even for me there is amazing utility in a multi-room, HDD-based music system. The ability to flick my playlist from the lounge room into the kitchen has meant that I neglect to feed myself less than I used to.

I have also found that I actually enjoy leaving the system on random. I have a relatively large and diverse collection of music and sometimes it's great to just leave it up to fate.

There are many benefits to such a system - once you try one (setup properly) you will know.

Re: First world problem

Not sure people are usggesting it's the end of the world, but it does seem perfectly accepatable to voice opinions about a product you've paid money for in an attempt to make it better going forward.

I've personally not commented on it but I still like the whole eco-system regardless of how you press start and pause on it.

Re: First world problem

"Oh my God, the sky's falling in"

Agreed, there are much more serious problems in the world, but Sonos systems, while being good (apart from their unreliable hardware controller - yes, I'm looking at you, Sonos), are pretty expensive, so there's a tendency for users to get a little more more splenetic than you'd expect if using it isn't like falling off a log.

My first impression was that they'd let someone with windows 8 design skills loose on it, which wasn't a good start...

Re: First world problem

@gazzton

You are correct - this problem is squarely in the 'not starving, not cowering from hostile gun-fire, not being tortured for your beliefs, not freezing out on the streets' basket.

But so what?

There is this odd notion that you can't complain if there are people out there worse-off than you are. What a load of rot.

I am a middle-class white fella and, as such, I enjoy a level of comfort and ease in my life that is foreign to a disturbingly large percentage of the rest of the world. I don't have to worry about where my next meal will come from or if my son will be conscripted into a local warlord's private army. I have plenty of warm clothes and a solid roof over my head. Add to that, I have gadgets and goods so numerous that I don't know where half of them are.

By any reasonable standard I am well-off. Does that mean, then, that I can't complain about anything?

It won't make the world a better place if someone complains about their Sonos controller app but nor will it make it a worse one. What this system does do, however, is add to the quality and enjoyment of life of those who use it. That is why those people bought it - because they believed they would be happier with it than without it.

It is the right (if not mission) of every human being to seek happiness. This update, while not important 'in the scheme of things', has reduced the happiness of many Sonos users and so they are justified in bringing it up.

Re: First world problem

The reason people are son annoyed is because Sonos have changed/downgraded the experience of customer who have already purchased Sonos equipment based on how it operated when they bought it.

For Sonos to change the control method so substantially & not allow owners the ability to revert to a previous version, let alone cripple existing control methods such as original iPads orders on criminal.

Yes the App is "free" but if you've spent a couple of thousand £/$ on the equipment and you no longer enjoy using it, you have a right to complain.

Re: I am disapointed with the lack of Windows Native App support.

There is a simple but effective app for windows phone called phonos in the app store.

Re: I am disapointed with the lack of Windows Native App support.

Sonos keep updating the hardware and tinkering with the controller apps, but they have nothing to increase the fundamental capacity of the system to store metadata. Library size limitations and lack of support for multivalued tags are (in my not isolated view) the biggest daily drawbacks of the system.

For those saying that not many people have libraries that big:

1. the people who typically buy Sonos are more likely to have large, well-managed libraries

2. a household of people with varying tastes and libraries will hit those limits very quickly