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Comment by taneq | Hacker News Reader

The idea that $400 speakers should only continue to function under the continued charity of the company that sold them is farcical in any event.

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Decent used equipment from the 1970s might well have more useful life ahead of it than a brand-new Sonos setup purchased today.

It's the same with tractors from the 70s and 80s.

Not always the case, we old our '81 Ford specifically because parts were getting harder to come by and no one made them any more.

It seems to be like that for cars too --- you can still easily get parts for a complete "classic 60s-70s" American car powertrain (carbureted V8 with points ignition, 4-speed manual/3-speed automatic, RWD live axle), with lots of aftermarket support and performance enhancement, but later models when computers were introduced are far more difficult and expensive to find parts for.

My Sonos system is bridged to the perfectly fine 1980's hi-fi setup in the lounge but that bridge is now out of support from Sonos. Feeling a bit ripped off here as I only bought the bridge four years ago.

What I like about the '70s stuff is almost everything uses standard parts you can get from any reasonable factor, and the few unique components are usually still simple enough that some hobbyist or small machine shop will be turning them out and selling them. Providing it hasn't been abused it's possible to refurbish something using only simple tools and a bit of testing, and some of the equipment is seriously good even by modern standards. (One of the main reasons I ended up with a '70s turntable is I couldn't find anything new under £1000 with the same sound quality, or that didn't require directly fiddling with belts and pulleys to change the speed.)

By comparison, whenever any of my modern kit breaks down I find the offending part will be unique to that unit, the spare parts supply is nonexistent, and there will be no published specs allowing one to cobble something together.

How much more complex is streaming sound going to get that a play5 gen1 won't be able to do it anymore? Lossless already audio works fine. It was maybe even Sonos themselves that solved that problem in the first place

I mean $400 dumb speakers can be expected to last for decades with minor repairs now and then. Sonos just wants to turn speaker ownership into a subscription like with phones.

"continue to function" != "receive new features"

They'll all continue to work exactly as they already do.

That is the new news today. The previous news was they would eventually no longer continue to function, todays announcement reaffirms no new features but now says they are working on a plan to make sure they continue to function with other legacy hardware as they do today.

I don’t believe that’s correct?

At least from the screenshots of emails I read, it stated that old devices won’t get software updates, but will continue to work. Additionally, any newer devices will not get software updates _while they’re on the same Sonos network as the old one_, because they all have to run the same version.

Edit: here’s what I read https://mobile.twitter.com/seanbonner/status/121976046002876.... It very plainly states the devices will continue operating but none of your connected devices will be updated while you’re using old ones.

Which presumably means when you buy a very new device and hook it up to your network with a very old device, there will be no software version that runs on both...

I don’t think so. Without updates it could lose compatibility with the services it integrates with, if the service is changed.

It also states "Over time, this is likely to disrupt access to services and overall functionality".

That's pretty much the exact opposite of "will continue to work".

Buts that’s “continue to work as is” but if the whole world moves on, then features will stop working. E.g. they’re not gonna get updates to deal with breaking API changes from music providers.

I’m not sure what more you could expect.

The fact that they have to "work on a plan" to make sure things still function is especially alarming.

Imagine buying a product from a store, taking it home, and having to wonder whether it will one day stop functioning for reasons other than manufacturing defects or normal wear and tear! The fact that it is even possible for a manufacturer to decide to remotely disable or degrade the function of a product after the sale was unthinkable 25 years ago but is now a risk consumers have to seriously consider.

People do that every day. Ever bought a mobile phone? You only get software updates for a few years at most, and I don’t think any phones from 25 years ago are usable today due to old networks being shut down. Some of the devices being deprecated pre-date the iPhone!

> They'll all continue to work exactly as they already do.

Yeah, that's false.

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