Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 155 posts

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#91

Post by kristjansson »

miah_ wrote: post #4

Sonos hardware is the stuff I see at thrift stores for ~$8 and won't even bother with. When you're as user hostile as they are you end up in landfills. Wish somebody would figure out how to unlock them and convert them into general purpose music streaming systems.

What? AFAIK the only speaker that’s fully useless is the Gen 1 Play:5. A few of the Connect / ZonePlayer home audio devices are also incompatible with S2. But everything else will still work, albeit with slightly higher friction setup processes on some?

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#92

Post by iwanttocomment »

subpixel wrote: post #61

IIRC Sonos emerged as a tool to allow you to access all of your music, from different speakers throughout your house. I might be glossing over some details but isn't this problem largely solved by other products almost everyone has now? Any cloud music service, a smart phone, and some bluetooth speakers? In my entire social network, I know of one person who has all of his music stored locally and who cares about the…

No. There are certain scenarios that Sonos still handles well, despite the app issues of the past year.

If I drop the needle on my Technics 1200 turntable, my Sonos Fives spring into action. I don't need to load the app, I don't need to touch anything. It just happens.

If I turn on my TV, those same Sonos Fives revert into surround speakers into a 5.1 system with the Sonos Beam - again, without touching the Sonos app or any device.

If I want to create a playlist that crosses between my personal music library on a local server, and also songs via Apple Music and Youtube Music, no problem.

If I want to set things up for things to play on one speaker, specific speakers, or my whole house, it's got it, and allows me to easily adjust volumes between the various areas.

We got burned by the Sonos app updates this year. They really screwed things up. Most things, at this point, are largely fixed, although it feels like the foundation is shaky.

If there's another product that provides this level of flexibility... let me know.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#93

Post by cosmic_cheese »

bhandziuk wrote: post #65
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPlay is as about as good as it gets I think. It’s been thoroughly reverse engineered so there’s lots of open source tools for it and it’s cheap to add speakers since used AirPort Expresses are still supported AirPlay targets.

Do you need an Apple product to use AirPlay?

That makes it easier, but no. Many implementations of both servers and clients (both closed and FOSS) exist, for example AirMusic adds AirPlay casting support to Android and I’ve heard of people using rPi’s as receivers. The protocol is entirely local, there’s no remote server component at all.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#94

Post by HelloMcFly »

Aaronmacaron wrote: post #48

I see a lot of negative comments in this thread about Sonos in general, which is interesting to me because I'm currently thinking about buying Sonos speakers. What exactly don't you like about it? Is there a good alternative to Sonos that ticks all the following boxes? - Connect two or more speakers wirelessly to get stereo sound (I hate cables) - Good support for different audio sources (bluetooth, Spotify, AirPlay,…

The app update was fucking terrible, but it's not the absolute mess it was originally (it's still sluggish at times, but I haven't had it outright fail me in a couple of months). Ultimately, I still find Sonos to be better for me than alternatives because the sound truly is good, and the ease of setting up a home theater wirelessly that I can also use to play my records is unmatched by any alternatives. As bad as Sonos's new app launch was, they still don't have a good competitor doing quite what they do.

The speakers support AirPlay and the newer model of speakers support Bluetooth. I don't think any of them support Aux.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#95

Post by voisin »

#1 thing that drives me bonkers with the Sonos app is that when you search for an artist, you have to scan through dozens of singles and EPs to find their actual full length studio albums. For bigger bands there can be 40+ albums to find the one you want. Apple Music and Spotify group these and it is such a simple UI improvement.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#96

Post by michaelt »

tmoertel wrote: post #80
michaelt wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, even keeping the mechanism of limited-liability-corporations around, some would say boards aren't representing shareholders' interests effectively. It's one thing for shareholders to say if under the CEO's leadership, the company's value rises by 100 million dollars, they'll give him a $10 million bonus. I can see how a board could approve that - it's a lot of money, but it's linked to performance. But should the…

One reason that CEOs get good severance packages is to entice them to leave other successful companies. If they are doing well at those other companies, are well liked by the board, and can reasonably expect to make a lot of money, why should they leave that safe, lucrative situation to come to your company, where there's a higher risk of failure or of falling out with the board? Enter the severance package. It guara…

That's a great explanation for signing bonuses.

Doesn't do much to explain severance packages though?

Unless the board wants to give a signing bonus, but the amount is so egregious the shareholders would riot, so they need to do it by stealth.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#97

Post by kristjansson »

jgrahamc wrote: post #2

I am not really surprised. I had the bad luck to buy a Sonos soundbar right when the new app was launched. I'd never seen the old app but all I knew was the thing was unusable. I had to return the soundbar.

What issue(s) did you have with it?

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#98

Post by pavel_lishin »

leeoniya wrote: post #83
pavel_lishin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I might be glossing over some details but isn't this problem largely solved by other products almost everyone has now? Any cloud music service, a smart phone, and some bluetooth speakers? How do I configure several bluetooth speakers to play music across my whole house with a single phone?

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/what-is-auracast-and-when-is...

Interesting. My Pixel 8, on Android 15, does not seem to allow broadcasting to multiple bluetooth devices, but I'll play around with it.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#99

Post by michaelt »

Maxion wrote: post #44
wnolens wrote: post #24

I also started investing in Sonos recently and damn the software is terrible. While I wish I could get 100% of my money back, I'm not sure there any turnkey alternative that is better. Every time I research I come back with "Sonos sucks but it's still the best".

You really wouldn't think that the tech in this segment would be so hard to get right.

IDK, have you ever seen Smart TVs?

Seems to me electronics hardware manufacturers and subscription internet streaming media services go together like oil and water.

Re: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch

#100

Post by raydev »

duxup wrote: post #19

They violated the "Things You Should Never Do, Part I" rule: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... It's such a TEMPTING rule to violate... The amazing part was how BAD it went, supposedly engineers were raising every red flag possible that it wasn't ready and still they did it. Considering how bad it was I can't imagine having any faith in anyone up the chain of command having the power, or…

I've been a part of a few successful rewrites, one definitely larger than what Sonos did.

We should let go of some of the JoS dogma. Failed rewrites are the result of mismanagement, not because rewrites are inherently bad.

Post reply on HN