Hacker News Reader

Comment by tpxl | Hacker News Reader

Remember the Sonos "recycling" program? Deliberately brick old devices to get a discount on a new device.

I was looking for some speakers recently and ended up getting very traditional tower speakers instead of anything sonos because I'm confident they will continue to work pretty much forever.

Home Audio, in terms of speakers and amplifiers, was "solved" in the 1980's and 1990's. A lot of this equipment will last for decades, is serviceable, and isn't dependent on the cloud.

This is so true and you can buy high quality gear for cheap on Craigslist, Kijiji, VarageSale or your local garage sale.

All of it has been solved though. Dumb screens, dumb speakers, removable batteries, etc.

Hell, even enclosed devices like the iPhone still last for almost a decade. I know, I had multiples ones in use for that long. So not being able to be serviced easily probably causes fewer problems than you’d think if people held on to devices for their maximum lifespan.

In terms of the speakers and amplifiers, absolutely. The home audio game's more than that these days though. Smartphone-controlled multi-room audio is convenient, if pricy.

I'm not a fan of planned obsolescence and I won't give money to sonos because of it. smartphone controlled multi room audio may be convenient, but I won't support it with dollars if it means perfectly working devices turn into bricks and get thrown in a landfill.

Shouldn't that be separate? If you buy a 10k speaker today, it's going to sound excellent in 10 years, but the software will long be dead, perhaps taking the speaker with it. Separating the smart from the speaker leads to cheap future upgrades of just the components you need.

its in your best interest if its separate, its in the manufacturer's best interest if you have to buy it again later.

Did they unbrick them once you returned them and make even more profit?

Nope, no return you just throw the perfectly good equipment in the bin. The hardware was still really good and perfectly usable, just intentionally bricked by Sonos. Ultimate waste.

A shame as I have lots of sonos equipment and otherwise I think they are great and their kit has good support and lasts a long time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com