I used to love Sonos and recommend their products to friends and family.

But as time passed, far more options for playing a digital music library, or from streaming services, have appeared. Meanwhile, Sonos devices have got even more expensive, and they've tried to make some very popular earlier units obsolete.

I guess I expected too much by treating Sonos gear as 'hi-fi products' - expecting the devices to last essentially forever if not abused. At the end of the day, they rely on a lot of software, and in particular rely on being controlled by mobile apps, where the idea of 'backwards compatibility' is simply not a thing any more.

So it's very hard to justify Sonos prices, knowing that there'll be an artificial limit to the lifespan of the devices (even if it's a pretty long one by tech standards, it's short by hi-fi standards)