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I have Sonos all over the house and have yet to need to ‘refresh’ a single unit
But they really really want to make you do so: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sonos-speaker-legacy-software-update
They only relented because of the massive outrage, but you know they will be doing this very slowly over time.
HiFi should last decades, there's nothing in modern smart systems or streamers that has proven longevity yet. The closest anything came to longevity is the Squeezebox which at least lasted 11 years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player) and for a full solution that's pretty good. Chromecast is coming close at 9y old, but there's not been any meaningful improvement or new products on the audio side and there are no more updates.
Sonos has already indicated that they want to no longer support old things. My issue with Bluesound is that by jumping very far into connected network streamer all-in-one speakers they've put themselves on the Sonos path... but like Sonos, they don't actually own all the things they connect to: Roon, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, MQA, Plex, etc, etc. So they can't actually make any long term promises.
Plus, where are their incentives? It's not for software support unless they get you to pay a subscription, it's in hardware sales. The incentives are not aligned in your favour here.
I'd rather pay to get the software support, i.e. Roon stands out. But the Roon reviews are awful, I'm not sure anyone truly loves it (someone on here will say they do!). Plex software is good, the reviews are all awesome, and I love it too, I'm just lacking a bit of hardware to play it on.
Velocio-
Plex is good but some of their recent stuff (providing their own streaming channels, getting rid of the home theater software, which got reversed, Discover, etc) do make me wonder about the direction they want to take
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I mean, the old stuff is still supported, just on a different app.
It still works perfectly fine and you could even have new and old in the same house if you don’t mind having them on two apps.
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I seem to be the only one commenting on Roon in this thread. I've had lifetime membership for 4/5 years. I complain about it quite a bit on the Roon forum but for a few different reasons.
They occasionally break something and then try to blame it on your home network for a few months before finally realising it's their problem and fixing it without apology or acknowledgement.
They introduce new features (like ARC) that are hobbled for many users by CGNAT when they knew this would be the case from initial design stage.
Search feature is terrible and now it's centralised so that the software will not work without an internet connection.
They seem to be moving focus away from local file based libraries to online, at least their future seems to lie there. For example local search results are not prioritised.
It's also expensive which is why you hear a lot of complaints from users.
Positives are end point handling is superb, multi room, convolution processing, quality preservation, raspberry pi integration, NUC ROCK capabilities. All of this beats Plex/Plexamp into a cocked hat. Metadata, tagging, look and feel are all superb. Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android apps work very well.
Raspberry Pi availability is a complete bitch. Surely they have to get it back up and running again the demand is huge. As far as I know you could manage with a Pi Zero or Pi 3, personally I'm running 2 displays and 2 endpoints and they are great, stable and really good quality.
Plex is great too though, endpoint handling is supposed to be improving might help your cause but I would probably suggest like others have that you suck it up and buy a second hand Pi at a premium.
A lot of Roon users have Plex too, it covers bases that Roon doesn't but it has it's own issues. Plexamp is brilliant though, kind of everything Roon is not but Roon is leagues ahead on loads of fronts too. I use Plexamp away from home, Roon at home. I miss playlist integration but ARC won't work for me yet and it's not fun like Plexamp anyway.
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No idea if these would suit your requirements, but my home hifi dealer recommended these two last time I asked about streaming:
https://the-ear.net/review-hardware/escape-m1-air/
https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/accessories/wxad-10/index.html
aggi
Soul
Airhead
Engineering101
I have Sonos all over the house and have yet to need to ‘refresh’ a single unit.
They pushed a v2 app about 2 years ago but all but the oldest hardware was compatible and they offered a trade in for those with up to 50% discount which seems reasonable.
The only annoying thing is their continued lack of support for airplay 2 but the app is pretty good.