Phantoms delivered this afternoon

[thumb5]

Spark is a very new bit of software. It may have years to go before it is as good as some of the old debugged programmes.
My Dialog smells v-e-r-y hot. I unplug it when I am not using it. I am concerned for its durability.

I really hope you're wrong -- though I don't doubt what you say.
 
How hard is it to design a piece of networking kit that doesn't overheat? And how come Devialet, with their financial backing, can't produce a decent control point GUI, when Sonos managed to get it right 10 years ago?

Having hardware that doesn't overheat should indeed be straightforward and mine may be just a newness smell.

Software is very, very difficult and people hugely underestimate how difficult, long winded and expensive it is, particularly since it is often available "free" or nicked off the internet.
The first piece of CAD software I used in 1985 was pitiful by modern standards but already had more than 1000 man-years of software development.
AIR is a good example to quote. Originally the specification was Mac only using iTunes as a front end. This was still probably a huge task but before it was completely finished customer pressure got it changed to multi-platform, multi front end. This probably increased the complexity and likelihood of debugging it 100 fold, maybe more. Pound to a pinch of poo the manager authorising it had no idea what he was committing to. It still doesn't work as well as the original IMO and it may be a very long time before it does.
Sonos is a good example of something written many years ago to a relatively simple and un-changing specification. After many years of development it is market leading.
Hoping a new piece of software which customers expect to have massively more flexibility in terms of platform and file type compatibility to be anywhere near it from the outset is naive in the extreme. It could take hundreds of thousands of pounds and probably many years to get Spark to the level Sonos has achieved after many years. IMHO.

Speaking as an embedded software developer, I can only say: hear, hear!

Maybe just to pick on one point: I wouldn't necessarily agree entirely with your comment about the simplicity of Sonos's software.  The software is continually updated and increases in scope each time -- for example to support new capabilities and services.  The core software has had the benefit of running on entirely proprietary, purpose-designed hardware which has only changed fairly infrequently, and I'm sure that contributes enormously to its stability.

Where Sonos have taken some flak recently is for the control software running on generic phones and tablets, as distinct from the dedicated controllers.  My impression (without concrete evidence, but in line with industry practice) is that this is written by a different type of developer to those writing the embedded software that runs on the Sonos proprietary hardware.