It began as a trickle of positivity on August 6. Sonos owners on the Sonos subreddit began filtering in to say that after a recent firmware update, Sonos speakers started to sound better. From soundbars to subwoofers to Bluetooth speakers, people chimed in to say their bass sounded punchier and just, frankly, better.

Then a user who works for Sonos and represents the brand on Reddit, KeithFromSonos, popped in to say, “No changes were made to the sound profile in the last firmware update. Just numbering of version numbers, as I noted a couple of weeks back.”

“FWIW—this is pretty common. Folks will swear that there have been changes to the profile when we’ve done nothing, even when we update the app, not the firmware. Anyway, I am keeping an eye on this thread (cause you never know).”

Now we know better. It turns out the users were right. Sonos had tweaked its speakers via the update to sound better.

An example of a brand listening

KeithFromSonos, to his and Sonos’ infinite credit, posted again to Reddit’s Sonos subreddit on August 7 to say, “Over the past couple of days, I had vehemently stood my ground that there had been no changes to the sound profile in the last firmware update.

“Welp, I was wrong. It turns out that a few small DSP fixes were included, which seemed to have an impact on how lower frequencies were represented. We’re glad to hear some folks seem to appreciate the change! 🎶”

“That said, I want to thank everyone for sharing their experiences here on the sub. The placebo effect is a real phenomenon that we encounter regularly. Even so, the sheer number of people sharing their experiences after the update led me to push further with the team and figure out exactly what had happened. As always, we’ll continue listening to your feedback.”

Classy move, and an excellent example of a brand engaging in a real two-way conversation with its consumer base.

Did Sonos get it wrong the first time? Yeah. But it listened to its users, all the while going out to meet them in the places they gather online, rather than making them come to Sonos. And when Keith from Sonos took the feedback and looked deeper into the issue, he owned up to it.

All in all, Sonos might have come out of this little episode looking better than before it began.