I bought my second Roam recently, to add the option of stereo playback but I must say I’m disappointed with how it works. These are portable rechargeable speakers and will spend a fair amount of time powered off - so with a mic built in (and trueplay++) there’s an obvious opportunity to stereo-up when the laws of physics suggest it makes sense, automatically.
This could be done intelligently:
- If one Roam speaker is playing and another on the same system is turned on and can hear the track playing via the mic (you know it’s a Roam speaker and what it should outputting so can be sure it is the “other” Roam) it should switch to stereo pair automatically.
- You also know what volume it should be playing, so can judge if the distance is too far for decent stereo imaging (and decide NOT to stereo up in that case).
- Grouping with another single Roam (eg by long press play/pause) could switch into stereo by default, with an advanced setting not to if the user so chooses when the speakers can hear each other (or a double long-press to indicate don’t stereo - but surely that would be rare).
- A pair of stereo-upped Roams should separate if the other’s output can no longer be heard when the line level isn’t expected to be silent (eg a track is playing, volume isn’t muted and it’s not playing recorded silence).
You’ll need to continue the (somewhat kludgy) fixed stereo pairing for the Roam SL setups but if “smart” stereo-up was available it would simplify config and make setup so, so flexible.