Again, I agree, and I didn’t buy two for the purpose of portability, but rather I was impressed with the size and sound (always a Sonos plus for me) and where I intended to use them.  I even intended to accept “plugged in all the time” if it would work, but tech support told me that would severely diminish the battery life by doing that, so that was a non-starter, and like you say, without sound they eventually sleep, as they should. So, I have seen no movement by Sonos to make a change or even commit to development, other than customer support “opening a ticket” for consideration by the developers, with the caveat, “but there is no guarantee they will act on it” as I was told.  As such, I will returning the second one and accept no stereo for me. (Except in other rooms where I have One’s and One SL’s paired). BUMMER!!!!!

There was a software update yesterday which deals with this some, have you installed that?

Add mine to the chorus of voices Sonos apparently doesn’t care to listen to with regards to problems stereo pairing two Roams.

It’s not even something I want them to do very often. Typically, they just sit in different parts of the home. But we’re leaving on a road trip, so I thought I’d pair them as stereo and take them as a mini-system on the road for two weeks of travel. That’s not going to happen.

The two don’t even stay paired for longer than a few moments. Tried it on an Android device as well as an iOS device, to see if it might by software related. Fails on both Android and iOS within moments after initially announcing success in pairing two speakers, quickly reverting to playing music only through one speaker (the one, incidentally, it plays the chime through in the pairing process).

Pairing two speakers as a stereo pair is something Ultimate Ears had down *years* ago. Very disappointing that it clearly doesn’t work well, if at all, on Sonos, given the considerable premium one pays.

Thanks for pointing that out - truly frustrating. Add in that one speaker usually doesn’t play any sound, even though it’s close to the one it’s paired with - you’re right - useless as a pair. 

This has been deeply annoying for me.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1066?language=en_US

This article (now) says that powering off a Roam or a Roam going to sleep will break a pair.  What a terrible design choice.

So they are basically useless as a pair, since you will need to re-pair them all the time.

So frustrating! Just bought a pair of Roams today and already have had to re-pair them a few times - ridiculous. 

I am having same issue with dropping stereo pair as well. My roams are connected Wi-Fi, and seperate every time I turn them off. The do connect back without any issues. It is annoying but I do hope Sonos will address the issue. 

Called support, and they had me power cycle my router to see if it was a UPnP discovery error, and they seem to work better now. (altho, the support technician was also confused about the need to re-pair to stereo after power cycling the Roams, lol)

Same issue losing the stereo pair. (two roams) Raised a ticket with sonos support, casenumber 02829603 (last april!). No reply and never got solved. Another complaint, ability to use the roams as satellites (for example with a beam and/or an ARC). Never got an answer on that one. Although these speakers are not cheap at all, you can only use them as a expensive BT speaker (and for that there are much cheaper options). Not satisfied at all.

A 0.

WTF Sonos? Just got mine today, and setup stereo pair, sound great. Stopped the music for a few hours, and when I play via Spotify or anything, Only the right speaker (primary) plays sound (altho the left will control the music, they still show as paired). This is a similar problem that the Move had last year with Air Play, taking a few minutes to play in stereo. Do you test your products anymore?

This is depressing!! I’d planned buying a second to add a stereo pair in the conservatory or outside. But they would be joining other speakers around the house. I thought they'd act as one speaker, my old Sony cubes worked similarly & brilliantly in stereo, and would join other easily. Is Sonos aware of this as it is a feature they promote?

I created an account just to share my experience with this and possible solution.  
 

Me: Sonos power user/brand advocate with setups in multiple rooms, in ceiling speakers, 3 Amps and 1 port total. iPhone 12 max pro with latest iOS, google fiber/mesh. 
 

Purchased 2 Roams with intent to pair for stereo. Went through same steps. Sonos confirmation audio in stereo. Tried to play music in Music app. Failure. Only 1 speaker played music. Tried reconnecting from other speaker, etc. I could select both speakers separately and they would play together but each in mono. That was not satisfactory at all obviously.  

THIS WAS LITERALLY MY FIRST EVER BAD EXPERIENCE WITH SONOS AND I WAS SOMEWHAT SHOCKED  

I just now randomly tried loading music through the Sonos app instead of iOS Music, which required me to authorize my phone on my Apple Music account (had no idea it wasn't authorized). I logged in, loaded My Library, opened a playlist and suddenly everything plays in stereo. 
 

Note this isn't a perfect fix. I went back to Apple Music app and stereo broke again. But I didn't have to repair the speakers again. I just had to back to Sonos app and load Apple Music in the Sonos app again and back to stereo. Not perfect but good enough for me. 
 

TLDR: if you're having issues using 2 Roams in stereo mode, try loading your music within the Sonos app (ie, use Sonos app to play music.)

Same for me.  I had hoped for a while that a recent update (13.1.1) may have fixed it but again today my Roams went to standby, then show as Offline in the S2 app.  When they show back online they show as individual speakers.  The pairing process is quick but potentially I would have to do it every time I want to use them.

Keeping a portable battery powered speaker on charge all the time is not a solution or even a workaround.  It spoils what is otherwise a great little speaker.  Well the other issue is likely to be the poor battery life.  I thought I was getting 5 days on standby then revised that to 4 and now I think that might be optimistic.  I would be interested to know how Sonos can claim it lasts 10 days on standby.