Why No Bluetooth Stereo on Move and Roam?

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Z
Userlevel 1
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I bought two Roam SL’s today but I didn’t do my due diligence. I didn’t realise that you couldn’t create a stereo pair when using them away from home in Bluetooth mode. I bought them to replace two Megablast speakers which sound excellent but they are too big/heavy to take away on holiday. I also bought the Roams for garden duty and to compliment my existing Sonos system. I’m quite disappointed that I can’t take them on holiday as a stereo pair but it’s my own fault for not doing my homework properly. For the more technical members of the community and aside from any business considerations that Sonos have made, could Bluetooth stereo pairing be introduced by an update if Sonos chose to do so or has the mold been set? Thanks all. 

There are dual-audio mobile streaming BT transmitters on the market, like this example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07J58KY3X

…such devices will ‘pair’ to two BT speakers and play the streaming BT audio in sync to both. I’ve tried this and they do seem to work okay - handy to play to two Roams at a remote location and the device linked above, also has a built-in rechargeable battery that will last the day.

Thank you Ken, I appreciate the advice.

Ken_Griffiths

I bought two Roam SL’s today but I didn’t do my due diligence. I didn’t realise that you couldn’t create a stereo pair when using them away from home in Bluetooth mode. I bought them to replace two Megablast speakers which sound excellent but they are too big/heavy to take away on holiday. I also bought the Roams for garden duty and to compliment my existing Sonos system. I’m quite disappointed that I can’t take them on holiday as a stereo pair but it’s my own fault for not doing my homework properly. For the more technical members of the community and aside from any business considerations that Sonos have made, could Bluetooth stereo pairing be introduced by an update if Sonos chose to do so or has the mold been set? Thanks all. 

There are dual-audio mobile streaming BT transmitters on the market, like this example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07J58KY3X

…such devices will ‘pair’ to two BT speakers and play the streaming BT audio in sync to both. I’ve tried this and they do seem to work okay - handy to play to two Roams at a remote location and the device linked above, also has a built-in rechargeable battery that will last the day.

Z
Userlevel 1
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I bought two Roam SL’s today but I didn’t do my due diligence. I didn’t realise that you couldn’t create a stereo pair when using them away from home in Bluetooth mode. I bought them to replace two Megablast speakers which sound excellent but they are too big/heavy to take away on holiday. I also bought the Roams for garden duty and to compliment my existing Sonos system. I’m quite disappointed that I can’t take them on holiday as a stereo pair but it’s my own fault for not doing my homework properly. For the more technical members of the community and aside from any business considerations that Sonos have made, could Bluetooth stereo pairing be introduced by an update if Sonos chose to do so or has the mold been set? Thanks all. 

H
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

The question that really matters, surely, is: "For how many potential purchasers is lack of stereo pairing over Bluetooth a deal breaker?"

I would venture to suggest that the answer is "hardly any".

If so, Sonos' decision not to have this feature is neither embarrassing nor inexplicable. 

I don’t agree, this is an important feature that my old Bose micro speakers support and I love! I am also sure that many Sonos users would buy more than one roam or move if they could be paired!

100% agree. 

I love my roam but won’t buy a second until Bluetooth stereo pairing is available. I’m aware that may not happen so the ball is in Sonos court 
 

 

K

The question that really matters, surely, is: "For how many potential purchasers is lack of stereo pairing over Bluetooth a deal breaker?"

I would venture to suggest that the answer is "hardly any".

If so, Sonos' decision not to have this feature is neither embarrassing nor inexplicable. 

I don’t agree, this is an important feature that my old Bose micro speakers support and I love! I am also sure that many Sonos users would buy more than one roam or move if they could be paired!

G

I was interested in getting a pair of Roam speakers, until I found out that Bluetooth pairing for stereo isn’t available. I’ll probably get some other brand that has that feature, and unless they turn out to be crap I doubt if I would return for Roam speakers even if the Bluetooth feature becomes available later. That’s my 2 cents.

 

“Or the bunny gets it” posting aside, if you are uninterested in the Sonos Wi-Fi features of the Roam, it is probably best to get a plain old Bluetooth speaker.  

It’s not that I’m uninterested in the Wi-Fi. I would probably use that more often than Bluetooth. When Bluetooth is the only option, I would want stereo pairing.

jgatie

I was interested in getting a pair of Roam speakers, until I found out that Bluetooth pairing for stereo isn’t available. I’ll probably get some other brand that has that feature, and unless they turn out to be crap I doubt if I would return for Roam speakers even if the Bluetooth feature becomes available later. That’s my 2 cents.

 

“Or the bunny gets it” posting aside, if you are uninterested in the Sonos Wi-Fi features of the Roam, it is probably best to get a plain old Bluetooth speaker.  

G

I was interested in getting a pair of Roam speakers, until I found out that Bluetooth pairing for stereo isn’t available. I’ll probably get some other brand that has that feature, and unless they turn out to be crap I doubt if I would return for Roam speakers even if the Bluetooth feature becomes available later. That’s my 2 cents.

V
Userlevel 3

Buying new pair of speakers for portable use.

C’mon Sonos, still no stereo pair on bluetooth Roam? Dealbreaker for me :-(

Gonna throw my bucks to Flare 2 most probably..

J

Excellent insights Danny.  It shows how daft a comment is “There are $20 BT speakers that can pair” (apart from probably being incorrect).  To dredge up an old analogy, a Dacia Duster can go off-road and a Ferrari Testarossa can’t, but it doesn’t mean that the Dacia is a better car, or that you’d want to modify the Ferrari.

melvimbe

One aspect of this that has not been mention is that the feature needs to be easy to use.  Sonos surely would not want to implement a feature if it’s too complicated for most customers to want to use.  And although bluetooth stereo pairing is an easy feature for a device that only does bluetooth, it gets a bit more complicated when the speaker also does WiFi.

So in the case where a Roam/Move can be paired in WiFi (Sonos room) or bluetooth, you can configure two speakers (call them A and B in the following ways.

1 -  A  is a Sonos room, and B is a separate Sonos room

1a  - A is a Sonos room, B is bluetooth

1b -  A is bluetooth, B is a Sonos room

1c - A is bluetooth, Bi is bluetooth, but not a stereo pair

1d  - A &B are a bluetooth stereo pair

2 - A&B are a stereo pair Sonos room

2a  - A is a Sonos room, B is bluetooth

2b -  A is bluetooth, B is a Sonos room

2c - A is bluetooth, Bi is bluetooth, but not a stereo pair

2d  - A &B are a bluetooth stereo pair.

 

(1) and (2) would be done through setup, but all the variations need to be able done quickly, likely through hard buttons on the speaker, in order for them to meet an ‘ease of use’ standard.    You also need to easily be able to get them back to their original Sonos room(s) state….something they don’t do very well right now, in my opinion.

Oh, and lets not forget that a Roam can be on Wifi and bluetooth at the same time, which complicates things a lot more.  How would that work for the different scenarios?  Say you had a stereo pair Sonos room, that you wanted to split to two different bluetooth sources, and then share the two audio streams with the rest of your system.  How can you send two stream from what Sonos sees as a single Sonos room? Or perhaps you have two Sonos rooms, but you want to use them as a stereo pair over bluetooth, while sharing the audio stream with the rest of your system.  Maybe you have to put in some rules that allows some situations but not others?

There’s also auto trueplay tuning, and smart home control impacts that need to be looked at.  Not sure they are more complicated with bluetooth stereo pair, but that would need to be thought through.

The point is that although bluetooth stereo pairing is easy to do in abstract sense, when you get down to the practicality of a pair of speakers used for WiFi and bluetooth in multiple ways, ease of use gets a lot harder to accomplish.

 

Danny
J

Also, whether they are stupid or not is irrelevant. But it IS ridiculous that speakers that were designed to travel speakers with stereo pairing CANNOT BE USED IN ANY HOTEL CHAIN IN THE WORLD as a stereo pair. So it is is not a stretch to say, “Yeah, that decision (or oversight) was pretty stupid.”

Sorry, I disagree.  Your statement is only valid if this is how a worthwhile proportion of users want to use the speakers, and don’t buy them because this feature is absent.  I don’t know if that is the case or not.  My guess is that Sonos think not, or at least that its absence at launch would not significantly affect sales.  I suspect they are right, but of course I don’t know that.  It cannot possibly be an oversight, because the same things were said about the Move.  Right or wrong, it is a deliberate choice.

But anyway, there are clearly some users - and potential users - out there who would value this feature highly, and they have every right to make that request on here.  I would not be at all surprised if this feature were added at some point, and I shall be happy for those who want it if it happens.

M
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Isn't the fact that WiFi and Bluetooth pairing are different technologies part of the explanation why Sonos has not incorporated BT pairing? It is certainly possible and Sonos have chosen not to add it. I presume this was a purely commercial judgement. Sonos may be right and they may be wrong, but despite what some contributors to this thread seem to think, they are not stupid.

I kinda answered this above. The earlier poster was wrong to say “If it can be done via Wi-Fi why not via Bluetooth?” That’s not relevant because they are different technologies and cannot be compared. But both technologies are independently able to use two independent speakers as a stereo pair. 

Also, whether they are stupid or not is irrelevant. But it IS ridiculous that speakers that were designed to travel speakers with stereo pairing CANNOT BE USED IN ANY HOTEL CHAIN IN THE WORLD as a stereo pair. So it is is not a stretch to say, “Yeah, that decision (or oversight) was pretty stupid.”

J

Isn't the fact that WiFi and Bluetooth pairing are different technologies part of the explanation why Sonos has not incorporated BT pairing? It is certainly possible and Sonos have chosen not to add it. I presume this was a purely commercial judgement. Sonos may be right and they may be wrong, but despite what some contributors to this thread seem to think, they are not stupid.

M
Badge

The question that really matters, surely, is: "For how many potential purchasers is lack of stereo pairing over Bluetooth a deal breaker?"

I would venture to suggest that the answer is "hardly any".

If so, Sonos' decision not to have this feature is neither embarrassing nor inexplicable. 

I’m impressed with the speakers quality but the fact that I can’t use my pair on the move is ridiculous! If it can be done via Wi-Fi why not via Bluetooth?

it’s totally inexplicable, embarrassing and ridiculous! I’m selling mine as battery life is also an issue for me. 

Someone is bound to mention that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are different technologies. So that isn’t the issue.

 

But everyone knows that Bluetooth can already pair two wireless devices as a stereo pair. There is no technical reason that these should not be able to be paired via Bluetooth.
 

Also, Bluetooth pairing is much simpler than Sonos’ implementation of Wi-Fi pairing. It takes forever to repair them when I change locations, and they can only be paired if the location uses a standard Wi-Fi login/password combination. If your location requires a proprietary login screen one of you speakers is going to be a brick.

R

The question that really matters, surely, is: "For how many potential purchasers is lack of stereo pairing over Bluetooth a deal breaker?"

I would venture to suggest that the answer is "hardly any".

If so, Sonos' decision not to have this feature is neither embarrassing nor inexplicable. 

I’m impressed with the speakers quality but the fact that I can’t use my pair on the move is ridiculous! If it can be done via Wi-Fi why not via Bluetooth?

it’s totally inexplicable, embarrassing and ridiculous! I’m selling mine as battery life is also an issue for me. 

M
Badge

The question that really matters, surely, is: "For how many potential purchasers is lack of stereo pairing over Bluetooth a deal breaker?"

I would venture to suggest that the answer is "hardly any".

If so, Sonos' decision not to have this feature is neither embarrassing nor inexplicable. 

I’d venture to suggest that you are wrong. Roam is designed to be portable--i.e. travel--speaker. You cannot pair them to hotel internet. There are LOTS of people working as digital nomads that would be looking for this feature. Any $20 pair of wireless earbuds can pair as a set. It is ridiculous that these cannot. 

G
Userlevel 7

@Diablo60 You spent “upward of 3K” on Sonos devices… they must be doing something right.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
D

Why isn't stereo pairing via Bluetooth available on either the Move or Roam?

I have Bluetooth speakers from 2015 that cost $50 each that have stereo pairing capability.  I spent over $850 on a pair of Move's and was shocked to find they didn't have this capability.  It's a little mind boggling of an audio tech leader (and premium priced) Sonos product.
 
I'd be interested in purchasing a pair of the new Roam's, but without Bluetooth stereo pairing capability, I'm going to pass.  My primary use for these would be the beach, which obviously doesn't have Wi-Fi.
 
Are there any plans to add Bluetooth stereo pairing capability to the Roam or Move?  If not, why?
 
 

It appears SONOS isn't listening to us customers.  BOYCOTT THEIR PRODUCTS...   I have spent upward of 3K on the system I have in my home. Next upgrade I will steer far away from SONOS. The Bluetooth stereo pairing is a big disappointment.  Their customer service sucks as well...

 

No comment or update from SONOS means they probably aren't working on a solution, got our money, and just don't care.

BOYCOTT SONOS.

M

I would also like to put my vote in to add bluetooth stereo.  I love most of the sonos products (I have speakers in every room!) but I have to say not having bluetooth stereo on the Roams is extremely disappointing, especially when when it’s a highly available feature in other portable speakers.  For now, I have to bring a hotspot around so I can use them...

W
Userlevel 2

Network stack doesn’t matter with BT. That is for tcpip protocol.   
each Bluetooth device has a unique identifier known as BD_ADDR.  your phone/tablet can connect to multiple BT devices simultaneously.   
as with UE,  it will be the app that does the work of addressing the 2 speakers in stereo. 
so yes, the chipset supports it.  

Airgetlam

I certainly haven’t opened one, nor have I found any published information about the hardware inside, so perhaps I don’t know which chipset the network stack is interacting with. 

Bruce
airforceteacher
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

Hardware already supports.  It’s an app change.  Guess you are not a technically savvy person.   

 

You’ve looked up the Bluetooth chipset and confirmed this? 

W
Userlevel 2

Hardware already supports.  It’s an app change.  Guess you are not a technically savvy person.   

Airgetlam

Unless it requires a second set of electronics and antenna to handle a separate signal coming from either the other Roam or from the bluetooth generating device.

Not difficult at all. Sonos could just have everyone send in their  Roams for them to get the second set of electronics. They’d likely need to charge for such a service, since opening up the older devices and inserting new electronics might be challenging….if there’s even space for it. And they’d likely have to change their current manufacturing process to reflect the new stuff inside the Roam, and charge more, since the cost of goods would be going up. 

Piece of cake. Nothing to it, especially if the current antenna and electronics already handle all of that. In which case, why wouldn’t they have already done this for release?

Bruce
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