Why No Bluetooth Stereo on Move and Roam?

I was going to buy 2 Sonos Roam speakers for stereo pairing over Bluetooth but when I found out that's not possible I was like WTF. Their are plenty of practical reasons why you need stereo pairing over Bluetooth instead of WI FI because WI FI isn't available everywhere but Bluetooth always is. I was wanting to replace my Dennons but at least I can pair them in stereo using my Bluetooth. I own the Arc with 2 One SL s and absolutely love them but I really wanted 2 Sonos Roams for the Portibility factor however without stereo pairing over Bluetooth your stuck with stereo pairing over WI FI only which sucks. Reality check WI FI isn’t portable  but Bluetooth is .I was wanting to take 2 Roams every time I went to a park etc.  When stereo pairing over Bluetooth is supported only then will I buy 2 Sonos Roam speakers. 

There are many of us that feel your pain.  Some say they don’t think this is a widespread issue with the Roam and Move.  The number of frustrations posted on various sites say otherwise.   The only question is (which no one on this forum seems to know), why would Sonos do this?  It’s deliberate, yes, but a huge oversight on speakers that are marketed as being able to stereo pair, and also marketed as portable with Bluetooth capability.  It must have added some sort of complexity from a financial or engineering standpoint.  

Thank You for the response 

As you’re implying, I don’t think a logical argument could be made that Sonos didn’t know this feature would be desired, or that inclusion wouldn’t make it a significantly better product.  It’s something people expected with the Move that never happened then either.  I can’t imagine there is a deliberate reason for leaving the feature off.  More people would buy a 2nd Roam with this feature, and I can’t imagine leaving the feature off somehow generate sales of other Sonos speakers. If there is a financial reason, it would have to be cost of producing the Roam in hardware or development costs.

I know it sounds simple from the outside looking in, but I really don’t know the complexity of a device that can communicate with multiple devices through WiFi and receive a bluetooth signal….and then send that signal to a nearby partner speaker.  I would guess that it requires the ability to send the signal via bluetooth, as I imagine other speakers do it.  Maybe Sonos intended to do it with WiFi, since they have the hardware, and that’s taken more to develop. Don’t know.

edit:  I should add that although I want bluetooth stereo pairing, I personally find it more cumbersome to deal with de-pairing of my Roam speakers every time I want to use one of them on bluetooth.  It messes up the connection with Alexa and other smart home settings to the point where I’m considering just never using them for bluetooth, or never strereo pairing them for WiFi.

I am coming to much the same conclusion as @melvimbe , whilst recognising that everybody’s use of Sonos is unique to them.  I think the Roam’s sound quality is amazing for its size, but stereo is of little value unless you are sitting in the ‘sweet spot’ and listening fairly attentively.  And I don’t think the Roam is quite good enough for that.  I would rather have a single Move, or possibly even a single One playing in the kitchen, than a stereo pair of Roams.  Purely a personal view, and I don’t expect everyone to agree.

On a different point, just as an experiment, I managed to play by Bluetooth to both my Roams simultaneously using ‘Dual Audio’ from my Samsung S9.  I think ‘Dual Audio’ may be a Samsung customisation rather than a core Android function.  But it worked for me and may be of interest to some users, who perhaps want the greater oomph of two speakers more than they want genuine stereo.  (And, possibly, own a recent Samsung device.)

Edit and further thought - I wonder if I can Dual Audio to my Move and one Roam?  Can’t think why I couldn’t.  Can’t think why I would want to, either.

Edit 2.  This thread has more on Samsung dual audio

Curious as to what you find out. Without doing research, I’d assume that the ‘Dual Audio’ function is just two Bluetooth streams that are the same, and not a left/right stereo separation thing. 

But I concur, I think it’s a mistake for us to consider the Roam as anything other than a ‘personal’ speaker. Trying to force it in to replacing the functions of a Sonos Move, or Sonos One will likely end in unhappiness. The design is too different. 

I would agree that Roam isn’t great for a space like a kitchen.   I think it works better in smaller spaces...but it’s difficult to really to have the Roam play double duty as both your portable speaker outside the home and covering a room in your home.  Can be done, but just not ideal.  I think I would rather have a single Move for this, and just to carry to the backyard for that case.

I don’t think the dual audio is for artificially creating a stereo pair, as that wouldn’t be good for some cases.  We are thinking it in terms of two portable speakers, but I imagine many want to connect to two  pairs of headphones instead.  It would be ideal if you had two kids in the backseat, for example.

I don’t see the Roam as replacing a Move or One, but it is versitle and fits some needs better than a Move or One.  And there are cases where you could use a Move, One, or Roam, but one of them is clearly the best tool for the job….if that makes sense.

At this point, I would be satisfied being able to simply pair my two Moves to my phone via Bluetooth.  Don’t even really need it to be a stereo pair, just run each individually but simultaneously synced to my iPhone.  To increase the volume and expanded listening area when outdoors away from WiFi (tailgates, bonfires, camping, beach, etc.).   Which is what I’m able to do with my Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 mini speakers.  In fact, I can simultaneously pair as many of those to my phone as a I like and space them out.  They’re not stereo paired, but they don’t need to be in an outdoor setting.   Those little guys just don’t have the quality and strength that the Sonos Move has though.  

I agree that the Roam is at the level of personal sound.  I don’t listen to them from any distance.  It is asking too much of small speakers. If I remember my physics correctly, for a point source like a speaker the power will drop off at an inverse of the square of the distance.  So smaller, less powerful speakers just can’t push sound out as far.

Mine are mostly sitting on either corner of my computer work area, no more than a few feet away from me.  When I take a speaker to go out to the BBQ I am still fairly close.  And obviously very close when I am in the shower. And the small enclosed space is perfect for the Roam.

For the kitchen a pair of Play:1s replaced my kitchen stereo a while ago.  They have the power to fill that space at levels I listen at. 

I haven’t turned on any of my stereos since I have been able to stream the local radio stations to my Beam, Playbar & Play Ones, my Play:1s, and now my Roams via Wi-Fi.  And being able to sync up the same music whatever room I am in is great.

But it would be nice to augment the sound from my laptop in stereo using the Bluetooth.  The Roam speakers are close and the sound would be awesome, much the same as the way I can enjoy the Roam Wi-Fi stereo right now.  Not enabling stereo for such great sounding personal speakers is a crying shame.

Me too