Meet Sonos Roam, the ultra-portable smart speaker

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We’re happy to introduce you all to Sonos Roam, the ultra-portable smart speaker built to deliver great sound at home and on any adventure. Fully connected to your Sonos system on WiFi at home and automatically switching to Bluetooth when you’re on the go, Roam’s powerful, adaptable sound defies expectations for a speaker of its size. Effortless set-up and control and new smart features make it easier than ever to enjoy music and more from anywhere. Weighing less than a pound (450g), Roam’s elegant yet durable design is perfect for your home, the backyard, and wherever you go.

Get to know Sonos Roam

A simultaneous connection to both WiFi and Bluetooth makes streaming wherever you are seamless. When you’re listening at home Roam connects to your system and streams on WiFi, and when you leave it intuitively switches to Bluetooth and automatically re-pairs with your mobile device.

With an all-new feature called Sound Swap, you can hold the play/pause button on the speaker to switch the music to the nearest speaker on your system, making it easy to move music from room-to-room.

Sonos Roam (left) and Sonos Move (right)

Seamless connectivity also unlocks Bluetooth streaming for your entire system, with the Sonos app allowing you to group any of your Sonos speakers to Roam when streaming with Bluetooth. Roam works with more than 100 streaming services, including Sonos Radio, and is easily controlled with the Sonos app, your voice with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, Apple AirPlay 2, or directly from your favorite music service app.

Roam was created to deliver an incredible sound experience no matter where you are. Like all Sonos products, Roam was tuned by industry leaders across music and film to ensure the speaker reproduces content exactly how the creator intended. A carefully designed acoustic architecture delivers rich, detailed sound with the clarity, depth, and fullness you’d expect from a larger speaker.

Automatic Trueplay is now available when streaming via Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi, and means Roam is always tuned for the best listening experience in any environment.

Available in shadow black or lunar white, Roam’s tactile triangular shape and soft profile is comfortable to pick up and looks great inside the home. Combining elegance and durability, Roam is dust proof and fully waterproof with a rigorously tested IP67 rating, and features silicone end caps and physical buttons to protect against drops or bumps.

Roam is ready for any adventure with up to 10 hours of continuous playback on a single charge and up to 10 days of battery life when not in use.

To recharge, Roam connects to a custom magnetic wireless charger from Sonos sold separately, any Qi wireless charger, or with the USB-C cable included in the box.

Roam’s compact size will fit into any bag or the smallest corner of your living space. Listeners can place Roam vertically for a smaller footprint or horizontally to provide added stability on uneven surfaces outdoors. Even the packaging leaves a light footprint, with a structure that is made of 100% sustainably-sourced paper, minimizes the use of inks, and includes no single-use plastics.

Roam is available starting April 20 for $169, €179, £159, NOK1799, SEK1999, DKK1349. You can pre-order today on sonos.com.

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SpivR

Trending Lyricist I

Hi @melvimbe,

I’ve checked with our engineering team, and they’ve confirmed that this is expected behaviour. Roam Stereo Pairs can be relatively fragile and are more susceptible to be being broken than that of stereo pairs of other players. Additionally, Roam Stereo pairs don't automatically recreate after being broken.

There are three main reasons why a stereo pair of Roams can be broken:

If one targets a member of a Roam stereo pair via bluetooth it will break the pair
If one member of the Roam stereo pair is physically moved elsewhere it will break the pair
If one member of the Roam stereo pair runs out of battery it will break the stereo pair

It seems like you’re hitting point number 2 which explains what you’ve written above. Currently, when a Roam stereo pair is broken, it has to be manually recreated in app. I understand that’s not the experience you’re looking for, and I’ve fed this back to the Product Development team for future consideration. If you have any other questions let me know.

Thanks for this James. That’s a good comprehensive answer. I think I’ve experienced points 1 and 2. It also seems like just powering off a speaker breaks the pair, but I suspect perhaps that’s a part of point 2 (or 3). The result is that one of the speakers just isn’t ‘there’ to pair with, and therefore, the pair is broken. I would like for the pair to reform when the missing speaker returns, but I can also see why that would be somewhat confusing since that’s not an option for point 1 (bluetooth). I would guess that in normal everyday use, point 1 is what will break a pair most often...my random testing doesn’t reflect typical use.

While I’m talking about negatives, I also can’t seem to get the speaker swap function to work. This is most likely is user error, as I’m not sure I’m holding and releasing the play/pause button with the right timing. I personally would rather have an additional button for speaker swapping, rather than reusing the same buttons. Same goes for the power/bluetooth mode button.

I really am pretty impressed with the sound quality. It’s great for small spaces, and I don’t really feel like the bass is missing or doesn’t get loud enough. Also tried it on my android with both speakers connected via bluetooth (mono) and thought it was pretty impressive, And I am surprised how much I like it in lunar white.

Having the paring break because one of the Roam’s battery runs down first is very annoying. To the casual consumer they didn’t do anything wrong yet their setup keeps getting FUBAR’d.

It would be extremely valuable to have an advanced setting to force the pairing to be restored / never break. The default could stay as is, but with an advanced setting, everyone could have what they want.

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SpivR

Trending Lyricist I

Seeing tremendous battery drain with both of my Roam’s. If I set them down and come back to them a few days later, they are both 0%.

I have tracked this down to the poor UI/UX of the power/wake/sleep button and modes.

If the Roam is not plugged into USB-C, and not sitting on the wireless charger base, it will keep waking up and the battery will discharge.

I have also found the single button being used for power on, power off, sleep mode, bluetooth mode, and full reboot differing only in duration of press and mode of when pressed (different functions based on whether pressed from power off, power on, etc.) it appears flaky and unreliable to consumers, not power users.

Most other portable speakers have at least two buttons - one for power modes, and a second dedicated only to Bluetooth pairing.

Don’t see a quick fix for that, but for the battery discharge problems, I would strongly request that the sleep mode be changed either as a default or with an advanced setting that allows the user to specify that after the Roam goes to sleep, it should then proceed to full power off after xx time (minutes or hours) and not power on again until the power button is pressed.

This should apply if not plugged in to USB-C or sitting on wireless charger. This will then function as users expect - go to sleep if briefly inactive, but go to full power down if not used within a reasonable time of going to sleep. Roam’s would then not run down their batteries and have a nasty surprise when you “grab and go” a few days later.

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Hobbit_CZ

Lyricist III

Except when you use Google Assistant it would shout at you like crazy and there is no option to put down the assistant volume while keeping the main volume up (because you are playing some Netflix movies which are many times very quiet). Sonos promised change 2 years ago (and it is very simple software adjustment) but delivered nothing.

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Brad7205

Lyricist I

Just received my Sonos roam. It’s broken such that the sound crackles and suggests it’s blown. I sat on the phone waiting for Sonos for 10 minutes. They asked for a video and said they would send me a case number to upload it. Instead, I received an email that says they are unable to continue, and there is no option given to continue other than starting over with another phone call. So, I have to start the process all over. This is unacceptable customer service and quickly becoming a waste of my time. I am ready to send this broken product back. It’s unreasonable for me to receive a broken product and then have to do all the legwork on my side to get a replacement or a refund. Let’s see if my follow up yields a better customer service result.

chicks

3rd party measurements on ASR.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/sonos-roam-spinorama-and-measurements-more-proof-mainstream-speakers-can-be-real-good.23433/

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Hobbit_CZ

Lyricist III

Returning my Sonos Roam today. Google Assistant is shouting like crazy and it is impossible to lower it’s volume and keep volume of movies or music up. AirPlay from Macbook just doesn’t work. It takes few seconds to start playing (very annoying, because movie is already running), when you pause for like 5 minutes, it won’t start playing at all and you have to switch to internal speakers and back to Sonos. If you play from VLC, many videos will completely loss sync between video and audio. Useless.

BMF

Prodigy III

AirPlay from Macbook just doesn’t work. It takes few seconds to start playing (very annoying, because movie is already running), when you pause for like 5 minutes, it won’t start playing at all and you have to switch to internal speakers and back to Sonos. If you play from VLC, many videos will completely loss sync between video and audio.

I think that is more of an issue with airplay on the MacOS end rather than the Sonos end.

I had exactly the same issue when trying to use AirPlay on a different speaker too.

I gave up with AirPlay for this scenario.

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Hobbit_CZ

Lyricist III

Google yelling at me every time I ask it for something is enough if a reason to return it. Sonos promised change like 2 years ago and nothing. This is simple SW tweak. Also if I give up on AirPlay is there any other way how to play from Macbook on Roam?

BMF

Prodigy III

Also if I give up on AirPlay is there any other way how to play from Macbook on Roam?

Bluetooth?

A

Aneirin

Lyricist II

I just set my first Sonos ever, a Roam.

Im not so sure I’m happy with the feature set, though. In today’s world, it is ESSENTIAL to be able to use your speaker as a speakerphone for conferencing on Zoom, Teams, even WhatsApp, Facetime. I find it RIDICULOUS that this isn’t a supported feature.

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