Now that the Roam has been out for a year plus now I was thinking about purchasing it. There’s a lot of Sonos fan that went out and bought the Roam when it first came out. I was not one of them. I am a firm believer in Sonos products. But also I like to wait a bit to see how the reviews are. Plus I was hoping they would be available in other colors other than white or black. Most of you said that that would not happen any time soon. But this happened a few months ago and I thought again about buying it. But held back. I read and seen a lot of reviews on how there are other portable speakers other there that are better than the Roam. I’m eyeing the JBL Clip 6 right now. That seems to be better than the Roam. Anyone has opinions on the JBL or other portable speakers? Bose would be another choice over the Roam. Maybe someone here can convince me to purchase the Roam?
Hi
Thanks for your post!
I’ve owned a Roam for a while now and am perfectly happy with it - though I admit, I have not removed it from the house yet.
The Roam has a great sound for it’s size, can install Sonos Voice Control, Alexa, or Google Assistant and also meshes seamlessly with your existing Sonos system. This is what makes it stand out from other Bluetooth speakers, which - as far as I am aware - only operate when connected to Bluetooth. Roam is a Sonos speaker with all the features of the rest (streaming, AirPlay, grouped play) that also connects to Bluetooth. It also allows the Bluetooth stream to be shared with the rest of your Sonos system.
I can’t comment on how it sounds compared to other Bluetooth speakers - I just haven’t heard them. It sounds plenty good to me, though.
I hope this helps.
The Wife and I have a couple of Sonos Roam speakers that are used, both at Home and to take with us when ‘out and about’ travelling in the camper van. They work great! The sound is fantastic’ whether the speakers are used standalone, grouped, or even more amazing as a stereo pair on WiFi.
As mentioned the Bluetooth audio sent to a Roam can be group-played to all the other Sonos products that we have at Home.
I also have a small 12v DC TV in the camper that powers a FireTV stick from its USB port (power adapter) and the Fire TV will output its audio over Bluetooth to a Roam, making the sound of the TV far better than it’s built-in speakers. We sometimes lie the Roam horizontal like a small soundbar in front of the TV, the sound difference is great in the small camper.
Because I have WiFi in the camper too, I can even output the FireTV Audio to both Roams (each stood vertical on either side of the TV) and that is just awsome - I love it for playing Amazon music videos.
Anyhow lots of good features including device grouping/ungrouping using the play/pause buttons. SoundSwap between speakers too on WiFi. Play/Pause/Skip tracks and easy Bluetooth/WiFi switching etc.
We use Alexa and SVC, side-by-side on both speakers. Those assistants are ideal to play/control the music and volume, also useful for all the other things too, like early morning Alarms, weather, news and the usual plethora of information that Alexa has access to online.
We get a good 9/10 hours of playback from a single charge, which takes around 2-½ hours using a USB-C charger. The Roam also supports wireless Qi certified charging too.
Anyhow the Roam is great for its price, the ‘huge’ high-quality sound it can produce from such a small speaker though is what really makes it a winner for me.
Now that the Roam has been out for a year plus now I was thinking about purchasing it. There’s a lot of Sonos fan that went out and bought the Roam when it first came out. I was not one of them. I am a firm believer in Sonos products. But also I like to wait a bit to see how the reviews are. Plus I was hoping they would be available in other colors other than white or black. Most of you said that that would not happen any time soon. But this happened a few months ago and I thought again about buying it. But held back.
So you think you’ve been wise to wait before making a purchase. Got it.
I read and seen a lot of reviews on how there are other portable speakers other there that are better than the Roam. I’m eyeing the JBL Clip 6 right now. That seems to be better than the Roam. Anyone has opinions on the JBL or other portable speakers? Bose would be another choice over the Roam. Maybe someone here can convince me to purchase the Roam?
What do you want to do with your portable speaker? What features matter? It sounds like you care about the color and I assume sound quality. Are you interested in connect the speaker to the rest of your Sonos setup? Do you want to be able to use the Roam to bring bluetooth audio to your system. Do you want to pair with a 2nd speaker over WiFi? Over bluetooth? What are your concerns about battery longetivity? Does it need to be waterproof? Voice control?
Sonos is unlikely to come out with a new Sonos portable speaker anytime soon, unless headphones are considered portable. It’s possible that Roam could have more or different colors in the future, but I don’t think they have ever done a 2nd round of colors before. In fact I think this is the first time colors have been available for a device that wasn’t a limited edition.
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