Today, Sonos has officially announced a new speaker in its family, Sonos Roam. This is more affordable, portable, bluetooth compatible Sonos speaker. While this can be the first Sonos speaker for many, Roam will be a great addition to even Sonos enthusiast.
What’s Sonos?
Sonos are often referred to as a paradigm of multi-room Wireless speakers. Its cost performance as a multi-room wireless speaker undoubtedly put each of their speakers as reference standard.
Sonos Roam Specifications
Audio
- Two Class-H Amplifiers Perfectly tuned to the drivers and speaker’s unique acoustic architecture.
- One Custom Racetrack Mid-Woofer Ensures faithful playback of mid-range frequencies and maximizes low-end output.
- One Tweeter Creates crisp high frequencies.
- High-Efficiency Motor Increases power and range.
- Adjustable EQ
- Settings include bass, treble, and loudness.
- Far-Field Microphone Array Uses advanced beamforming and multi-channel echo cancellation to readily activate voice assistants.
- Automatic Trueplay™ Tuning Technology Uses spatial awareness to smartly adjust the sound for the speaker’s orientation, location, and content. Available on WiFi and Bluetooth.
Physical
- Dimensions 6.61 x 2.44 x 2.36 inches (168 x 62 x 60 mm)
- Weight 0.95 lb (0.43 kg)
- IP Rating Rated IP67 for protection from dust and water. Can be submerged in up to 1m of water for 30 minutes.
- Finish Matte; Available in Shadow Black and Lunar White.
- Top Panel Features Tactile buttons make it easy to play, pause, skip and adjust volume, protecting against accidental presses.
- LED Lights Indicate speaker status, microphone status, battery status, and voice feedback.
Power and Networking
- Battery Provides up to 10 hours of continuous playback on a single charge and lasts up to 10 days in sleep mode.
- Power Supply USB-C port 15W, 5V/3A.
- Recharging Recharge with the included USB-C cable and a compatible USB power adapter, or a wireless Qi charger. Magnetically snaps to Sonos custom wireless charger, sold separately.
- Wireless Connectivity Connects to WiFi network with any 802.11b/g/n/ac 2.4 or 5 GHz broadcast-capable router.
- Bluetooth Stream music and more with Bluetooth 5.0.
- Apple AirPlay 2 Works with AirPlay 2 on Apple devices iOS 11.4 and later.
- Operating Temperature 41°F to 95°F (5°C to 35°C)
Pricing and Availability
Available starting April 20, 2021 in the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Latin America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Eastern Europe, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, UAE/KSA and Turkey. Japan to follow.
USD $169 / CAD $229 / GBP £159 / EUR €179 / AUD $279 / NZD $319
Deep Dive
Let’s take a closer look at Roam’s core features. There are five features made me click “preorder” on the Roam.
Third generation Trueplay™ Tuning Technology is here
The concept of tuning audio to its spatial environment is considered as an important factor amongst audiophiles. The impact of where you place a speaker, how your room is designed have significant effect on the sound stage of speakers. Therefore, this type of spatial context audio tuning is not unique to the Sonos. However, in general this is a feature not incorporated in a budget centric speakers. In the world of Sonos, this technology is named “Trueplay”.
The first generation/version of Trueplay used iOS device as an audio measurement tool i.e. speaker played tuning sound while I walked around the room with iPhone in my hand. Yes, this version of Trueplay requires specific iOS devices and no android device can be used here.
The second generation version of Trueplay made this process “automatic” on the Sono’s first Portable speaker, Sonos Move. In this version of the Trueplay, it uses speaker’s built in microphone for tuning and do not require third party device.
In the second generation, Sonos Move was only able to do automatic TruePlay tuning only when it was connected to the Wi-Fi. However, with the introduction of the Sonos Roam, I call the third generation of the Trueplay is here. Automatic Trueplay tuning now works even on bluetooth i.e. outside environment tuning is now possible. The great news to existing Sonos users, this feature is also available for Sonos Move (ref).
Automatic Trueplay tuning now works even on bluetooth i.e. outside environment tuning is now possible. The great news to existing Sonos users, this feature is also available for Sonos Move.
Will this make a huge difference in the sound quality? Well, only the time will tell but there are certainly those people/environment where one would notice significant difference in the sound quality with the Trueplay tuning.
Bathroom companion
The roam has the best IP rating yet of the Sonos speaker family. With the rating of the IP67, the speaker can be submerged in up to 1m of water for 30 minutes. This means Sonos Roam can be used inside the shower.
Sonos Roam can be used inside the shower.
Sonos fully immersing into the Bluetooth World
From the sound quality stand point of view, Wi-Fi connectivity is superior to the bluetooth technology. Sonos has used this argument for years before introducing its first Portable speaker, Sonos Move, that is capable of bluetooth music play. This is simply because not every place/occasion, one has Wi-Fi connectivity option. Using speaker without Wi-Fi connectivity as in outside, bluetooth is indeed the only reasonable wireless alternative. However, we even have a situation like a guest who wants to share their music. As allowing every guests to connect to your Wi-Fi network has its own security risk, this is not an option for everyone, especially just to allow sharing their music. Another great real world situation where bluetooth connectivity is needed.
So one can imagine how much Sonos followers got excited when the Sonos Move was first introduced from the bluetooth connectivity stand point of view. Well, one of the big disappointment; however, has hit many as one finds out more detail. What Sonos Move does is 1 in 2 mode type operation. While connecting to Wi-Fi Sonos Move acts as fully capable Sonos speaker. When you want to take the Sonos sounds to outside, it has a capability morph into a bluetooth Portable speaker.
So what’s the issue here? Well, one of the reason why Sonos and its alike Wi-Fi speakers got their popularity is because of the multi-room capability i.e. playing the same music across multiple speakers. In the past, bluetooth streamed music on Sonos Move were not on the Sonos network; hence, not capable to be played in multi-room. However, the Roam will change this. To some, the Sonos Roam may even been seen as a bridge device to add bluetooth connectivity to Sonos Network.
You can play something from your phone with Bluetooth on the Roam and extend it across your whole multiroom Sonos system. (Yes, the company confirmed to me that this is also an easy way to get Bluetooth-enabled turntables playing on all your Sonos speakers
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/9/22319251/sonos-roam-pricing-features-release-date
Sonos Roam may even been seen as a bridge device to add bluetooth connectivity to Sonos Network.
Sound Swap – “Sonos way of Handoff”
Technologies can try couple different business strategy. One approach is ecosystem based. More you are immersed in the ecosystem, the more feature you get. Apple is the paradigm of the technology company succeeding with such business model. In the world of Wireless audio, Sonos holds the spot of Apple.
With iOS devices and HomePod, I can bring my iPhone close to the HomePod mini and what’s been played on iPhone transfers to the HomePod mini. If the HomePod mini was playing music and I hold my iPhone to it, the music transfers and starts to play on my iPhone. It is a cool feature, and it is called “handoff” in Apple ecosystem.
With the Sonos Roam, Sonos has introduced sound swap technology, which is the Sonos’ way of Handoff. Hold play button on Sonos Roam and music that being played on Roam will start playing on the nearest Sonos speaker in the house, just like hand-off in Apple ecosystem. Then of course, the other way also works i.e. hold Roam close to the other Sonos speaker playing music and press and hold Roam’s play/pause button, the music swap back to the Roam (ref).
sound swap technology, which is the Sonos’ way of Handoff.
Portable HiFi Sound
This is to be determined, but I cannot imagine Sonos would fail on the sound quality. It may not be the best sounding portable speaker on the market. In fact, Sonos Move, considering its size, for sure have better sound than the Roam. However, Sonos have proven it can produce top in cost performance speaker one after another when it comes to the sound quality. So even before hearing or seeing any review about its sound quality, I can say with a relative confidence, it will have one of the top sound quality for the portable speaker of its size class. In fact, if for nothing else, most Portable speakers are limited to bluetooth connectivity, which is currently limited to sub-CD quality audio streaming. So the fact, Roam supports Wi-Fi connectivity put it ahead of pretty much all portable speakers for maximum sound quality setting.
Conclusion
Sonos Roam can serve a two extreme of Sonos users. Those who are looking for an introduction to Sonos ecosystem. This is unlikely to have matching sound quality of Sonos Ones or Move, but its portability and bluetooth capability make the Roam as good standalone speaker that are likely to produce superior sound to other portable bluetooth speakers. For Sonos enthusiasts/addicts, if for nothing else, Roam can be seen as a bridge device to connect your whole home Sonos system to bluetooth device (finally).