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Sonos Unveils Portable $169 Roam Speaker With AirPlay 2, Sound Swap, and More

zorinlynx said:
This looks great! I hope it supports WiFi direct for AirPlay. The nice thing about AirPlay is that it is lossless, unlike Bluetooth which recompresses the music as part of the protocol. AirPlay will almost always sound better than Bluetooth.

But without WiFi direct, you can't use AirPlay when away from your home WiFi network. WiFi direct allows you to stream directly to the speaker anywhere.
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Yeah my solution for this problem was to purchase the RAVpower wireless travel router. I have it set to be the same wifi and credentials as my home network so when I travel with 7 speakers I turn it on they all just connect to the wifi wherever I am and airplay works great.
 
Not bad. I use a UE Boom 3 as my portable speaker now, but already own 3 other Sonos speakers so I'll give this a shot. Dimensions appear slightly smaller than the UEB3 so that's a plus. If it can match it's sound I'll be sold
 
zorinlynx said:
That's what I don't get; Apple had a perfect chance to compete in this space; all they had to do was add a battery. But nope, they released another decent speaker that needs to be tethered to a power source.
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Apple knew better. Wasn't a casual decision or something they forgot about.
 
axantas said:
Sonos unfortunately lost me the moment, I had to ditch my Connect to remain compatible with the new system software. Too risky to invest in a setup of several old Play:1, Play:3 and new Hardware from them.
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That sucks. At first I didn’t think my older connect or amp we’re going to make it but I think it was only ones sold before 2015. But it’s not like they made them obsolete, you just couldn’t use them in the same system as the Sonos arc. You didn’t have to upgrade to the new system because there weren’t any new benefits other than Sonos radio. Other than the arc supporting atmos, there wasn’t truly a reason to upgrade before this speakers new features. I do agree it does suck. You would think there would be a way, to upgrade speakers that could take advantage of the new S2 features, but then them still be recognized in the S1 app. To me, that was the most disappointing thing.
 
citysnaps said:
Apple knew better. Wasn't a casual decision or something they forgot about.
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Nice to know that you know what Apple is thinking. And when Apple comes out with a portable unit, what will you say then? No need to answer. We all know exactly how you will spin it.
 
playaproved said:
The Sonos Move was my first entry into the Sonos ecosystem. Since then I’ve picked up an Arc/Sub combo and preordered the Roam. I’ll be adding another Arc/Sub combination for the bedroom when the sales hit.

Sonos plays great with my other airplay products and there isn’t a better audio product on the market that blends sound quality, ease of use and product quality. I’m bought in heavily.
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I recently picked up an ARC and Gen 3 sub for my living room and love it. Not sure if I have a use for this roam though.
 
The Sonos Move was my first entry into the Sonos ecosystem. Since then I’ve picked up an Arc/Sub combo and preordered the Roam. I’ll be adding another Arc/Sub combination for the bedroom when the sales hit.
playaproved said:
Sonos plays great with my other airplay products and there isn’t a better audio product on the market that blends sound quality, ease of use and product quality. I’m bought in heavily.
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And then 2 years from now you’ll be doing it again because the S3 app won’t connect to the S2 equipment. I had beam, sub, 2x Play 1’s set up in 2 different rooms. HDMI Arc was so inconsistent on both TVs that I had to reset the whole system all the time. Sold all this overpriced Sonos stuff, got 2 homepods for each room and put $1,400 back in my pocket. Best move I’ve made in a long time. No connection issues between homepods and Apple TV 4K. No resetting anything. It’s been great. So is does sound good, but I don’t need a movie theater in my living room.
 
coachgq said:
The Sonos Move was my first entry into the Sonos ecosystem. Since then I’ve picked up an Arc/Sub combo and preordered the Roam. I’ll be adding another Arc/Sub combination for the bedroom when the sales hit.

And then 2 years from now you’ll be doing it again because the S3 app won’t connect to the S2 equipment. I had beam, sub, 2x Play 1’s set up in 2 different rooms. HDMI Arc was so inconsistent on both TVs that I had to reset the whole system all the time. Sold all this overpriced Sonos stuff, got 2 homepods for each room and put $1,400 back in my pocket. Best move I’ve made in a long time. No connection issues between homepods and Apple TV 4K. No resetting anything. It’s been great. So is does sound good, but I don’t need a movie theater in my living room.
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Maybe it was your TVs.... you could have also used the included optical to hdmi dongle. I have two beams, a playbar, and arc. None of them give me problems. Crazy you bought two surround sound setups before you realized you didn’t need “theater sound.” 🙄. Nothing anyone purchased “new” lost support after two years. Some products bought before 2015 lost support but not all.
 
robjulo said:
Nice to know that you know what Apple is thinking. And when Apple comes out with a portable unit, what will you say then? No need to answer. We all know exactly how you will spin it.
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You're welcome. Apple will not come out with a portable HomePod. Nothing will need to be spun.


"And when Apple comes out with a portable unit,"

Heh... And now it seems you know what Apple is thinking.

Relax.
 
Like any form of pollution, governments should place a tax on these things to resolve the problem of externalities they create. Preferably a high tax.
 
I'm interested to hear how this actually functions. I'm wondering if it has to be hooked up to USB-C or on the QI charger in order for WiFi/Airplay to be used? If not I would have to believe that would have a major impact on the battery life. It wouldn't surprise me if that 10 hour battery life on bluetooth is suddenly 1-2 hours when using WiFi/Airplay.
 
as a disgruntled megablast owner who constantly runs into charging, connectivity, and all kinds of other issues, I am preordering this. Hopefully this will fix my bluetooth speaker streaming problems
 
Maybe a good speaker but beware of Lithium batteries as they chemically loose any power after 3-5 years.
Therefore you must rely on Sonos providing battery as spare parts. Because DIY is a challenge with Lithium batteries.
So far, I have been happy with my Pulse Flex 2 by Bluesound (Airplay2 and BT and Digital input and...) and moreover 8 replaceable NiMH batteries.
 
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