Tushar BurmanNov 12, 2021 11:40:24 AM
Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes and sizes, and they usually amazed me how loud they can get – even the small, cheap ones. The Sonos Roam is neither tiny nor cheap, and while it impresses with the sheer volume of the relatively small case, it’s the functionality that really impresses.
What is it?
Sonos is a company that pioneered “multi-room sound” systems – speakers that wirelessly connect and stream in the home. The idea is that you can put one in every room and play a single music source throughout the house. Typically their products were reasonably sized and convenient to place, but certainly not as small as the Roam. This speaker marks their debut in the portable bluetooth speaker category and they have brought all their heritage and firepower to life.
The powerful Sonos Roam loudspeaker looks well made and robust and has a subtle design. Image: Sonos
Physically, it’s elongated, with a rounded triangular cross-section that makes it easy to position flat or upright. The suggested position seems to be standing up, but I found that flat worked just as well. The Sonos Roam is quite heavy, looks well built and robust and the design is restrained. If anything, the basic “SONOS” logo might be a little too big for this understated device. The ends are rubberized and on one you have click-like buttons in relief that make them waterproof. That’s a good thing, because the Roam is waterproof to IP67, for use near the pool, at a picnic or wherever.
A bluetooth speaker with WiFi?
The Sonos Roam, part of the Sonos family of multiroom speakers, is equipped with WiFi and can be integrated into the Sonos system that you may already have in the house. That means you can put it anywhere and it compliments the music already playing through your other speakers. As a bluetooth speaker, this is beyond the scope of what I could buy such a device for, but it makes sense at home as you will likely get much better quality and range over WiFi than you would with simple bluetooth. The system itself is mature, which is reflected in the excellent Sonos app that lets you control the music being played, update the firmware, name and position your system’s speakers, etc.
Throughout the house, Wi-Fi was my preferred method of roam, but it’s not without its limitations. At this point, I am most used to Spotify and its great “Connect” protocol that seems to be tied to everything. All of my Amazon devices (one in each room) can stream Spotify content, so the roam that needs another app to do the same became a bit of a hassle. It wouldn’t be if I were already on their system, but with Spotify, AirPlay and others so ubiquitous now, this relatively new (for India) system could be hard to sell. However, the Roam does support AirPlay 2 for iOS users, so that’s it.
Performance: Very good, but not groundbreaking
To reiterate, speaker manufacturers have gotten very, very good at making very small speakers sound surprisingly big. The Sonos Roam is not alone in this ability, nor is it amazing. My first impression of the speaker that plays music over WiFi was that it goes without saying. You can’t really expect a booming bass from such a small device, but I’ve heard more authority from competing devices. Frequencies beyond the bass seemed to be well represented and the speaker was pleasant to have as it played ambient music. There may be some benefits to the bass from putting it upright instead of laying it flat, but I’m not sure. The Sonos Roam also seems a little polite compared to other speakers of this size I’ve heard. Most of my Amazon Echo devices get louder, although admittedly they don’t sound as sophisticated when they do. The roam didn’t stop even at maximum volume, which I unfortunately had to use due to the politeness.
Sonos includes a technology called “Trueplay” that uses “spatial awareness” to optimize the sound output from the speaker. For this purpose, the Roam has an integrated microphone that adjusts the equalization depending on the position. I’ve heard good things about this and other such room correction technologies in the past, but on the roam it was hard to tell if it made a difference. Switching the app on and off made a slight difference in the sound signature at best. Even so, I know it’s a technology that works, and I’ll keep experimenting to see where it works.
As a vocal critic of bluetooth devices in general, I was pleased to find that the Roam behaves like a bluetooth speaker. The connection to my phone was quick and smooth, as was the connection to the WiFi. The loudspeaker has a dedicated power / sleep button on the back; The sleep function is particularly nice, as the speaker is brought back to life with a single touch. A nice trick that the Sonos can do is seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Move your Roam away from your Wi-Fi network and the speaker will continue to stream music over Bluetooth instead. You can also switch the music from your roam to the next other Sonos speaker in the house at the touch of a button. In addition, you can also use media servers that you may have in your house (uPnP) to stream music to the speaker through the Sonos app.
The Sonos Roam costs 19,999 rupees and is available in two colors. Image: Sonos
So we have a waterproof Bluetooth speaker that also supports WiFi, connects to your home server and automatically optimizes the sound. How else could they over-engineer that? Well, there’s 15W USB-C charging as well as wireless charging on every Qi-compatible pad, and there’s even an optional magnetic charging unit just for the Roam. The company claims a battery life of ten hours, with ten days of standby time: enough for the day. The Roam can also be paired with another to create a stereo pair if you wish. However, at the asking price, you are much better off buying one of their high-end devices.
Conclusion: well thought out, good performance, expensive
Aside from Spotify Connect, you will likely miss very little about the Sonos Roam. It has an incredible amount of features for a device in this segment. I love the well thought-out user interface, the practical LEDs to indicate the charging process, the microphone usage, the fast standby and resume, and the Wi-Fi connectivity. It worked just fine with everything I threw at it and will remain my portable speaker for those reasons. Until something comes up for review that sounds much better and doesn’t mess up basic Bluetooth. The Sonos Roam is available in black or white for 19,999 rupees. At this price, you might be tempted to check out similar offerings from Bose, which have always had a big hallmark in India.
