Testing the Sonos Roam

Hey yo, what’s up, why do some speakers only have Bluetooth reception and others only WiFi – don’t you have both together? Yes, there is: The Sonos Roam is a compact and powerful box for indoors and outdoors. We have tested them extensively and share our experiences.

Sound: A feeling for music

There are few producers that I would credit with a deeper understanding or even a true love of music. In any case, Sonos belongs to the select club. The products impress with an always balanced and never strenuous sound signature that reveals tonal details and suits almost every style of music. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the big Sonos Five or the small Sonos One: the basic character is always the same – an important prerequisite for the boxes to become one Multiroom system combine and play harmoniously together.

The Sonos Roam is also keeping things up sound to the family obligations and delivers a remarkable performance – in view of the manageable housing volume. Instead of an exaggerated bass hammer, the Roam relies on a well-dosed groove. Instead of hissing highs, it delivers real subtleties without throwing them at the listener roughly.

And: Instead of stereo and virtual 3D sound tricks, we “only” get Mono. This is usually a flaw – but acceptable in the compact class. With a width of 16.8 cm, convincing stereo is simply not feasible. Then prefer mono, but good for that. Well, you can also buy two Sonos Roam and connect them as a stereo pair – but then it gets a little expensive overall. The sound is emitted from the front of the Sonos Roam and can always be clearly located. Personally, I like that better than the diffuse 360-degree sound that some Bluetooth boxes offer.

Unlike conventional mobile speakers, the Sonos Roam can be Trueplay tuning constantly calibrate it yourself and optimize its sound to the spatial conditions. This works quite well and allows for more options when setting up. However, the Roam does not offer “manual” Trueplay. I find the process in which you walk through the room with an iPhone (e.g. with the Sonos One) to be more effective than the automatic version of the Roam.

Amenities: Good, but not outstanding

On the hardware side, the Sonos Roam is almost as simple as the design suggests. That waterproof housing is made of plastic, the two sides are made of rubber. The raised controls for music control are on the left side – and difficult to see. The on/off switch is located at the back – this too needs to be found first. Maybe a little color contrast would have helped.

Next to it is the USB-C socket for charging. I have the optional most of the time wireless charger used (49 euros RRP), which sits securely under the loudspeaker with a slight magnetic force and fits perfectly with it in terms of design. A power adapter is not included with the Sonos Roam – I used my Anker 24W 2-Port USB Charger.

particularities The Sonos Roam doesn’t offer anything like a 3.5 mm jack input or a carrying handle. Even the color choices are (currently) limited to white (actually a very light gray) and black. Those who prefer camouflage patterns and lighting effects will be better served elsewhere (- I’m thinking of the JBL Flip 4 Camouflage or the Soundcore Flare Mini).

Sonos Roam in practice: The possibilities have been fully exploited

The Sonos Roam isn’t the first WiFi speaker of the Californian manufacturer, which also comes with a battery as well as with Bluetooth Is provided. Also the one presented in 2019 SonosMove is equally suitable for indoor and outdoor use. However, this “big brother” might be a bit too bulky for some situations and also a bit too expensive for some wallets at almost 400 euros. The Sonos Roam, on the other hand, costs a more affordable 179 euros (RRP) and, with its compact dimensions of 168 x 62 x 60 mm, even fits in a small handbag. In a way, the Roam is a “Move Mini”.

The Sonos Roam is set up by Sonos app with the smartphone. This happens in a very short time, so that the Roam can quickly become part of an existing setup and “play along”. I also had the Roam played with a Sonos Amp on two large JBL speakers and a Sonos One in the kitchen: Three rooms – the same song everywhere, absolutely synchronous. Interesting: “Mixing” Bluetooth and WLAN is possible. The Roam can be connected via Bluetooth in order to then play the same song together and synchronously with a Sonos One (connected via WLAN).

The app is clear, runs very stable and has also been offering curated radio stations for some time. I think you can tell that Sonos doesn’t do things by halves when it comes to software development and rightly leaves many of the other manufacturers behind in this respect. This is essential for the user in everyday life – and in my opinion also worth a few euros “extra charge”. A nice, but not so important feature for me is the Sound swap function. In this way, music running on the Roam can be transferred to another Sonos speaker – it also works in the other direction. However, you have to use the Sonos app for this, which does not work for airplay transmissions.

The integrated (and not user-changeable) battery pack According to the manufacturer, it runs for up to 10 hours – that should be enough for most situations, unless you are going on a very long trip. However, the Sonos Roam is not an endurance miracle, there are some portable Bluetooth boxes that run much longer. I also noticed that the battery gradually empties in standby – this could be due to the fact that the Roam is always waiting for a signal from the app in order to start playing immediately.

In summary, I can say that the Sonos Roam made a very good impression on me. The manufacturer has cleverly combined the two quite different radio standards WLAN and Bluetooth, so that in the Practice a largely “seamless” user experience is the result. The fact that WLAN is stationary and Bluetooth also transmits telephone rings – these are disadvantages that Sonos cannot change. In view of the technical requirements, the Roam uses its possibilities in an exemplary manner.

You can find more Bluetooth speakers in our buying guide:

Ratings and technical data

GIGA test rating in detail: Sonos Roam

The sound accounts for 50 percent of the overall grade.

Specifications: Sonos Roam

WiFi speakers from Sonos and other brands are discussed here:

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