Headphones aren’t the one new product Sonos rolled out immediately. The corporate additionally refreshed its most cost-effective transportable speaker, the Roam. The Sonos Roam 2 has the identical audio as its 2021 predecessor however provides extra streamlined controls and a faster setup. The $179 speaker is accessible immediately.
Sonos says the Roam 2 “delivers the same rich, detailed sound and bass” as the unique mannequin, so house owners of the primary Roam would solely discover some refined quality-of-life upgrades. One is a separate energy and Bluetooth button, which solves a standard gripe from its predecessor about its multifunctional energy / sleep / Bluetooth button. Clients discovered that the overloaded button was complicated and sometimes led to by accident triggering the incorrect habits.
The corporate says setup can also be extra easy within the Roam 2. The earlier mannequin required you to arrange the speaker over Wi-Fi, so that you couldn’t rapidly hook up with Bluetooth till you’d gone by means of the (probably cumbersome) strategy of pairing with a house community. That meant you couldn’t purchase the speaker and instantly apply it to a day on the seaside or tenting. The Roam 2 enables you to rapidly join your cellphone or different machine over Bluetooth, so that you don’t must mess with the a lot lengthier Wi-Fi setup till it’s time to pair it with a Sonos residence system.
In addition to including a monochromatic emblem that blends in higher with the remainder of the speaker, the Roam 2 seems to be the identical as the unique in different areas. It’s nonetheless rated for a stable 10 hours of battery life, has IP67 mud and water resistance and helps computerized Trueplay tuning to regulate its sound to any room’s acoustics.
As for sound, Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham was happy with the unique’s audio profile. “Fortunately, it sounds much better than its tiny size should allow,” he wrote in our overview. “The Roam includes both a tweeter and a mid-woofer, rather than just a single driver, and that helps it produce clear highs and mids as well as more of a bass thump than seems plausible from a relatively tiny speaker. It also doesn’t distort or get overly boomy at max volume, a surprise for such a small speaker. Audio quality stays consistent throughout the volume range.” You’ll be able to anticipate the identical from the brand new mannequin.
You’ll be able to order the Sonos Roam 2 immediately from the corporate’s web site and retail companions like Amazon and Finest Purchase. The $179 speaker ships in black, white, olive, sundown (orange-ish purple) and wave (blue with a refined grey tint) colorways.