Sonos Roam 2 Ultra Compact Portable Wireless Speaker
Sonos Roam 2 Ultra Compact Portable Wireless Speaker – Waterproof – 10 Hours Battery – Black
Sonos Roam 2 Ultra Compact Portable Wireless Speaker – Waterproof – 10 Hours Battery – Black
neat, good sound, waterproof!
We bought this to use as a shower speaker that could also be taken with us on travels. In the past we have had various Bluetooth speakers (one even had Alexa built in but an update removed it much to my annoyance) which have worked well in the shower but found it sometimes a bit frustrating that you put a playlist on and you would maybe change your mind or a song came to mind you wanted to hear. Or you suddenly remembered something to add to your shopping list. So with those you would have to wait until you got out the shower. First world problems I know, but a solution seemed to exist with an alexa enabled waterproof speaker. already having a few sonos speakers in our house I have been impressed with the sound quality of those so figured this should be pretty good.
I am not an audiophile so wont ramble on about highs, lows and sound stages, but will say to my uncultured ear, it sounds good to me!
I wanted to write a review for anyone who has read anything about issues setting this up.
The speaker came with slightly less than 50% charge, so I unpacked it and turned it on and started following the guide that is supplied. When told to, I opened the Sonos app on my android phone and there was a message there about setting up the roam 2. Easy peasy! I just followed the guidance in the app and got it set up (including firmware update it took around 5 mins all in, with no need to add WiFi password or anything like that. All done automatically!)
It doesn’t set Sonos voice or Alexa control as part of the set up process but I went into settings for the roam2 in the app and there was an easy to see button for adding either of those 2 voice assistants. I selected Alexa and it prompted me to sign into my amazon account.
This is where things took a turn for the worse. No matter what I did it would not go beyond asking to set up amazon account. I just kept getting a spinning wheel. Frustrated, I went online and searched and found a long thread on the Sonos forums about this very issue. The fix (at this time) seemed to be to delete the amazon shopping app from my phone, then add the Alexa to sonos roam2 then reinstall amazon app. I couldn’t be bothered with that so I opened my work iPhone and very easily set alexa on the roam2 from that. There were no issues signing into Amazon account via the iPhone app. Seems its an issue with android phones and not iPhone. So if you have access to an iPhone I would go down that route to set up Alexa. Otherwise you might need to delete your amazon app first.
Anyhoooo, I got it all set up after that very easily, and Alexa is working well
Another downside is that there is no wall plug for the speaker to charge it. just a cable. I plugged it into my bedside charger and checked the app to see if it was charging OK. The app said it was an incompatible charger and to change it. That being said it did charge up fully!
But I went on the Sonos website to see what plug they recommend and they state any 5v 2a 10W plug (including Qi wireless pads) or their own wireless charger. Which looks neat and is magnetic, but pretty steep at near 50! I guess there’s a convenience of just sitting it on the charger without having to plug anything in. But the charge port on the speaker is USB C and is easily accessible to plug a cable in (unlike ultimate ears speakers I have where teh charge port is very recessed under a rubber seal, so you need a specific cable to fitinto the recess and plug in. There is no real issue to plug in rather than wireless with the sonos roam. I decided to buy a sub 10 plug instead. I may buy the sonos official wireless charger at some point if I find charging to be a pain and I am feeling flush with cash!
Anyway, all in all I am happy with my purchase. Yes, there are cheaper shower speakers that may or may not sound as good. But I really wanted the alexa integration, and that works well (after finally getting it set up!) There may be other Alexa enabled shower speakers, but having had one before and losing that capability after a few short months (thanks a bunch Ultimate Ears!!) I decided to go with the brand I already know and trust
The fact it is part of sonos ecosystem so it can be grouped with the other sonos is neat, but probably not something I will us often.
Sonos Roam 2 - Excelle
This thing is bloody amazing Buy it. I love it.
Sorry to swear. I hope I haven’t offended anyone. This is another way of saying or emphasising that it is outstanding.
I tried the JBL 5 charge and the Roberts Beacon 330 Bluetooth Speaker with EQ & Stereo Pairing and due to Amazons brilliant “return an Item policy” I was able to send them back with the reason “Good but not good enough”
The JBL is larger and is punchy and louder and bassier and sharp but the Roam 2 has just got that X factor that places it above and beyond the competition .
To me the Sonos is more pleasant to listen to and produces the music, balanced the perfect way, despite the size of the thing. I could go on and on praising it but in a nutshell this thing is truly brilliant.
I use an iPad with Spotify and Bluetooth to the roam . It makes Spotify sound excellent
I use the Music app on my iMac and air play to the Roam. Again it sounds brilliant.
I am truly ecstatic with this item and would recommend it to anyone that loves to hear any sort of music.
I am yet to explore the Alexa side of things that it can be downloaded to it.
Yes it’s Sonos and it should be good And yes I’m impressed quality of sound is great volume is impressive for a small unit very compact and a great travel / or stand alone unit not had to charge it yet so it’s a yes from me / and I’m hard to please
Good hardware, bad software
This is a great speaker – good sound and deep bass, but the software is rubbish.
To set up Alexa you need to uninstall the Amazon app from your device first. You can’t install Google Assistant at all because the software doesn’t support it! iPhone users are apparently not affected by this.