It doesn’t have really thumping bass, and while it is certainly loud enough for personal listening or in small groups – anything louder than 30% while on a table in front of you is really more than enough – it isn’t up to smashing out the beats for a large outdoor party. But its separate mid and tweeter speakers give a real vibrancy and depth to music that is often poorly reproduced on competitors of this size. It will handle anything from high-energy electronica to a string quartet with aplomb. I could be mistaken as I'm evaluating these but do not own them, so please confirm or deny - I think there are a couple advantages over standard BT portable speakers such as the JBL:

The speaker sounds its best when playing something grand and melodic over wifi cranked up to at least 20% volume. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The Roam has three LED status lights: one on the top showing when the mics are turned on, one just above the Sonos logo showing when the speaker is turned on and one at the bottom showing when it’s charging. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianVery few speakers let you switch between two different voice assistants, stopping you from being tied into only one service forever. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The roam can connect via wifi to a Sonos system, allowing them to play in sync with other speakers, given one owns supporting Sonos equipment. So it should be possible to have a subwoofer fill in the low range that these speakers are missing, greatly improving their presence, especially at low volumes. lovlid said:Not much really. What with it being a regular Bluetooth speaker. You can take it on a picnic though. The latter, with help from the built-in mic, tweaks the EQ automatically depending on the speaker’s surroundings, though you can also fine-tune bass and treble yourself.

Because the Sonos Roam has only one tweeter and one woofer, playing in mono, that makes it pretty versatile in terms of orientation.Though you can’t use the Roam as a surround speaker, because the Roam is part of Sonos’s multi-room family you can still play the same audio as is playing on any other Sonos speaker on your home network. That includes the Arc and the Beam.

The IP67 rating means the Roam is watertight enough to deal with rain or snow, and Sonos promises it’ll operate in more extreme high and low temperatures as well. You must set up the Roam on wifi using the Sonos app before you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker, but it only takes a couple of minutes. The Sonos app acts as a controller for playing music from practically every music streaming service available via wifi. The speaker can also be controlled straight from the Spotify app or using AirPlay 2 on Apple devices. To use it outdoors you simply pair it with your phone via Bluetooth like a regular portable speaker. Given the whole idea of the Roam is that it moves around with you, it’s handy you can leave the Trueplay function on and it’ll do this automatically every time you place it down. How much of a difference that’ll make when battling outside noise and weather is another thing entirely, but it can do little harm. What does the Loudness function do?A listen to other portable Bluetooth speakers around this price also confirms that we could be expecting more in terms of timing and dynamics. There is plenty of punch to the Roam’s performance, but it is far less expressive than the competition here, and can also seem quite sluggish. Verdict Detail and clarity are two such areas. This speaker doesn’t particularly sound boxed in, but pit it against some of the best portable speakers, which might have fewer features but offset that with a lighter price tag, and the difference is a little disappointing. Yes. The Roam charges either via USB-C, using the optional Sonos Wireless Charger, or with any Qi wireless charger – and during charging, the Sonos Roam can play music. Just like the Move can. Can Sonos Roam be used as surround sound speakers? Trueplay is a Sonos technology that has been around for a while, allowing its speakers to tweak EQ settings automatically depending on where they’re placed –in open space or near to a wall, for example. The Roam can breathe underwater for 30 minutes but only at a depth of one metre, so we wouldn’t risk it floating around the pool on a lilo, but we’ve used ours on a drizzly day along the British coast and neither rain nor sand has stopped it working yet.