Can The Sonos Roam Be Used As Surround Sound?
Sonos has a large lineup of many different speakers in all sizes and shapes. One such speaker is the Sonos Roam. It’s a water-resistant speaker that’s designed to be constantly on the go. It has an IP67 water resistance rating, it’s drop resistant, and it has 10 hours of battery life.
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Can The Sonos Roam Be Used As Surround Sound?
As the name suggests, the Sonos Roam is meant to be taken on the go; thus, Sonos hasn’t given it surround sound capability. It’s not meant to be stationary in a single room forever; it’s meant to be taken on the go.
On the bright side, its IP67 water resistance rating makes it a great choice to take to the beach, pool, or take with you on a long camping trip.
Continue reading to learn more about the Sonos Roam’s capabilities, its limitations, and where it performs best. You’ll even find out exactly why the Roam doesn’t make a very good addition to a surround sound setup.
Can you use Sonos Roam as TV Speakers?
There are a few different ways to connect your Roam speaker to the TV, and one of them doesn’t even require additional hardware or Sonos products.
The hassle-free way to connect the Sonos Roam is to simply use Bluetooth. Bluetooth connections don’t provide as high-quality sound as other ways to connect.
On the bright side, the Sonos Roam features Bluetooth 5.0 support, which offers surprisingly low latency and improved sound quality over older iterations of Bluetooth.
The Roam can be paired with a TV using a Sonos soundbar too. Both the Beam and Arc can group up with the Sonos Roam and output the same sound.
You’ll have to hardwire your soundbar to your television and then manually group your soundbar with your Roam via the Sonos app. This provides a slightly better audio experience over Bluetooth, but it requires you to also own a Sonos Beam or Sonos Arc.
If you’re going to use your Sonos Roam as a television speaker, you may as well purchase two. Your soundbar can be directly in front of the television, and you can use each Roam as a left or right speaker.
Can Sonos Roam be Paired for Stereo
Yes, the Sonos Roam can be used in conjunction with another Roam for a decent stereo experience.
You can do this over Wi-Fi from your Sonos App. The Roam actually makes a pretty decent stereo experiencing, separating the right and left sound for a more engaging home entertainment system.
In addition to the Sonos Roam, the Sonos Move speakers also make for a pretty good stereo experience.
Although they are both designed to be a speaker you take on the go, Sonos decided to allow them both to be used in stereo format, allowing for more versatility even when on the go.
To create a stereo pair, first, open your Sonos app. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to use stereo with two different models; you need two of the same exact model for stereo.
From the Sonos app, find the gear icon labeled settings then find the system. Under products, select one of your speakers.
Now, tap Set Up Stereo Pair or Create Stereo Pair. The app will conveniently walk you through the rest of the setup process.
These speakers support stereo pairing, but can only be paired with models of the same type:
- Five
- One
- Roam
- Move
- The Table Lamp Speaker
- The Bookshelf Speaker
- and the now discontinued Play model
Remember, as long as you have two of the same speakers you can create a stereo pair, so don’t even try to pair a One and a Roam together in stereo – you won’t be able to.
Can Sonos Roam be Used With Other Sonos Speakers?
The Sonos Roam isn’t designed to be used as part of a surround sound system, but that doesn’t mean you can’t group them together for a great multi-room sound system. In fact, due to the ease of mobility with Sonos products, this makes for a perfect reason to buy.
The Sonos Roam can be grouped together with your television’s sound bar or any other Sonos products you have.
This means you can have speakers in every room of the house and have your main surround sound system stationary in the living room. You’ll still be able to hear audio no matter which room you’re in.
The Sonos Roam can be grouped together with:
- Sonos Ray
- Sonos Arc
- Sonos Five
- Sonos Sub
- Sonos Move
- Sonos One
- Other Sonos Roam devices
- and much, much more
Sonos even offers bundles, such as the double Roam bundle and the Move + Roam bundle, because they intend for their customers to group their speakers together for a great, wide-reaching audio experience even when they’re on the go.
Can Sonos Roam be Used for Surround Sound
Sadly, the Sonos Roam can’t be used for surround sound; however, you wouldn’t want to use it for rear audio even if you could. Products like the Sonos Roam and Sonos Move are designed with a wide soundstage in mind. This means they emit audio from different directions around the device.
With rear speakers, you want the audio to have a narrow soundstage, meaning the audio goes precisely in one direction.
Sonos has a few other speakers that are perfect for acting as rear speakers in a surround sound setup though. The Sonos One would make a decent option for rear speakers, and the Sonos wall speakers can be mounted directly to the wall behind the viewing area of a television.
Sonos also offers bundles with surround sound in mind. For example, they offer a bundle that comes with the Arc soundbar, two One SL speakers, and a subwoofer.
They also have a bundle that comes with the Beam instead of the Arc. Both of these bundles are great options for people looking to create a surround sound system with Sonos products.