Can You Pair A Sonos Roam With A Move? A Quick Guide
Sonos is slowly becoming the king of mobile speakers. Their focus is still on providing an affordable home theater experience; however, with products like the Move and Roam, they intend to bring the same great sound quality they’re known for on the go.
Table of Contents
- Can you pair a Sonos Roam with a Sonos Move?
- Can I Use Roam and Move in Stereo?
- Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move
- Creating a Stereo Pair
- S1 and S2 Compatibility
Can you pair a Sonos Roam with a Sonos Move?
The Sonos Roam and Sonos Move can even be grouped together via the Sonos app. This means you can play the same music from each individual speaker, extending your listening range and providing party goers or anyone else with a great audio experience. You’ll have to use the S2 app to group them. The Move can function on both the S1 and S2 apps, but the Roam is limited to S2 compatibility.
How Can I Pair a Sonos Roam with a Sonos Move?
To pair your Sonos Roam and Move, after doing the initial setup, perform the following steps on both your Roam and your Move:
- Keep your device plugged up during the initialization
- Turn your device on
- Download the Sonos S2 app from Google Play or the App Store
- Open the app and find the “Set up a new system” button
- Skip setting up a new system if it’s not your first device
- Create your Sonos account
- Tap Add next to the product you own
You’ll have to create a new account if you don’t already have one, so adding your next speaker to the system is a lot faster than the first. Just simply:
- Open the Sonos S2 App
- Find the Settings button
- Tap System
- Select Add Product
- The app will walk you through the rest of the setup
Most Sonos products require Wi-Fi to function at all times, but not the Move or the Roam. They still require an internet connection for initial setup, but they are capable of connecting to audio devices via Bluetooth after setup is complete.
Can I Use Roam and Move in Stereo?
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to create a stereo pair with a Move and a Roam. Sonos allows stereo setups, but both speakers must be the exact same model. You can’t use a Move and a Roam together for stereo; you can only group them together via the S2 app to output the same audio.
Grouping the Roam and Move together is not the same as creating a stereo pair. In stereo, each speaker is designated as left or right, only outputting sound that is intended to be sent from one side.
For many songs this doesn’t matter; however, there are plenty of pieces of music that make use of this ability. A group doesn’t have the left-right distinction. The same exact audio comes out of each speaker, and neither of them is labeled as left or right.
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move
The Roam and Move are both excellent portable speakers, but ultimately, the Roam beats out the competition. The Move is an earlier model, and the Roam can be considered a spiritual successor to the Move. The Roam is better in almost every way.
First of all, the Roam has a much better level is water resistance. The Move is rated IP56, and the Roam is rated at IP67.
While this increased number may seem insignificant, the 67 rating is far beyond what the 56 rating is capable of. You’ll have much greater confidence when near water when you have a Roam. Neither of the speakers float though.
The only area the Move excels over the Roam is with battery length. The Move is rated for 11 hours of battery life, and the Roam is rated for 10 hours. It’s quite an insignificant advantage for the most part, but it’s still worth keeping in mind.
Finally, the Roam has the better price tag too. It may not be as big as the Move, but it doesn’t lack in sound quality. It packs most of the same features offered by the Move in a price tag that is nearly half that of the Move.
The Roam is without a doubt a great purchase for anyone looking for a new portable speaker.
Creating a Stereo Pair
You can still create a stereo pair with Sonos products, but you’ll need two of the exact same product. There are no mixing and matching speakers if you want a true stereo experience. Learn how to pair for stereo here:
- Make sure you have two of the same device
- Each speaker must be added to the system as seperate rooms before stereo pairing
- Goto the Sonos controller app
- Click Settings
- Tap System
- Find one of your speakers under Products
- Select Set Up Stereo Pair or Create Stereo Pair depending on which Sonos app you use
- The app will walk you through the rest of the pairing process and let you pick which speaker you want to pair
Remember, any nearly every Sonos speaker can be paired in stereo as long as you have two of the same models. Again, separate models can’t be paired for stereo.
S1 and S2 Compatibility
Whether you go with the Roam or the Move, you’ll need to know which other speakers are compatible. The Move, due to it being compatible with both the S1 and S2 apps, can be used with any other Sonos speaker.
On the other hand, the Roam can only be used with speakers compatible with the S2 app. This means there are a few incompatible products when it comes to the Roam. Here they are:
- CR200
- Gen 1 Connect
- Gen 1 Connect:Amp
- Bridge
- ZonePlayer S5
- Gen 1 Play: 5
- ZonePlayer 80
- ZonePlayer 90
- ZonePlayer 120
None of these products are compatible with the Sonos Roam, but they will work just fine with the Sonos Move.