Sonos Roam could stream music to other speakers

More details on Sonos’ Roam portable speaker are streaming in, and they suggest there will be more to you besides size and price. The edge says the Roam will include a few advantages over the larger Move, most notably the “Sound Swap”. The feature can stream music from the Roam to a nearby Sonos speaker when you press and hold the play / pause button. You can start playing an album on the Roam in your backyard, for example, and end listening to a louder Five when you’re ready to step in.

The Roam will also allow you to use Bluetooth and WiFi at the same time, unlike the Move. You can listen to music from your phone across your Sonos setup using Bluetooth, and you’ll also get the same automatic sound tuning (i.e. Trueplay) as the Move, depending on the leak. And yes, there is IP67 water and dust resistance for those times when you get caught in the rain.

Sonos is expected to present the Roam at a virtual event on March 9 and ship it on April 20 for $ 169. That would still make it one of the more expensive portable speakers out there, but Sound Swap and auto-tuning could tip the scales if you’re more interested in convenience and fidelity than raw volume.