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First of all: if you do not have a Roku TV – a model powered by Roku from TCL, Insignia or Sharp, do not even consider buying the Roku TV Wireless Speakers. They will not work. At all. Even if you have a Roku streamer.
Many people, however, have a Roku TV. The smart TV platform is increasing its market share each year. Three of the five best-selling TVs on Amazon are for example TCL Rokus. And if you have one, the company's new wireless speakers offer a simple way to improve audio quality.
The dialog box sounds better than what you'll ever get with your Roku TV's built-in speakers and the music is much more instantaneous. Since this is a pair of stereo speakers, the picture is larger and more complex than a soundbar. So, getting these instead of a good soundbar should be obvious, is not it? Not exactly.
If you like movies and TV, a soundbar, especially one with a wireless submarine, will always sound better. The Achille Heel of the Roku speakers is a bass response, and the action movies are particularly affected with a flattened performance compared to a bar like crazy-cheap Vizio SB3621. This shyness on the bass can also impinge on rock and electronic music, but overall, the speakers still outpace the bar of music, thanks to this wider separation.
The Roku wireless speakers are not what I wanted, but they are articulate, ridiculously easy to install and ideal for Roku TV owners, music lovers.
The Roku TV wireless speakers cost $ 200, but are available for $ 150 on Cyber Monday (Rendezvous November 26th) on Roku.com.
Basic voice via two remote controls
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Roku announced its latest multiroom system – Roku Connect – at CES 2018. TCL Roku Smart sound bar may also be a vaporware, and the first speakers of Roku do not even wear the badge "Connect". But these speakers are already different from all other multiroom speakers because they are TV-based and use streaming applications and sound on a Roku TV rather than your phone.
I guess you could call these $ 200 stereo speakers "smart" because you can use them via voice. But you can not just speak out loud, as you would with an Alexa or Google Assistant speaker ("Hey, Roku"). Instead, you speak in one of the included remotes.
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The company includes the touch panel remote control and an updated version of your standard Roku TV controller, both of which have a microphone button. The Roku Touch remote, available for $ 30 a year, is weird. Physically, this has reminded me of a more complete version of an Amazon dash button. It has many controls to control the speakers and the TV, the most useful being the volume control and power of the TV. The two shortcut buttons are not used to keep the "favorites" as one would expect, but the "favorite voice searches". In my experience, it does not work so well for the most rudimentary research.
Roku says that the second clicker is designed to be used around the house, outside the living room, and that it's helpful to be able to turn off the TV on the other side of the house. Its voice button is touch and the microphone is designed to capture your voice from a table instead of forcing you to hold against your mouth.
Should the TV be turned on to use this speaker for music? Yes and no. If you use Bluetooth, then no, but I found that if I used Spotify Connect, the TV would turn on automatically. Roku says that activating Fast TV Start should prevent the screen from turning on and you can press the star button to turn it off if you do not need it.
Voice and search options are limited to entertainment, just like other Roku devices. You can request video content on major Roku channels or music via iHeartRadio, Pandora and TuneIn by voice. I found that the microphone could only be used for the most basic searches, such as the artist radio, because often ask individual tracks did not work. With the latest update, the speakers and TV are also compatible with Spotify Connect.
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