Multi-rooom audio giant’s latest speaker ditches the mic
Sonos has gone live with its latest speaker; the Sonos Roam SL does not have a microphone and, as such, has no voice assistants available.
The not-so-smart speaker approach isn’t new for Sonos, it already has SL variants of the Sonos Arc and the Sonos One, and it’s a great solution for anyone looking to save a few dollars when bulking out their Sonos speaker system.
That’s especially true with the Roam SL, which is now the cheapest Sonos speaker at $159, a $20 saving on the regular Sonos Roam price.
And, even though the Sonos Roam is a useful smart speaker, its real strength is its portability, so the loss of the Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa isn’t really a deal breaker.
However, the lack of the microphone does also mean that the Roam SL misses out on a couple of nifty features of its smarter sibling – most notably Sonos Trueplay, which autotunes a speaker based on its position and surroundings.
Read this: Sonos One v Sonos One SL – what’s different
There’s also no Sound Swap feature, a great addition to the original Roam that lets you fire the audio from your Roam to a nearby Sonos speaker by simply holding down the play button.
This is a super handy feature for when you’re taking the party indoors, for example, and you want the music to carry on, on your better speakers.
Is a $20 saving enough to make you ditch these two killer features? Possibly, especially if you have concerns about the security aspects of voice assistants.
When it comes to sound and audio streaming you are getting exactly the same setup with the SL as with the regular Roam.
That equates to a pair of class-H amplifiers, a custom racetrack mid-woofer and a tweeter.
In our Sonos Roam review we described the audio quality as “a decent sounding speaker… not amazing, but certainly decent for its size.”
You can, in Wi-Fi mode, choose to pair the Roam SL with another (or indeed the original Roam) for a stereo setup and the SL is also an AirPlay 2 speaker, so you’ll be able to get your Sonos speaker singing and dancing within your Apple speaker setup.
The Sonos Roam SL is on available to pre-order now directly from Sonos. Shipping is set to commence on 15 March.
