Does anyone have any recommendations for small, cheap, waterproof and ideally portable speakers for Roon? I have for example a Sony XB10 which could pretty much survive a bomb going off which would be ideal, but as it’s bluetooth only I can’t get it to work with Roon. Is there anything similar? I have a Bluesound Pulse Flex but that’s too big and heavy really.
Any suggestions welcome, thank you!
Just tether your phone/tablet to the bluetooth device? You still need something to chose and control playback with.
Thanks - I’d like to be able to walk away and leave it playing though; I like the way Roon frees me from doing everything via my phone (except as you say, choosing the music!)
Hmmm… that’s not an easy nut to crack!
You would like something active that speaks RAAT AND WiFi then, and that narrows down the choice significantly…
Sorry, don’t have any suggestions at hand…
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Exactly @Menzies-Old .
Most JBL use Chromecast so once set up as a Roon Endpoint just point and shoot with a playlist and do whatever else you like.
I use a pair around the pool.
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The Sony has a line input, you could connect a raspberry pi with some usb dongle.
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I have the Bluetooth Boombox 3 and it sounds great.
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Sonos Roam (Airplay and Sonos, both supported by Roon)
Apple HomePod Mini (Airplay) - not portable, but fairly compact and affordable.
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Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I have a Sonos Roam too, but I’ve never got it to play nice with Roon - it skips and loses connection all the time. Perhaps I’ll have more luck with JBL!
Most likely cause is wi fi interference or poor signal rather than Roon per se
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Totally agree with @Mike_O_Neill
Maybe if this is used outside in the garden you may wish to consider an outdoor access point, not a range extender as this is likely to have a different subnet.
I have a JBL link 20 it’s perfect Roon speaker for outside or inside use.
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I don’t know how “cheap” you want to go but I had a discount I needed to use with Sonos so I bought the new Roam 2. I like it because it has Bluetooth AND Wi-Fi. Sounds pretty good and it’s waterproof. I didn’t think I’d like it very much but I find I’m using it a lot.
Thanks - it’s certainly not that, I’ve had two support threads open with both Roon and Sonos for a year now and countless mutli-hour troubleshooting calls which have led almost nowhere (barring Sonos releasing a firmware update to fix an issue we found and they did admit was their own error).
Unsurprisingly both companies now blame each other, although my instinct is that Sonos are at fault as Roon’s support was much clearer in diagnosis. But if anyone else reads this wondering if the Roam is a good product to try with Roon, my advice is ‘no’.
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What happens if you instead stream to the Sonos Roam from Roon via AirPlay?
I first had one JBL Link Portable, and when they were on sale for clearance at a good price I bought two more. Chromecast opens them up as Roon endpoints and I have no problems with them. The charging base really ups the convenience factor. It looks like your only choice now is the used market from sellers who probably need careful vetting. Maybe it’s worth taking a shot that way.
A few years ago there were choices for Chromecast speakers, including some with batteries. For whatever reason they have mostly disappeared except for Google Assistant devices. Maybe they were just too niche – a way to integrate non-audiophile devices into a multi-room system using an audiophile protocol. Most people don’t see any reason to go beyond the familiarity of Bluetooth.
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Audio Pro C3 works great with Roon. Awesome sound quality & build. Chunky, but portable, with Wi-Fi/AirPlay.
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Thanks, this has been tried with lots of different configurations already with Sonos support. In general the performance is worse.
Thank you, this is a great tip!