I have a Naim Muso 2 and two x Muso Qb (bedroom, office and kitchen). I want a speaker for the bathroom that will synch with those. I wanted to sign up for Roon anyway but given Naim do not do anything that would fit the bill, I would like to use Roon to bring this all together. I think therefore it needs to be:
Water resistant or waterproof
Wifi (bluetooth is a bonus but not crucial)
Decent battery life
Roon end point compatible
Capable of being grouped via Roon with the Naim Muso and Qbās
I want to move in/out of bedroom and bathroom with music synched thatās why the capable of being grouped with the Muso is key.
I thought the Sonos Move was the answer but am I right that in Roon you can only āgroupā Sonos speakers with other Sonos products to synch playback? So it would fail on point 5 above.
Iāve spent a lot of time on this now but seem to be drawing a blank. Would welcome any help or suggestions you can give!
Also, fyi Iām currently in a rented place so any options need to be portable/movable i.e. canāt involve drilling and/or fixing permanent speakers in the bathroom etc.
Yes you are correct. I have a Naim Atom and a Sonos Move and they cannot be grouped together.
The Move, however, is really superb for the purpose you state. I use it for the exact same thing. Although they donāt group together, itās actually super easy and quick to imediately transfer whatās playing on the Atom to the Move. I thought it would annoy me but it really is so slick with Roon and takes only a second. I actually prefer it this way as itās unlikely iād want the Move to continue playing when I go back to listening to the Atom.
To be honest I donāt think thereās anything out there that can compete with the Move. Itās great for just moving around to areas where you wouldnāt normally have music or wouldnāt necessarily need music permanently (garden, bathroom etc). I have found the Move to be rock solid with Roon and have never experienced any dropouts etc.
Not the answer you wanted, but I thought iād share my experience with the Move x Atom x Roon.
Ooh now I never considered that. That could be my optimum solution - an airplay group for when doing āwhole houseā listening and then transfer the queue to the Atom using RAAT when sitting down with my glass of vino. Genius. I seem to be indebted to you once again @CrystalGipsy
Are your QBs also 2nd generation models? If theyāre not, you must be using Roon via AirPlay as 1st gen. models donāt have native Roon support.
Either way, as long as your new device supports AirPlay it can be grouped with any Musos. Or, if all your Musos are 2nd gen. you should forget AirPlay and buy something for your bathroom thatās a fully fledged Roon endpoint.
Thanks for this, itās really helpful. Likewise @Red_R, thatās much appreciated. Looks like the Sonos Move is the āleast worstā option i.e. there is nothing that absolutely ticks all the boxes but this is as close as it comes!
Hi @ChrisSU, they are all 2nd Gen. As to your final point āyou should forget AirPlay and buy something for your bathroom thatās a fully fledged Roon endpoint.ā, Iād hope the OP is tolerably clear that is what I want to achieve (but have drawn a blank); do you have any suggestions for what would work/what product is out there that achieves this?
If it assists anyone else to avoid having to do the online trawling trying to find what is out there:
Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i: is as close as it comes but have to buy separate battery pack (which only lasts 6 hours) and doesnāt look like it is water resistant at all?
Bose Portable Smart Speaker: nice looking speaker but no Roon integration. Although, given solution suggested above using Apple Air Play, might work in same way as Sonos Move?
Dali Katch: no wifi and not water resistant?
Denon 150: not waterproof or battery powered
Denon Envaya Portable: nice garden/beach waterproof speaker but no wifi
Devialet: no options from them
JBL Link Portable: waterproof, wifi, bluetooth and Air Play. So might work in same way as suggested solution from @CrystalGipsy?
KEF: nothing water resistant and problems with Roon grouping
Linn: no options
Naim: nothing water resistant/no options
Sonos Move: the solution (see above)
Ultimate Ears Megablast: wifi and bluetooth but no Air Play so wouldnāt work with Roon?
If Iāve missed out any options/contenders, do post below so this thread can be a reference point.
I have a link20, not sure it does airplay as it doesnt show up in Roon, its Chromecast whcih is how I use it. Its a very good speaker if you can get it at the right price. I did, it cost me Ā£70.
Edit. Looks like the newer Link Portable does Airplay.
Hi, I only mentioned Airplay because your OP didnāt specify that your QBs were 2nd gen. If they were 1st gen. Airplay would have been your only option.
Having said that, I canāt think of any particularly suitable options for your bathroom use that do support Roon natively, so I guess Airplay or Chromecast (depending largely on whether you use Apple or Android devices) would open up a much wider range of alternatives. As already dicussed, set up any multiroom groups that include the bathroom using Airplay/CCA and let RAAT do the rest.
Having read through all the options, it still sounds like the Sonos Move is your best bet. Works flawlessly with Roon straight out of the box and iāll be honest it sounds pretty great too.
I have taken the plunge and bought two Sonos Move (one for bathroom, the other for moving between garden and garage). Have got Roon installed now and raring to go!
[EDIT: I asked how to do the following but have figured it out by going into the iPad app > settings > audio > down to āOther Network Devicesā> Enabling the Naims and Sonosā as AirPlay devices and labelling them> then created an AirPlay group [Sorry if this is me being dim but I canāt figure out how to group the Naims and Sonos using Air Play in Roon (I can do it on my iphone in the usual way with Air Play but that seems to cause not infrequent drop outs between speakers and the music). When you said in your first reply @CrystalGipsy and @Red_R your reply, about grouping via Air Play, I assumed you meant within Roon? If so, would you mind explaining how I do that? Iāve tried searching in the forum and online but canāt find the answer. Many thanks]
I donāt know much about them. The older ones (model 3 actually) had WIFI and airplay. It appears that the newer ones abandoned that and are bluetooth only. Caveat emptor.
Click on the zones at the bottom right of Roon, a list of all your zones will pop up. At the top right of that list is a āgroup zonesā button. That brings up yet another window that allows you to select the zones to group. Youād think that would be done in settings, but they exposed it more so you can fiddle with your zones easier Iād guess.
Non-intuitively to ungroup the zones you highlight the group and click āgroup zonesā again, and then you can uncheck the zones you want to ungroup. The unchecking process is also un-intuitive where instead of just removing the check from the checkbox, they replace the check with an āXā, so now you wonder what that means, and why there are three states to a checkbox.
Looks like you figured it out - thatās exactly it. I leave the Move (airplay) and Naim (airplay) permanently grouped and that way I can seemlessly switch (or transfer whats currently playing) between that group and the Naim (or whatever other end point I want). Works really well. I hope youāre having fun!
Ps you bought 2 Moves! Talk about jumping in with both feet - love it!
Yes @Red_R - I went to look at the options and this was the best so bought two! With permanently working from home and with the weather good, Iāve been in the garden to have lunch, dinner quite a bit. Wanted the second one to have in the room near my back door so when in there can listen but more importantly, can grab it when I head to the garden. Happy with the set up so far between the Naims and the Sonos.
Iāve done same as you (once I figured out how to do itā¦), have made a permanent group for the AirPlays for just when Iām using that group and the rest Iāll group/regroup as and when. Would be a good feature if you could āsaveā configurations of groups with the same devices (as opposed to at the moment where youāre limited to having the device in one group only, save for the RAAT vs AirPlay workaround) e.g. have devices saved to different groups/setups rather than having to group and ungroup all the time.
Glad youāre enjoying the Move - it really is a great bit of kit for just grabbing and moving to where you need music. Donāt forget to switch on the microphone when you move it (white light on top) so that it can adjust itās sound (trueplay) to itās new location. I find it really effective after a few minutes especially if iāve moved it into quite a āboomyā area eg shower room.
