Sonos Roam Portable Speaker

Sonos's Roam weighs less than a pound and sounds bigger than it has any right to. Auto-tuning via Trueplay adjusts the sound to the room whether I set it on my desk, in the kitchen, or on a towel at the beach. At home the speaker connects via wifi, outdoors via Bluetooth. The transition happens automatically when it loses the wifi signal, a smart design choice because it means I never have to think about connectivity settings. Battery lasts about 10 hours on a moderate volume, and the magnetic charging base lets me drop it onto the charger without aligning a port. Waterproof at IP67, the speaker handles rain, splashes, and sand without any protection, and I've rinsed mine under a faucet twice after beach trips. At $179 the Roam competes against the JBL Flip and the Ultimate Ears Boom. Both of which are louder at maximum volume but neither of which integrates with a home speaker system the way the Roam connects to other Sonos products. From my room to the kitchen while cooking to outside if the weather is good, continuity of the same sound quality across all those contexts is the feature I value most. During that journey Trueplay calibration adjusts noticeably: bass compensates for reflective surfaces, mids shift slightly to account for whether the speaker is against a wall or in open air.