Sorry Sonos, but I’m pretty sure JBL speakers are about to get an audiophile-grade software update – and maybe even a new line of Sonos-like, multi-room audio products that piggyback on the Wi-Fi network from your home.
Think JBL speakers and you probably like compact, rugged, barrel-shaped Bluetooth options that you can throw in your on-the-go bag and add music to campfire cooking. Yes, they’re some of the best Bluetooth speakers on the market (see the JBL Flip 6 and JBL Charge 5 in third and sixth respectively), but what the vast majority of JBL speakers aren’t is that Roon is is ready for. That’s because these Bluetooth-only speaker boxes can’t hop onto your home’s Wi-Fi network like some of the best wireless speakers can – like the Sonos Era 100 (first place) or Sonos Roam (fifth), for example. .
But I think that’s all about to change. Why? Because today (as reported by Business thread ) JBL’s parent company, Harman, announced the acquisition of Roon, an audiophile-friendly, multi-device, multi-room, wireless music management and streaming platform.
Roon is often called “AirPlay for audiophiles” (usually by Roon himself) because any Roon Ready device (i.e. a speaker with the software baked in) can receive streams of up to 32-bit/768 kHz PCM and DSD512, with AirPlay -streaming maximum at ‘CD quality’ 16bit/44.1kHz.
And why would Harman buy Roon if it didn’t plan to implement it in one of its biggest brands? Other hi-fi names under the Harman umbrella include AKG, Harman Kardon and Mark Levinson, so I predict at least ‘Roon Tested’ labels on the new Wi-Fi-enabled JBL kit very soon.
Advice: A portable Wi-Fi speaker from JBL that can rival the Sonos Roam? Yes please
For anyone who has invested the $150 annual Roon membership fee (which works out to around £118 or AU$226), don’t worry: it looks like nothing will change for Roon subscribers. Harman’s press release promises: “Roon will operate as a standalone Harman company with its existing team.”
a post on a community forum written by Roon Labs Founder Enno Vandermeer also confirms: “In Broadly speaking, Roon will remain “exactly as is,” with no changes to existing device support and membership, all set to “remain valid and continue without interruption.”
What I’m most interested in is the possibility of a portable JBL speaker that can do more than JBL’s divisive PartyBoost Bluetooth daisy-chaining software. Why division? Because while progress should of course be encouraged, PartyBoost arrived relatively recently, as an upgrade to JBL’s older Connect+ technology to amplify audio by sharing it among multiple JBL speakers – and Connect+ and PartyBoost were not compatible. So if you spent years building up a collection of JBL Bluetooth speakers, suddenly they all felt old-fashioned because they couldn’t play nice with the new ones. For example, the beautiful JBL Charge 4 cannot be connected to the JBL Charge 5 Bluetooth-only speaker, as the former supports Connect+, while the latter has PartyBoost built-in.
And it’s not like Harman can’t make excellent Wi-Fi compatible speakers suitable for a multi-room wireless audio ecosystem – just look at the JBL Authentics 200, 300 and 500, launched at IFA 2023 and the Wi -Fi May 2023 release. and Dolby Atmos enabled JBL Charge 5 and Boombox 3 iterations to boot. Similar JBL speakers may soon be listed as Roon Ready and Roon Tested in the JBL section of Roon’s website? I certainly hope so – and Sonos may want to take note.
Could we soon also say, “I play it at home on the JBL system”? Very likely, given Harman’s most recent purchase.