3 Speakers
THREE SPEAKERS. THREE PERSONALITIES. ONE CAMPERVAN. 🔊🚐
THREE SPEAKERS. THREE PERSONALITIES. ONE CAMPERVAN. 🔊🚐
B&O BEOSOUND EXPLORE vs SONOS ROAM vs BOSE SOUNDLINK MICRO 2
There are three portable speakers currently competing for space in my world. On paper, that sounds excessive. Three little boxes whose basic job is to receive music wirelessly and make noise. Surely one good speaker would do?
Except it wouldn’t.
Because after looking properly at the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore, Sonos Roam and Bose SoundLink Micro 2nd Gen, I’ve realised something rather wonderful. I haven’t ended up with three versions of the same thing. I’ve ended up with three completely different characters, each suited to a different part of campervan life.
One is the hi-fi gentleman. One is the clever all-rounder. And one is a tiny hooligan that appears to have completely misunderstood how much sound something its size is supposed to produce.
Welcome to the NIX portable speaker shootout.
THE HEAVYWEIGHT: B&O BEOSOUND EXPLORE 🎼
Pick up the Beosound Explore and you immediately understand where some of the money went. It weighs 631g, is wrapped in anodised aluminium and feels less like a Bluetooth accessory and more like a small piece of Scandinavian engineering.
Inside are two 1.8-inch full-range drivers, each driven by its own 30W Class-D amplifier. Bang & Olufsen specifies 360-degree sound dispersion, a frequency range down to 56Hz and maximum output of 91dB at one metre. (Bang & Olufsen Support)
That 360-degree design matters enormously in a campervan environment. Put the Explore in the middle of a table outside Vanilla and there isn’t really a front and a back. The music spreads around the speaker rather than firing at whichever lucky person happens to be sitting directly opposite it.
But its party trick is endurance.
B&O quotes up to 27 hours of playback at typical listening levels. Battery life obviously varies with volume, music and EQ, but even allowing for real-world conditions, that’s an enormous reserve for something this compact. (Bang & Olufsen Support)
For a weekend away, that’s brilliant. Charge it before leaving home and there’s a very real possibility that you simply don’t think about charging it again.
Sonically, this is the speaker I’d associate with sitting down and properly listening. Depeche Mode, Dire Straits, Joy Division, Simple Minds, Orbital. Music where texture and separation matter. The Explore isn’t merely trying to kick you in the chest with exaggerated bass. Its appeal is space, control and detail.
It feels like the grown-up of the three.
THE CLEVER ONE: SONOS ROAM 📡
Then there’s the Sonos Roam.
Physically it’s considerably lighter at around 430g, but where the B&O concentrates on being an extremely accomplished Bluetooth speaker, the Roam starts adding brains.
Bluetooth? Yes.
Wi-Fi? Yes.
Apple AirPlay 2? Yes.
Adjustable EQ? Yes.
Integration with the wider Sonos system? Absolutely.
And then there’s Automatic Trueplay, where the Roam can adapt its sound according to its surroundings, its orientation and what is playing. (Sonos)
That makes enormous sense inside Vanilla.
A campervan is an acoustically strange little place. Glass, cabinets, cushions, roof lining, cupboards and hard surfaces are all crammed together within a few metres. Move a speaker from the worktop to the table and the bass response can change dramatically.
The Roam is designed to deal with exactly that sort of behaviour.
It uses a dedicated midwoofer and tweeter rather than the B&O’s pair of full-range drivers, with two Class-H amplifiers doing the heavy lifting. Sonos claims up to 10 hours of continuous playback, and the original Roam carries the same IP67 dust and water resistance rating as the B&O. (Sonos)
Ten hours sounds almost pedestrian beside the B&O’s 27, but in normal use that’s still essentially a day of music.
And then we get to sound.
Where the B&O feels sophisticated, the Roam can be wonderfully enthusiastic. Electronic music especially suits it. Put on Underworld’s Born Slippy .NUXX, Leftfield or Gary Numan and that little enclosure can produce a remarkably convincing sense of weight.
Inside Vanilla, where the walls themselves help reinforce low frequencies, the Roam gets even more entertaining.
This is the one I’d choose late at night, lights down, heating on, beer opened, Underworld gradually becoming less background music and more of an event.
The B&O might reproduce the recording with greater composure.
The Sonos sometimes makes you enjoy it more.
And those are not necessarily the same thing.
THE POCKET ROCKET: BOSE SOUNDLINK MICRO 2 💥
Then somebody invited the Bose.
And the Bose apparently arrived having drunk three espressos.
The SoundLink Micro 2nd Gen weighs only about 0.3kg. It is roughly palm-sized, has a built-in utility strap and is dramatically smaller than the B&O. Yet Bose still quotes up to 12 hours of playback, Bluetooth 5.4 and an IP67 rating. (Bose Support)
Unlike the others, it’s essentially a mono speaker. There is no Wi-Fi ecosystem, AirPlay cleverness or elaborate 360-degree acoustic architecture. Bose has concentrated on something far simpler:
Make a very small speaker surprisingly loud, give it decent bass and make it tough enough to go almost anywhere.
And it works.
Comparing the Micro directly with the Beosound Explore purely on absolute fidelity would be slightly ridiculous. The B&O is larger, heavier and acoustically much more ambitious.
But strap the Bose onto a bag, carry it on a bike ride, take it outside while cooking or put it beside you somewhere you wouldn’t risk a more expensive speaker and suddenly the tiny Bose becomes incredibly appealing.
Its greatest trick is psychological.
You hear the sound.
You look at the speaker.
Then you look at it again.
Surely that isn’t all coming from there?
It is.
THE NUMBERS
B&O BEOSOUND EXPLORE
Weight: 631g Battery: up to 27 hours Water/dust protection: IP67 Drivers: 2 × 1.8-inch full-range Amplification: 2 × 30W Class-D Sound: 360 degrees (Bang & Olufsen Support)
SONOS ROAM
Weight: 430g Battery: up to 10 hours Water/dust protection: IP67 Drivers: midwoofer + tweeter Wi-Fi: yes Bluetooth: yes AirPlay 2: yes Automatic Trueplay: yes (Sonos)
BOSE SOUNDLINK MICRO 2
Weight: about 300g Battery: up to 12 hours Water/dust protection: IP67 Bluetooth: 5.4 Sound: mono Party trick: that strap and its absurd size-to-sound ratio (Bose Support)
SO WHICH ACTUALLY SOUNDS BEST? 🎶
This is where specifications stop being terribly helpful.
If I want detail, space and refinement, the B&O gets the job.
Personal Jesus should be magnificent through it. That combination of percussion, guitar, vocal and electronic texture needs separation rather than simply more bass. The same applies to Dire Straits, Joy Division and much of Simple Minds.
For electronic music, however, the Roam becomes a very serious challenger.
Born Slippy, Leftfield’s Release the Pressure, Gary Numan’s Cars, even ABBA’s gloriously synthetic Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! benefit from something that gives the rhythm section a little extra shove.
Then there’s the Bose.
It’s not the speaker I’d choose for analysing a recording.
It’s the speaker I’d choose when I don’t want to analyse anything whatsoever.
Put some music on. Clip it somewhere. Open the doors. Carry on living.
That’s its genius.
THE VANILLA TEST 🚐
This changes everything.
Portable speakers are normally reviewed in bedrooms, studios or carefully controlled listening spaces.
My real world is a VW campervan.
And in there the differences become far more interesting.
Morning in Vanilla. Coffee brewing. Dire Straits playing quietly.
B&O.
No contest. Detail, calmness and that luxurious 360-degree presentation fit the moment beautifully.
Friday night. Curtains closed. LEDs glowing. Underworld playing.
Sonos Roam.
Inside such a small space its energetic bottom end becomes hugely entertaining. Suddenly the tiny Roam seems several sizes larger.
Cooking outside. People chatting. Music isn’t the main event.
Bose.
Strap it somewhere sensible and forget about it.
Sitting around the campsite with friends.
B&O.
The 360-degree output comes into its own because nobody needs to occupy the magic seat directly in front of the speaker.
Walking, cycling or travelling light.
Bose.
At roughly 300g it barely registers in the luggage.
At home and then continuing the music into the van.
Sonos.
That’s its territory. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay and the wider Sonos ecosystem make it the technological Swiss Army knife of the collection.
AND HERE’S THE STRANGE CONCLUSION
I started with three portable speakers.
What I’ve actually got is something closer to a tiny audio toolkit.
The Beosound Explore is the destination speaker. It comes out when I’m settled somewhere, when the campsite table is up, when the evening has started and music deserves some attention. Its massive battery reserve makes it particularly suited to weekends away.
The Sonos Roam is Vanilla’s little nightclub. It’s compact enough to disappear into the van but clever enough to adapt to its surroundings, and electronic music suits its energetic personality beautifully.
And the Bose SoundLink Micro 2 is the speaker that escapes. It doesn’t require an occasion. It goes walking. It goes outside. It goes in a bag. It gets strapped to something. It simply follows life around.
And that is why, rather unexpectedly, I don’t think any of them makes the others redundant.
They form a hierarchy based not on price or power, but purpose.
🎼 B&O: LISTEN.
⚡ SONOS: PLAY.
🎒 BOSE: GO.
Three speakers.
Three completely different personalities.
And somewhere in Staffordshire there’s now a campervan capable of carrying four Jackery power stations, solar panels, a projector, heating, refrigeration and apparently enough portable audio equipment to launch a very small festival.
Would I streamline the collection?
Absolutely not.
There’s still room in the cupboard. 🔊🟠
