If you’re in the business of selling audio gear with a Sonos logo on it, you may be feeling a little more heat than usual. And if you’re a person who owns a Sonos speaker, you may be equally as hot, though potentially not in a figurative sense. According to a report from Bloomberg, Sonos has admitted that a small number of customers who bought its Roam Bluetooth speakers have experienced overheating problems that caused the speaker to partially melt (specifically the USB-C port).
Per Bloomberg, Sonos has said that it’s closely tracking those reports of overheating, but it hasn’t issued a recall just yet. While Sonos is downplaying what appears to be a Roam design flaw, saying that it only affects a “small number” of speakers, it’s hard to overstate the possible danger of this particular defect—especially if you take a gander at what the results of said issue actually look like. To see just how bad the problem is, I took a short look at the Sonos subreddit, and… woof. Looks an awful lot like a fire hazard to me.
According to the Redditor who posted this image, their Roam hadn’t been used or touched in months and started to spontaneously overheat to the point of burning. Luckily, the Redditor said, they were home at the time the overheating started and happened to smell the subsequent burning. They were able to unplug the Roam, which was apparently being powered by the included cable from Sonos and an “Apple brick,” before any major fire took place. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only issue on the subreddit. Other Roam owners from a few months ago have also reported overheating, which (while it fortunately didn’t result in a fire) definitely looks like a legitimate hazard.
Obviously, those overheating issues are bad, but unfortunately for Sonos and its customers, it’s just another big bump in what’s been a bit of a rough patch for the company. Last year, Sonos had fairly high-profile trouble with its app that actually resulted in product delays. That fallout was so bad that it led to the ouster of its CEO at the time, Patrick Spence. Sonos now has a new CEO in Tom Conrad, who formerly played a prominent role at the music streaming service Pandora, but obviously, that tenure is not off to a great start either.
It’s hard to blame Conrad for a problem that feels inherited, but I hope for the sake of people who bought Sonos’ speakers and Sonos (a formerly reputable name in the world of audio) that it can correct course. In the meantime, it might be best to unplug your Roam speaker if you should own one, no matter how “small” the issue may be, according to Sonos’ spokespeople.
