If you heard it once, you heard it a million times – television speakers suck. They’re not the powerhouses that came with your old CRTs anymore – mostly due to TVs getting sleeker and thinner – but they do the job for the average person. However, for those that actually give a damn, Roku is offering a solution to improve that – the Roku TV Wireless Speakers. The kicker? It’s only for Roku branded TVs.
However, for those with Roku-powered TVs – such as the new TCL 5 and 6-Series – it is as simple as pairing them using the Roku Connect app. Once paired, you can enjoy your favorite apps, movies, and games through the speakers, which are designed to blend in with the TV in your living room set up.
Picture quality, a tremendous selection of content, value, and ease of use make Roku TVs some of the most popular smart TVs on the market today. Adding great audio dramatically enhances the way people experience their favorite entertainment. With Roku TV Wireless Speakers, we’re able to offer our customers a simple and affordable way to further immerse themselves into the TV, movies and music they love, while providing them with a better whole home entertainment experience.
- Roku CEO Anthony Wood
Two neat features that Roku is touting – Automatic Volume Leveling and Dialogue Enhancement – are designed to enhance the listening experience by making the necessary adjustments based on the scene being viewed or played, as well as making speech more intelligible.
The Roku TV Wireless Speakers also support Bluetooth music streaming from mobile devices, and we have reached out to Roku to determine what protocol of Bluetooth the speakers support. It is also currently unknown if AirPlay or AirPlay 2 support is or will be included.
As a result of the introduction of these new speakers, the proposed TCL soundbar project is dead in the water – according to a Roku spokesperson.
The Roku TV Wireless Speakers bundle includes the pair of speakers, a Roku TV Voice Remote and the Roku Touch Tabletop remote – a tabletop version of the voice remote with programmable preset buttons. The speakers will retail – eventually – at $200, but they’re available now for the introductory pre-order price of $150 – until July 23. After that, the price increases to $180 until October 15th, where the $200 retail pricing kicks in. The speakers are slated to ship in late October.
