TECH NEWS – Sonos is struggling with both software and hardware issues, though not all of its speakers are affected.

On Reddit, jssumm, a Sonos Roam owner, claimed that their speaker is two years old and that they hardly ever use it. Unfortunately, they smelled burning plastic, and it was indeed coming from the device. The Roam caught fire, and the USB-C connector was most severely damaged: “My two-year-old Sonos Roam, which sits mostly unused, set itself on fire the other day. It hadn’t been used or touched for at least a month—I had been out of town—and I noticed a funny smell in the room where it was. After a few hours, the smell was getting worse. I recognized it as burning plastic, so I unplugged everything in the room. The culprit was the Roam, already singed and bulging at the USB connection.”

Before the situation could escalate, a Sonos spokesperson told Bloomberg that cases of Roam speakers catching fire are rare and related to environmental conditions. “We’ve closely tracked a limited number of reports involving the USB-C charging connection on some first-generation Sonos Roam speakers. While the overall incidence rate is very low and environmental conditions appear to play a role, we’ve taken several proactive steps to further reduce the likelihood of this issue, including software updates and hardware improvements.”

Although Sonos may try to sweep these incidents under the rug to protect its reputation, a larger fire breaking out while the homeowner is away could turn into another PR disaster. Fortunately, the Roam 2 is not affected by this issue, but it remains a bad omen for owners, since who knows how many other speakers might have the same problem…

Source: WCCFTech, Bloomberg