Roku’s wireless speakers are just for its TVs

On the surface, Roku’s wireless speakers looks like a typical pair of affordable bookshelf units. They’re black and fairly nondescript, save for a Roku logo up top. They’re meant to disappear beside your TV, not stand out. In a brief demo in New York City, they sound… well, like a pair of bookshelf speakers. They’re obviously a huge upgrade over the built-in speakers in one of TCL’s Roku TVs. There’s a noticeable amount of stereo separation (obviously), and they sound well balanced across the low-end and high-end. The speakers add a healthy dose of bass to action movies, and Roku also designed them to enhance dialog too.

Yes, they’re also Bluetooth speakers, though I didn’t get to see that feature during my demo. Strangely enough, they’re not compatible with standard Roku set-top boxes. Since this is its first foray into home audio, Roku says it wanted to focus on rolling out the speakers to one set of products first. The speakers will ship with a Roku Voice Remote, as well as a new Touch controller, which is meant to sit on your coffee table and offer quick access to common features, like volume controls, video playable and voice commands.