Rocki Play Wi-Fi streamer takes on musical favorite Sonos
Wireless & Bluetooth Speakers
[MUSIC]
When it comes to wireless music, there are a lot of players in the market right now.
But when you're talking about David versus Goliath stories, or to put it in more modern terms, Rocky versus Ivan Drago, there is no greater fight than that between the Rocki Play, Rocki with an I that is, and Sonos.
Hi, I'm Ty Pendlebury, and at only $49, this Rocki is a plucky little upstart with something to prove, while the Drago, or Dolf Lundgren in this scenario, is Sonar.
Bigger, prettier, and with more resources on its side.
As a Wifi-only player, the Rocki Play is a pretty basic device.
It comes in a rubber shell with a number of different colors to choose from, and fits in the palm of your hand.
It features an onboard battery which is good for a few hours of playback.
Has a USB power port as well, and a 3.5 millimeter output.
The app that comes with the Rocki is very easy to use.
And you'll have the device up and running very quickly.
At the moment, its main use is for playing back music on your phone, though it does offer sound cloud access and lots of [UNKNOWN], though there are more services to come.
Playback reliability depends on your network but is mostly solid, and definitely better than other solutions like the Force Receiver.
While most music file formats are supported, its Android only at the moment, but iOS is due very soon.
Sound quality is a lot better than you would expect for such an inexpensive device and almost as good as the Sonos Connect, which is worth seven times the price.
The Rocki was expected to lose this fight.
It seems the little player could shake up audio streaming in the same way that Chromecast has for video streaming.
At 50 bucks, it's almost a no brainer, unlike Dolf Lundgren who is around 160 [UNKNOWN].
This is Ty Pendlebury for cnet.com.
