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Sonos Play:3 network music player

The best starter streamer bar none?

Multi-room ready

Take a Play:3 apart - impossible to do but use your imagination - and you will find a tweeter and two 3in mid-range drivers firing forward, and a passive bass radiator at the back. Each driver is individually powered by a dedicated Class-D amplifier.

Sonos Play:3 network music player

No phone? Then run everything from your PC

How does it sound? Rather good. In fact, for something so diminutive, extremely good. There’s plenty of volume on tap - Sonos is keeping mum about actual power outputs - and what comes out is detailed, solid and very composed, even at maximum volume.

Compared to my now discontinued Squeezebox Boom, the Play:3 is sonically superior in every way. The only vaguely similar device I’ve heard that offers more to the ears is the Arcam rCube dock which will set you back a further £200.

It’s worth mentioning that in over a week with the Play:3 I didn’t experience a single hiccup, pause or drop-out in my listening. Everything just worked, reliably.

Sonos Play:3 network music player

Well designed for any room in the house

RH Editor's Choice

If one speaker isn’t enough, you can add a second Play:3 to a room and set them up to work as a stereo pair. This being a Sonos system, speaker units and wireless bridges can continue to be added until you run out of money or rooms.

Verdict

Sonos has at last built a wireless music box for the less well-off - and built a rather good one too. The Play:3 is physically small enough to be easily sited in any lounge, office or bedroom but produces a big enough sound to act as a primary stereo. The facility to pair units up as stereo speakers and use your smartphone as a remote is the icing on the cake. ®

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Sonos Play:3 network music player

Sonos Play:3 network music player

The best wireless music starter unit on the market and, by Sonos standards, very good value.
Price: £259. Wireless bridge: £40 RRP

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