SONOS PLAY:3 Smart Wireless Speaker, White

Product Information

So, if the four reasons above are good enough for a new Sonos Play:3, or Sonos Three, here's what we want to see: Band of Horses’ delightful No One’s Gonna Love You, for example, sounds beautifully smooth and solid, but with lots of detail and punch. Launched in 2020, the Sonoc Arc is still the company's best soundbar, thanks to the immersive Dolby Atmos experience. Whether listening to music, watching a movie, or playing a video game, you'll feel like you're in the center of the action - no other speakers needed. The Sonos Arc is also easy to set up and features a sleek, discreet design mounted to a wall or beneath a TV. Sonos products can drop from the app if they’re experiencing network or connection issues. Learn how to recover your Play:3 and prevent it from dropping in the future.

Providing you've got a HDMI-ARC compatible TV (which most modern ones are) it's easy to set-up and, if you've got other compatible Sonos speakers, it's a simple way to get wireless surround sound for your movies, too. The best news about the Play:3, though, is that it sounds much better than its price and size might suggest. Feed it lossless or uncompressed rips from a computer or network-attached storage device and it really shines. It even senses which way it’s orientated and automatically adjusts the EQ for maximum dispersion – and this thing will fill a room far better than you might expect. Streaming

To get the good stuff – like Spotify, Deezer and so on – you need to have signed up for a Sonos account. These extra services are available from within a “More Music” submenu, but can only be added to the main menu once you’re signed in with your Sonos user name. Getting an account is free though, and only takes a minute. Couldn't listen without it now. I've been umming and arring about buying a Sonos sub for at least 12 months to compliment a Sonos beam and pair of SL's. Richer Sounds had it on offer, so I decided to take the plunge. I was slightly underwhelmed at first listen, but on reflection, it's because the bass fits into the audio so naturally, as soon as you toggle it off in the app, what once felt like a very rounded system suddenly felt incredibly hollow. The Sonos Sub also features revolutionary Trueplay technology. Trueplay scans your room, analyses the results and then fine-tunes the Sub for the ideal listening experience. Whether your room is large or small, densely furnished or minimalist, the Sub adapts to give the most natural and realistic sound possible (iOS device required). The sound signature is definitely on the warm, bassy side, but you are given some minor control over it within the iPhone app. A Music Equilization submenu lets you tweak the bass, treble and balance, and turn the Loudness mode on and off. The two frequency sliders only have a subtle effect on the sound – Sonos doesn’t give you the opportunity to ruin the sound quality here, but the Loudness option makes quite an impact. Primarily, it increases bass output to help the Play:3 maintain a decent sense of scale at higher volumes in spite of its fairly small-sized drivers. It can make the box sound a little bass-heavy, but this can then be tamed a little with the bass slider.

Sound is still definitely positional – the Play:3 can produce serious volume, but it’s not hard to pinpoint where the sound’s coming from compared with the larger Play:5. This ensures it can’t replace a full hi-fi on its own, but Sonos has a solution for that too.Sonos has the luxury of an incredibly loyal fan base. This could be thanks to the constant software updates and new features pushed to even the oldest speakers in its portfolio - or it could be the build and sound quality of the Sonos devices that keeps hold of fans. The Gen3 version of the Sonos Sub features updated internals with increased memory, processing power and enhanced ability to accept future upgrades. When combined with the new Sonos S2 app, the Sub becomes the smartest subwoofer around. The app also gives you access to an adjustable EQ, for sound tailored to your preferences.

The beauty of the Sonos system is that you can start with one speaker, and later add more to the system in different rooms – as many speakers as you like up to 32 (in case you happen to live in a palace). Now don't get us wrong, despite its dated design, the Play:3 still sounds excellent. It also still receives software updates - such as TruePlay tuning - meaning it continues to improve and develop. What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence. Stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital Plus), Dolby Atmos*, Dolby TrueHD*, Dolby Atmos (True HD)*, Multichannel PCM*, Dolby Multichannel PCM*, DTS Digital Surround** (*HDMI eARC connection required. **This is not an indication of a licensed decoder.) The Sonos app's Now Playing screen will display what type of audio is being decoded.The thing is, even if every one of the 21 million Sonos speakers ever sold were bought solely for their audio quality or multi-room capabilities, Sonos itself cares about design. The company takes pride in delivering premium, intricately-designed, devices. So much so it took several years to design and deliver the Playbase. Every single detail was meticulously planned. Why did Sonos create a second home entertainment device? The team did extensive research into how people used their Playbar at home and found that most people didn’t wall mount their televisions or Playbars. To that end, the Playbase was created to allow people to set their televisions right on top of the speaker, allowing for a compact home theater solution.