(Un)Wired for sound

The Play:3 doesn't take an engineer to set up. Photo / Supplied

The methods we music lovers employ to hear our wonderful audio collections are many and varied. PCs hooked up to stereos, iPods hanging over ragged sets of cables, computer speakers pounded into submission by bass they're just not made to handle - most aren't ideal solves.

Single-speaker solutions that allow you to simply stick your MP3 player of choice on the top and let it go are popular and provide wireless solutions. Sonos have tackled this with the recently-released Play:3 system, offering a wireless streaming package that doesn't take an engineer to set up.

It may not be the most stylish offering on the market - the three-way speakers look a bit low-end compared with some of the design-driven offerings out there - but what they lack in attractiveness, they make up for in sound and tricks.

Set-up is quite simple: plug a music bridge, which your iPod connects to, into Wi-Fi router, where it will act as your wireless server. It's very small and features a pair of ethernet ports, a power plug and a join button.

Once speaker positions are sorted, it's just a matter of waiting for a few minutes for the Sonos software to install, selecting your music folder and you're away.

The software has to be used instead of iTunes, which is a tad annoying, and the interface gets slower as your music collection gets bigger.

But the speakers do sound good and even feature a self-EQ system that recalibrates audio if you move the noise-makers from horizontal to vertical positioning. As the speakers are very small, the stereo separation effect isn't mind-blowing, but the sound itself is rich and seemed happy enough with a selection ranging from rock to drum and bass and a bit of jazz.

At $700, they're not cheapest option on the market, but between the easy set-up and audio powers, offer a brilliant solution for those with space issues - or cable-phobes.

- TimeOut