After reading several different sites for product descriptions and reviews I am still unclear if a single Play:3 system is right for me. I'd like to have 2 speakers in the living room setup as a pair and the other speaker upstairs in my bedroom. Is this possible with buying only one Play:3 system?
My understanding of some of the descriptions is that all three of the speakers need to be in the same room (one for left, one for right, and they don't really say what the third one is for). My question is: Can I take the third one upstairs to my bedroom, or is that going to leave a void in the sound downstairs?
Question
Can Play:3 be placed in two different rooms?
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This is the primary purpose of Sonos, to fill your home with music. You can have up to 32 speakers in a system and you can control them all independently (with up to 32 controllers) and group them together in any way imaginable. The music will be perfectly in sync between the grouped rooms. If you have a home big enough you could play the same music on up to 32 speakers, all perfectly in sync. You can play different music in different rooms or groups of rooms. You can start with just 1 speaker and gradually add more. The Play:1 is a perfect starter speaker for small rooms.
If you have 3 Play:3 speakers you can bond two of them together semi-permanently (during initial setup) to create a stereo pair and this will appear as a single room in the Sonos app. The 3rd Play:3 could be placed in another room and will appear as a separate room on the rooms menu. You could play different music in each room at the same time or you could group the rooms together to play the same music in perfect sync. Alternatively all 3 Play:3's could be placed in separate rooms and would appear as 3 rooms in the controller app. It is very easy to group and ungroup rooms as desired via the rooms menu of the Sonos app. A group of rooms can consist of different types of units.
If you place a single Play:3 in a room it will play both the left and right channels, but if you stereo pair them they will play the appropriate left/right channels as configured during setup. The same applies to the Play:1 and Play:5. You can only stereo pair 2 units of the same type.
If you have a large living room you may wish to consider buying a single Play:5 for that room and a Play:1 for the bedroom. You could add an additional Play:5 to the living room at a later date to create a stereo pair if stereo separation is important to you. The Play:3 is the oldest unit in the current Play series, the Play:1 came next and the newest unit is the Play:5 (version 2). Play:5 (version 1) was the original Play unit although it did have a different name when first released. All Sonos units ever produced are fully compatible with each other and can be grouped together as required regardless of type. As mentioned before, to create a stereo pair you do require two Play units of the same type.
If you have 3 Play:3 speakers you can bond two of them together semi-permanently (during initial setup) to create a stereo pair and this will appear as a single room in the Sonos app. The 3rd Play:3 could be placed in another room and will appear as a separate room on the rooms menu. You could play different music in each room at the same time or you could group the rooms together to play the same music in perfect sync. Alternatively all 3 Play:3's could be placed in separate rooms and would appear as 3 rooms in the controller app. It is very easy to group and ungroup rooms as desired via the rooms menu of the Sonos app. A group of rooms can consist of different types of units.
If you place a single Play:3 in a room it will play both the left and right channels, but if you stereo pair them they will play the appropriate left/right channels as configured during setup. The same applies to the Play:1 and Play:5. You can only stereo pair 2 units of the same type.
If you have a large living room you may wish to consider buying a single Play:5 for that room and a Play:1 for the bedroom. You could add an additional Play:5 to the living room at a later date to create a stereo pair if stereo separation is important to you. The Play:3 is the oldest unit in the current Play series, the Play:1 came next and the newest unit is the Play:5 (version 2). Play:5 (version 1) was the original Play unit although it did have a different name when first released. All Sonos units ever produced are fully compatible with each other and can be grouped together as required regardless of type. As mentioned before, to create a stereo pair you do require two Play units of the same type.
Thanks DL. I understand and it sounds like this is what I am looking for.
I saw, on other sites, people saying they had "2 Play:3s" paired together. I wasn't sure if this meant that they had 2 Play:3 systems paired (meaning 6 speakers) or if it was two of the three speakers (meaning one system with a total of 3 speakers). They never said what they were doing with the third speaker, which is what led to my confusion.
Thanks again.
I saw, on other sites, people saying they had "2 Play:3s" paired together. I wasn't sure if this meant that they had 2 Play:3 systems paired (meaning 6 speakers) or if it was two of the three speakers (meaning one system with a total of 3 speakers). They never said what they were doing with the third speaker, which is what led to my confusion.
Thanks again.
I saw, on other sites, people saying they had "2 Play:3s" paired together. I wasn't sure if this meant that they had 2 Play:3 systems paired (meaning 6 speakers)
What? Are you taking the piss? Play:3 is the product name of an individual speaker. 2 Play:3s means exactly that, 2 speakers of the Play:3 variety. Buying a Play:3 does not mean you end up 3 speakers!
or if it was two of the three speakers (meaning one system with a total of 3 speakers). They never said what they were doing with the third speaker, which is what led to my confusion.
There is no third speaker, 2 Play:3s means two speakers, that's all.
+26The PLAY:3 has three speakers inside of it, two tweeters and a mid-range woofer, the unit itself is an "all-in-one" which means that all the speakers are contained within the same box. In this case, buying a PLAY:3 gets you one speaker with three component speakers inside it, but it's still just one room/speaker.
tgard,
I suspect you have seen a Play:3 bundle consisting of 3 separate Play:3 speakers. You can buy them one at a time if you wish but there may be a price saving in buying them as a bundle/system. I would recommend going to a store where you can hear each of the Play units and decide which units are most appropriate for the rooms in your own home. I personally only have the Play:1 and Play:3 from the Play series in my system but the new Play:5 is apparently awesome. I haven't yet experienced it for myself. In my living room I use a Sonos connect with an AV receiver and floor standing speakers to create a 5.1 home cinema setup, as an alternative to the Sonos Playbar.
I suspect you have seen a Play:3 bundle consisting of 3 separate Play:3 speakers. You can buy them one at a time if you wish but there may be a price saving in buying them as a bundle/system. I would recommend going to a store where you can hear each of the Play units and decide which units are most appropriate for the rooms in your own home. I personally only have the Play:1 and Play:3 from the Play series in my system but the new Play:5 is apparently awesome. I haven't yet experienced it for myself. In my living room I use a Sonos connect with an AV receiver and floor standing speakers to create a 5.1 home cinema setup, as an alternative to the Sonos Playbar.
One technical thing to consider, although Sonos units have the ability to connect wirelessly to your router using standard wi-fi, if you are able to hardwire a single unit to your router the system will automatically create a dedicated Sonos network that will be more robust than using standard wifi. If you don't require music in the room where your router is located you can achieve this setup (SonosNet aka boost setup) by either buying a Sonos bridge (second hand) or buying a Sonos Boost. If you have poor wifi or multiple units (> 2 or 3) SonosNet (with one unit wired) is the way to go.
So I just bought a PLAY:3, but there's only one speaker. Shouldn't there be 3 speakers??? Am I missing something?
Yes, a sense of humour, get lost.
Hmm...the sound is great, but I thought I would be three physically separate speakers (so I could have 2 downstairs and 1 upstairs...as I mentioned in my post before buying). I also didn't know that I couldn't connect it to my TV.
Both of these are very disappointing. I'll probably return it later today. I wish this information was more clear before I purchased it.
Both of these are very disappointing. I'll probably return it later today. I wish this information was more clear before I purchased it.
+22The 3 speakers are inside the single unit you purchased. They can be used separately around your dwelling but you must remove them
individually, using a screwdriver and hammer, from the single Play 3.
Jargon can be confusing. What you call a system, I call a speaker. What you call speakers when you refer to three of them in the play 3 system, I call drivers or drive units.
A single play 3, when you buy one, is one speaker. It has three drive units inside, which are just components of the one speaker. If you want sound in two different rooms, you need to buy 2 play 3 units. Or 2 play 1 or play 5 units. One speaker for each room.
You will find the same components in almost every speaker you buy today, whether made by Sonos or anyone else.
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