Audio Pro Addon C3
The Audio Pro Addon C3 is basically the multi-room, wi-fi version of the Addon T3. From the front it looks almost identical – the 9cm woofer splitting a pair of 75mm tweeters in what we’ve affectionately dubbed Audio Pro’s ‘koala’ configuration. While the addition of wi-fi and multiroom are welcome, Audio Pro has had to make a couple of sacrifices to accommodate them.
Compared with the T3, the C3 loses the rear USB port and, along with it, the ability to charge a smartphone. In its place you’ll find an ethernet socket for hardwiring the speaker to your home network.
Adding new wireless features has also impacted on battery life. You get around nine hours of playback at 100 per cent volume and up to 15 hours at 50 per cent, compared with 12 and 30 hours respectively with the T3.
The Addon C3 supports the main streaming services, including Tidal, Spotify, Qobuz and Apple Music. Playback is controlled via the Audio Pro Control app. It’s not quite the seamless experience offered by the Sonos equivalent, but neither is it seriously flawed.
Audio Pro has developed a reputation for brilliant-sounding wireless speakers and the C3 comfortably lives up to that. The level of refinement from such a small package is hugely impressive. It delivers the lead vocal from Chvrches’ Miracle with a beautifully sweet and pure tone. Negative traits such as sibilance and harshness don’t exist in the C3’s sonic vocabulary.
It’s a focused sound, but airy and open with it. There’s no fancy 360-degree spread of noise here – the C3 is more direct in its delivery, but it doesn’t have a problem filling a decently sized room with quality sound.
At both high and low volumes the speaker excels, sounding dynamic and punchy when the track demands but also able to slow the pace and communicate in a subtler way should the need arise.
Music sounds natural and the Addon C3 manages to capture the rhythm essence of any track thrown at its feet, from the jumbled path trodden by alt-j’s Breezeblocks to the more deliberate, probing bassline of SBTRKT’S Higher.
The C3 sounds weighty, delving deep and rendering each note with detail and texture. By multi-room speaker standards, this is a remarkably refined performance.
Audio Pro has taken an already excellent speaker in the T3 and repackaged it into a sensationalsounding multi-room proposition that gives rivals, including Sonos, a serious run for their money.