T3 Awards 2020: Sonos Port is the streaming DAC with two killer weapons

It streams your vinyl AND turns your old hi-fi into the best sounding 'Sonos speaker' ever – in association with Deezer

T3 Awards 2020: Sonos Port is our #1 streaming DAC
(Image credit: Sonos Port)

The best streaming DAC brings all the benefits of cord-free audio streaming to your home speakers, and nobody does cord-free audio streaming better right now than Sonos. That's why it's our DAC winner in the T3 Awards 2020. You'll take to it like a DAC to water!

The Sonos Port is the successor to the venerable Sonos Connect, and it turns your trusty turntable into the heart of your multi-room music system by sharing what may well be your very best audio source with your entire house. 

However, the Port's talents do not end there. Mais non. As well as streaming your vinyl to any Sonos speakers you have arrayed around your domicile, this compact magic box also has a wired audio output.That means it can also turn your fusty old hi-fi, soundbar or any other powered speaker with an audio input, into a thrustingly modern Sonos speaker.

With the right positioning, or very long wires, it can even do both of these tricks simultaneously. Oh yeah.

It works best with Sonos’s own app, but you can also stream via AirPlay 2 from Apple devices and laptops using iTunes.

The Port also has an extremely discreet, compact industrial design. It's built with the professional installer in mind, and three Ports will slide seamlessly into a standard AV rack. However, that compactitude also means it's extremely to place in your home, even if you are not a professional installer. In fact, with Sonos' easy setup, intuitive, if slightly sprawling app, and rock solid connectivity 'installing' the Port is absolute child's play.

Most importantly, the Port's beefed-up DAC delivers clear, balanced and detailed audio. It makes the most of even the ropiest Spotify stream but feed it something of higher quality – Tidal HiFi or Amazon HD, for instance – and it sounds absolutely corking. There's no support for audio of above CD quality but arguably you don't need it. 

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Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series. When she’s not scribbling, she’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR (havrmusic.com).