LG Music Flow H3 review

The LG Music Flow H3 is small and compact wireless speaker, so you can tuck it neatly out of the way in a kitchen or small bedroom. It’s the smallest in the Music Flow range of multiroom speakers, giving you a choice of device depending on the size of room you’ve got.

As well as being small, the H3 looks classy and attractive. Its simple design means that the speaker is uncluttered with a front dominated by a dark grey speaker grille. Controls are placed on the top and consist of a rotating jog wheel for volume control and a power button. The speaker cabinet looks like it’s made from metal but is in fact plastic, but it is well finished and the controls feel tough and responsive.

There’s not a lot of connectivity on the back of the H3 with just a solitary Ethernet port. There’s no auxiliary 3.5mm connection so there’s no option to connect an external audio player. There are two buttons for connecting to your Wi-Fi or adding the speaker to LG’s wireless mesh network through an LG Music Flow R1 Bridge (more on this later).

You also have the option of connecting to the H3 using Bluetooth and there’s also a convenient NFC pairing point located on the side of the speaker. A simple tap of an NFC-enabled device will pair the two together for wireless music streaming. The power button on the top the unit toggles the speaker between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modes. Thoughtfully, the speaker will automatically toggle from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi if it detects that you’re streaming audio over your network.

The Music Flow H3 works with LG’s Music Flow app available on iOS, Android or PC, where the latter also acts as a music server. We were disappointed to see there wasn’t a dedicated iPad app so you’ll have to install the non-tablet optimised version.

Similarly, OS X isn’t supported, although you can install Nero MediaHome to share music, although any DLNA server on your Mac, PC or NAS will do the job. Both the mobile apps and desktop software take you through the process of adding the H3 to your wireless network with clear instructions and guidance. The whole process only took a few minutes.

Once up and running, you use the Music Flow app to stream music from services such as Napster, TuneIn or Deezer. Spotify isn’t integrated into the Music Flow and you have to use the Connect option from the dedicated Spotify App, as well as having a Premium account. This means that you can only play one track to one speaker; with Sonos, you can stream as many tracks as you have speakers.

Music Flow app will also sync local music on your device as well as any network media servers and display it in a music library. Navigating around the app is from a slide out menu and it’s simply laid out. Music libraries from music services are presented in a simple list, which isn’t the most attractive but is functional.

Sound quality from the Music Flow H3’s single 30W driver was very flat. There’s not a lot of colour to the sound, which makes it perform optimally with delicate instrumental tracks. You don’t get a lot of bass either. The sound output is unsurprisingly directional, so the sweet spot for sound is directly in front. Vocals were well produced and clear, though.

The H3 produced a surprising amount of volume for a speaker of its size, although it did begin to distort as it reached its upper limit. It’s possible to pair two H3 speakers to use them as a stereo pair that should improve the stereo separation and soundstage although we only had one H3 to test.

Notably, the Music Flow range of speakers support up to 24bit/192kHz high-resolution audio in WAV or FLAC formats. We didn’t really hear a difference in the audio produced from the H3 compared to a lossy MP3, however. If you have a catalogue of high-resolution audio tracks you’ll be able to play them at least but the H3 isn’t able to present a discernible difference in sound quality.

To build a multiroom system from Music Flow speakers, you need to buy the LG Music Flow R1 Bridge (£40, www.currys.co.uk). The R1 will work with numerous Music Flow series speakers including the LG HS6 Soundbar (£500, www.currys.co.uk) and the Music Flow H7. You can pair multiple H3 speakers with the soundbar to create a wireless surround sound setup, for example.

You connect the small box directly to your wireless router over Ethernet and it creates a dedicated mesh network for the Music Flow speakers. Adding additional speakers is then simply a matter of pressing the pairing button on the R1 and each individual speaker.

You can then use the Music Flow app to control the audio output from each speaker or group them together for simultaneous play across multiple speakers. The app also provides an easy way to see what music is playing from each speaker as well as the source, whether it’s an internet streaming service, a NAS or local device music.

Overall, the LG Music Flow H3 is a decent discrete wireless speaker that also has an attractive design. It produces good sound quality and its high-definition audio support sets it apart from its rivals although it doesn’t make a lot of difference with the H3. You’ll need to factor in the additional cost of the Music Flow R1 Bridge if you want a multiroom setup as well. Now that the Sonos range has been updated to no longer require a bridge, the Play:1 gets the nod overall. The Sonos Play:1 supports far more music streaming services and the Sonos Controller is easier to use than LG’s Music Flow.