No soundbar – no matter how good – will ever shake your room and rattle the pictures on your wall.
That’s because it’s physically limited by the size of the TVs it’s designed to work with. So when it comes to creating seismic sub bass for your movies or music, the only answer is a standalone subwoofer.
Simple you may say, but it isn’t. Bad subs – and there are plenty of them – inevitably cause more problems than they solve. They can boom excessively, and/or fail to properly play in time to the music – it sometimes feels that they’re struggling to keep up with the beat.
That’s why they’re not as popular with high end audio enthusiasts as you might think. Pumping out bass is easy enough, but controlling it isn’t. To get things right, it takes clever design, serious attention to detail and painstaking tuning by expert audio engineers.
On this score, Sonos has good form. Its £749 Sub is designed to fit into the Sonos ecosystem and complements products like the Beam soundbar very well. But it’s a big old thing, and expensive too – which is why the company has just launched the new £429 Sub Mini.
The look and feel
You might expect a downscaled Sub – almost as if it had shrunk in the wash – but no, Sonos has come up with a completely different look. The Sub Mini is cylindrical, meaning it will fit into smaller spaces more easily and appears less imposing. And at 6.35kg, it is under half the weight of its larger sibling, and a lot smaller too at H305xW230xD230mm.
That cylindrical shape brings both aesthetic and sonic benefits. Especially the white finish (black is also available) that will blend into a room far better than bigger, boxier designs. Also, its cabinet’s curves have the effect of reducing what acousticians call ‘standing waves’, natural echoes inside the cabinet. It means less extraneous bass boom, and more controlled low end thump.
Better still, the Sub Mini’s cabinet is sealed – which is unusual for a subwoofer, these days. Most modern designs use ‘reflex ports’, little holes in the enclosures that let air flow freely from inside out to the room. But this little Sonos does the reverse however, keeping the air tightly inside the cabinet to better control its drive units. In smaller spaces where it’s most likely to be used, this makes for a tighter, faster and crisper bass.
The sound
Sonos has designed the Sub Mini to blend seamlessly in with products such as the Beam soundbar, rather than attempting to upstage them. When you play the two together, you can hardly tell the sub is working – which is just how it should be. It’s only when you switch it off that you realise what you’re missing!
This sounds kind of counterintuitive – why invest in a subwoofer only not to hear it? But the best of these designs always dissolve into your room and let you enjoy music or movie soundtracks better, rather than drawing attention to themselves. Cheap bass boxes that bang and crash all the time fast become tiring to listen to, and the novelty soon wears off.
So whether you’re listening to the seismic drum’n’bass of Goldie’s Timeless or the lilting majesty of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, you end up with a smooth and even tonal balance. The Sub Mini is great for action films or general TV viewing too, for precisely the same reason. The twin 6 inch inward-firing drivers and gutsy Class D amplifier can punch out oodles of flare-flapping bass when needed, but things never sound overblown or out of control.
The connectivity
The Sonos app does a great job of matching it to the Beam and the room, using the latter’s built-in microphone. The Sub Mini hooks up wirelessly, needing just a single mains lead to work with everything; it will also pair up with a Ray, One, One SL or SYMFONISK speakers. You can tweak the sub-bass level via the app, but many won’t even bother – as its Trueplay tuning technology does such a good job by itself, straight out of the box. The app makes setting it up easy, and even offers multi-room functionality should you need it.
Verdict
The new Sonos Sub Mini might seem a bit pricey at £429, but is a real class act. It works faultlessly, never draws attention to itself and lets you get on with the job of enjoying your telly and tunes. Ideal to for small to medium sized rooms, it’s a great addition to any Sonos system.
