Play 5 (pair) EQ Bass Setting vs. Sub Bass Setting

  • 9 October 2017
  • 6 replies
  • 2091 views

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Apologies if this has already been covered. I've just paired a new Sub with a pair of Play 5s (perhaps overkill, but loving it). Can someone please give me an overview of the difference between increasing the bass in the Play 5 EQ setting and boosting the Sub's bass directly? Does the former action only affect the Play 5, or does it boost the Sub's bass as well? Is there a crossover setting I am not seeing? Should I use the two levers in conjunction with each other? I understand the "musical taste" theory, so I'm just looking for some technical help and maybe everyone's experiences with adjusting the two levers. Thanks.

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6 replies

Boosting the Sub slider drives up the volume of the sub relative to the bonded speaker, while the bass EQ selectively increase the frequencies at the lower end of all speakers, but none other than Sonos knows the shape of the resultant boost/cut.
What I find works best with my 1 pair + Sub is to first true play it together, and then boost the Sub output a little above the centre. I don't move the EQ sliders from the centre positions.
That may just be a good starting point to start your experimenting from because finally it is the sound you like that should determine slider/output levels.
Userlevel 7
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Great answer from Kumar, he's pretty on point with what the different settings do. My suggestion is usually to adjust the SUB's slider after Trueplay. But that's the great thing about options, you can play around with it and see what you like the best.

The crossover is self-adjusting, depending on which Sonos players you have it bonded with. Higher for our smaller speakers, lower for the larger ones. We don't really share the crossover in great details, but the frequency for PLAY:5s is around 75Hz if I recall correctly. It frees up a lot of power for the PLAY:5s to play other audio to their fullest.
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Thanks Kumar and Ryan.
I have a play base, 2 play:1s and a sub. With bass heavy music I’m getting a lot of low end distortion from the play:1s. Shouldn’t the system automatically filter the low frequency out of the base and play:1s when it recognizes a sub?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
Yes it should - did you do a trueplay tuning after you linked all together as well. Have you tried trueplay on/off in case its causing some issues. Are you sure distortion isn't something rattling in room.
Even without true play, there should be no low end going to the 1 units even in Full mode. If the configuration allows you to adjust the EQ on each 1 unit separately, can you localise the distortion to one unit, or does it come from both?

PS: Obvious question: is the Sub turned on?