How does the sub actually change your setup?

  • 18 March 2019
  • 8 replies
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Userlevel 1
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Obviusley I know the sub ads a lot more bass to your setup but I'm wondering how it changes it all? Does is alter what sounds come out of the beam and 2 Play1:s I already have set up?

For example will the beam stop kicking out bass and concentrate on the centre channel stuff like voices etc? I have suffered a little with the low voice volume and really loud action scenes so I'm wondering if having the sub and being able to adjust the level seperatley with make things better for me overall?

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8 replies

Adding a Sub will relieve the main speaker(s) of the lower bass frequencies. As a general rule the main speaker(s) then sounds better as it can concentrate on the mid/upper range.

If you are able to Trueplay tune the setup, this will set the Sub parameters for you. You can still tweak the relative volume level if you wish. Without Trueplay there are a few more setup steps, such as to configure the Sub's phase.
Userlevel 1
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Great, just what I wanted to know. I am able to Trueplay tune so will definitley be taking advantage of that option.
Thanks again for the info.
Userlevel 7
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The sub really does make a massive difference IMHO. It's not just the extra bass, but as ratty says, it's the fact that when you add a Sub Sonos changes the frequency ranges sent to the speakers in the sub group. This gives them more mid range punch and warmth. The extra depth of bass is nice too.

I sometimes turn the sub off for a few seconds just to hear the difference and it feels a bit like you have gone from rich 3D sound to standard good 2D ... if that makes sense. And that is with it paired to 2 play 5s. Its is even more market with Play 1s or Sonos Ones.

I also found trueplay to be essential in my room for sub set up, without trueplay it all gets a bit too booomy
Userlevel 1
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Great, thanks for the advice, looking forward to getting it all set up tomorrow.
Adding a Sub will relieve the main speaker(s) of the lower bass frequencies. As a general rule the main speaker(s) then sounds better as it can concentrate on the mid/upper range.

Does this apply to a 5.0 set up though, with the 3.0 Beam and presumably two play 1 units for surround? I would have thought that with the Sub added, 5.1 would get activated with the .1 LFE played by the Sub, with no change to the 5.0 bit. Of course, what this would mean is a massive heard impact for effects heavy movies that have a lot of LFE content.
Further though, will the OP problem of low volumes for dialog be solved by the Sub addition?

PS: For stereo set ups for playing music, from long use I can confirm the ratty quote: the Sub allows the main speakers sound better by relieving them of having to play low frequency music that can muddy the sound they put out for the mid to high frequencies. In this case, in both cases the speakers are playing 2.0 sound, so when the Sub is added, content is shared by it, since there is no dedicated channel for bass where music is concerned.
5.1 setups allow for both the '.1' sub channel and a crossover for the other 5 channels to be routed to the Sub. Originally this was done by manually selecting speaker types (large, small), but I imagine Trueplay (like other room tuning software) now does this automatically.
5.1 setups allow for both the '.1' sub channel and a crossover for the other 5 channels to be routed to the Sub.
Is this for TV audio mode also in addition to music/full modes?
5.1 setups allow for both the '.1' sub channel and a crossover for the other 5 channels to be routed to the Sub.
Is this for TV audio mode also in addition to music/full modes?


Yes.