Sonos Play : 5 + Sonos SUB will it live up to my expectation ?
So guys I am using a JBL Authentics L8 speakers as my wireless Speakers as it has AirPlay and Bluetooth and almost everything to stream music wirelessly! It has 120 Watts of sound output with two tweeters and two woofers 30 Watts for each driver. I want a thunderous BASS which somewhere the JBL Authentics L8 is lacking obviously because of the compact size, but even if for a moment I come to think about contemplating the Sonos Play :5 second generation, due to even its compact size it is not going to give me a thunderous BASS either ? I was told that you can add a Sonos Sub to it which will give you more BASS but my question is will the entire set up not get messed up with this arrangement ? Firstly Sonos does not give details about its drivers (That is again a big problem) so my question is let's say the tweeter of Sonos is 25 watts and there are two of them and let's say it has two woofers (By the way I don't know how many woofers does the Play :5 second generation have?) two woofers are let's say 50 Watts do adding an external Sonos sub has to gel, compliment with the Play :5 right ? Will it be not like a situation that I have a body of a motorcycle and I am adding a Rocket engine the entire set up will be so unbalanced if you guys know what I mean ? Will the Play :5 give me a ground shaking BASS as I like to listen to electronic and house music !
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Good summary. I did just that in 2014 and have no regrets, but my needs are a little more subtle than your thunderous bass. For my music listening pleasure, a well anchored midrange is where it lies and the Sub does that brilliantly.
This trying and returning if not good does not work out for me ! I am in India and Sonos does not sell officially here neither on its own nor through a dealer ! So I have to take a very accurate shot, judgement call, as if I buy it and then repent it I will not be able to return. I will buy it from abroad and out of the return window !
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A PLAY:5 plus SUB will provide strong bass performance (a PLAY:5 alone is pretty good), but it does bias towards fidelity over artificial bass emphasis. It's a lot of money top spend, so -- as others have indicated -- you really need to find a way to try the system out on a returnable basis, preferably in the environment in which it will be used.
It'a also worth verifying that you are OK with the lack of Bluetooth and (currently) Airplay.
Good luck -- hope it works out.
Good grief. Buy it, take it home, try it out. If it is not to your liking, Sonos gives a 45 day return period. Note: That return period may not apply to your local dealer, but it does if you buy from Sonos direct.
All I am saying is, All I want is ! I have an existing sound system as a yardstick I want something which sounds better which gives me a humongous BASS than what my current system gives me which is 60 Watts of BASS which I still find inadequate for my kind of music ! And I want it to be wireless speakers. I do not want a conventional 2.1 or 5.1 setup do not have the space nor inclination ! Now how do I decide if the Play : 5 has something to offer or is it a run of the mill speakers ? I just heard it once, just had a small glimpse in October-2016 in an Apple Store in Berlin and that was too insufficient and inadequate to be able to decide because I could not blast the sound and since it was an Apple Store there were whole lot of customs and rules that I had to follow ! They won't let me play as I would play in my house 🙂
That is a strong rebuff !! and some heavy bombardment of technical stuff having said that a layman would decide going by the watts ! is it not ?
No, one should never "decide" anything according to watts and watts only. That would be stupid, and exactly what the audio manufacturers want you to do. So you can remain a "layman" and get fooled, or you can learn from my post and not be fooled. Simple fact is, a "50 watts" amplifier like the Connect:Amp can outperform a 100 watt amp, given the correct speaker choice.
And that doesn't even take into account the deceiving wattage measurements that only include certain frequency ranges, or ignore terrible distortion levels in order to get the wattage rating up. Would you really want your "thunderous bass" powered by an amp whose power that drops off a cliff, or becomes terribly distorted below 60 Hz? That could be a "1200 Watts!!!" amp that is only measuring 1200 watts in a tiny frequency band, but drops like a stone or distorts when it has to power your subwoofer. But hey, you got "1200 Watts!!!!"
That is a strong rebuff !! and some heavy bombardment of technical stuff having said that a layman would decide going by the watts ! is it not ?
Are you a Sonos employee ? You sound too much in favour of talking about Sonos :D
No, I am not. You don't have to be a Sonos employee to know that watts ratings are useless without knowing speaker sensitivity and/or crossover. If you compare very efficient speaker vs. a less efficient one, the output from the same amount of watts at 1 meter can be as much as 5-6 dB. Since dB is a logarithmic scale, a differences in 5-6 decibels is about 1.5 times as loud out of the exact same amount of watts. That's 50% louder for the sensitive speaker!
Also, lower frequencies need more power. So if the sub you connect has steady power, and the crossover is set high, some of the massive amounts of power needed for the low end is being funneled to the high end, robbing you of "thunderous BASS". Conversely, if the crossover is set low, then the Sub is not as taxed and can play more low end. Simply measuring watts doesn't even tell you part of the story without knowing these other far more important specs. Bottom line, watts is merely a measuring contest for people who do not know any better.
It is impossible to answer about thunderous bass. My thunderous can be more thunderous than yours. Or less.
Try the set up at home with your thunderous music and decide. Sonos has a generous returns policy.
Try the set up at home with your thunderous music and decide. Sonos has a generous returns policy.
No, but he is a long time user and has been helping people here in these forums for years, without any pay. Are you surprised to find people who are in favor of Sonos in a forum of Sonos support?
Are you a Sonos employee ? You sound too much in favour of talking about Sonos 😃
These are self-contained powered speakers made to work seamlessly together. Stop with the "xx Watts" this and the "zz Watts" that; watts mean nothing when you do not know the efficiency and/or crossovers of the actual components and it means even less when talking about a self-contained powered speaker. In addition, the Sub can be configured for as much or as little bass as you wish, and it sounds as good if not better than any non-wireless powered sub in its price range.
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