If they haven't been bonded directly with the sub then no, they won't be passing off any bass to the sub, so it's just your imagination probably hearing what the sub can do has revealed the limitations of the play:5s that you weren't aware of before.

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I think you're right. Thanks for taking the time to post a reply.



Cheers.

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Just out of curiosity, do you always have the units grouped together or do you notice this when the PLAY:5 pair is the only one playing music?



This is definitely out of left field and it's most likely that The LHC is correct here, but if this is only an issue when the PLAY:5 is playing grouped with the others you can go into SUB Settings and check the box to flip the Placement Adjustment (phase).



If that doesn't sound any different, go ahead and toggle it back and don't worry about it.

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Changing the Sub location - as simple as changing the direction the open ports are facing - may also help restore the sound output from the 5 units if the present placement is having sound wave cancellation leading to attenuated heard bass from the 5 units. Room nodes/response to low frequency sound can be tricky, which is why setting up two Subs in one room isn't usually done.

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Hi Ryan,



I group the entire system when playing music but only use the surround system for watching TV.



I've experimented with listening to only the Play:5 units and that's where I'm sensing the loss of bass. It's something that I never noticed before and never felt the need to turn up the bass past the mid-point after Truplay tuning. But now I've turned up the bass on both Play:5 units to the half way to max in order to compensate to my ears.



I've only had the Sub since Saturday but I suppose my ears could have already adjusted its expectations to the deeper bass response of the Sub and am now experiencing the limitations of the Play:5 units.



However, I'm pretty picky with my sound and always agreed with reviewers that stated the Sub isn't necessary for the Play:5 Gen2 units because of their impressive bass output.



Thanks for taking the time to respond.



Cheers.

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Hi Kumar,



Thanks for your reply.



I've experimented for fun moving the Sub around, especially for music.



The shape of the main floor is a rectangle. If you can picture a rectangle, landscape orientation, open concept space, the Sub is placed in the top left corner where two sofas meet. This is best for watching TVs and movies.



The 2 x Play:5 units are placed some distance away, one of them is on the far right side of the rectangle about 40 feet away from the Sub. Even though it's all one room, I start to notice that the bass from the Sub doesn't seem to reach as far over to that part of the room. I don't know too much about sound wave dynamics but I assumed it's because the Sub is in the corner, behind two sofas so the bass isn't reaching that far to the other side of the room.



Anyhow, it's not a huge deal. Even though it has just been a few days living with the Sub, I've been listening to many hours of music and watching lots of movies since Saturday so my ears have probably adjusted to the increased bass performance of the system with the Sub.



I'm looking forward to experimenting using the 2x Play:5 in stereo mode with the Sub bonded. That should be an amazing music experience.



Cheers.

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I'm looking forward to experimenting using the 2x Play:5 in stereo mode with the Sub bonded. That should be an amazing music experience.





If you want to see the best this set up can provide, take some care with speaker placement. The two 5 units should be two corners of an equilateral triangle, with the listening area as the third corner. And the Sub should be placed somewhere between the two units, as close to the centre as possible, although dead centre isn't necessary. Leave some space around the 5 units - don't have them too close to walls/corners, while the one open port of the Sub should be facing out to the listening position. Then, Trueplay this bonded to Sub set up and enjoy the music!



Even if permanent placement in this manner isn't feasible, this is a worthwhile experiment.

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You're missing out! You gotta pair the sub and your play 5s in the configuration that Kumar mentioned. You're gonna melt your mind! You can literally put the play 5s 8-11 feet apart and it will still produce an amazing sound stage and stereo separation - the music will be playing in the air and the speakers disappear!

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