I’m certainly not noticing this. You perhaps need to provide further information before others can compare/test these things. What settings do you have for the room?

• Trueplay: On/Off?
• EQ: Default or Any Adjustments?
• Loudness: On/Off?
• Sub volume level: Default or Any Adjustments?
• Orientation: Which orientation are you using? (You can place a Sonos Five in either a horizontal, or one of two vertical orientations, each of which will provide a different sound output).

Other than the questions above, and assuming you are using the set up for music alone, the Sub does best when it is kept in the plane of the speaker pair, as close to the centre between the two as practical. That way the Sub integrates as well as it needs to for music play, with the speaker pair.

If the setup isn’t Trueplayed then the Sub’s phase setting could be incorrect. 

Yes, I have the Sub in the middle, out in front, between the pair of Fives, where there is a slight column/pillar (corner) between the main room and an extension, The sub sits angled into the main room across the corner, so it’s slightly angled off to the right of my listening sweet spot, but I like it in the corner.

I have the Fives set in a vertical orientation with tweeters on the inside to provide a sharper stereo image and my room is Trueplay tuned with a touch more treble to suit my ‘older’ ears. I just have the Bass EQ slider and Bass volume set at default, but sometimes (in general terms) will adjust that up to listen to some older tracks and will adjust it down for some modern music, which I find can have too much Bass.

On seeing this thread I tried a number of tracks and toggled the Sub off/on in the room and the setup is ‘by far’ better with the Sub ‘On’ in my listening environment and to my ears.

Thx all. Repositioning the Sub has sorted it.