Tuning and Bass with Sonos One and Five

  • 24 December 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 161 views
W
Userlevel 2
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Good Afternoon,

I have a fairly good turntable going into a Sonos Five which is paired with another for stereo. Mounted on the wall above each five is a Sonos One, again is stereo. When I listen to the turntable I run it through all 4 speakers so I have a Five & One for the left channel and exactly the same positioning for the right.

I recently ‘tuned’ the stereo fives as per the recommendation of the App and now I have lost all my bottom end. I have done this a few times with the same result. If I temporarily turn off the tuning in the app my bass response comes back in, and yet drops when I flick it back.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience, ideas or thoughts that may guide me. I have considered a sub on the floor in the middle so I can position myself in the room to get the best I can out of the stereo fives, ones and a sub - again - if anyone has any thoughts on my comments I would value it.

Thanks everyone - Robin

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7 replies

buzz

Only you know what sounds “best”. Likely you prefer more aggressive bass.

Let’s consider another case where the ‘before’ and ‘after’ equalizations are quite different and you are more used to one or the other. After an adjustment you may feel that the new adjustment is ‘wrong’ for a while.

Do you observe similar bass characteristics if you play the same track through a music service? 

W
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Thank you Buzz - sorry late reply but thank you for your answer. I have since simplified things a little and moved the stereo ones away so I’m basically just using the fives for the turntable. Moved them around a little, given them more space in between and seem to have a better result (I retuned a couple of times).

Thanks again - R

buzz

To some extent the ONE’s and FIVE’s were interfering with each other. Trueplay can only deal with one ‘Room’ (In your case a pair of speakers) at a time. Trueplay cannot integrate two Rooms. Good placement for a pair of speakers places them approximately as far from each other as you are from each speaker. And, they will sound slightly different in different areas of the room. Trueplay mitigates these differences somewhat, but it cannot undo very poor placement.

K

Mounted on the wall above each five is a Sonos One, again is stereo.

It is very likely that you will be better served for both sound quality and quantity in terms of coverage if you moved the One pair to another listening space. 

W
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Thank you Buzz and Kumar - yes due to a little ignorance and lack of experience my assumption has been - more speakers better sound. So because I had the ones mounted first the bought the fives for the deck, I thought I would run them all together. I guess it’s all a learning curve hey?

Although I am now very curious now I have removed the ones and just have the stereo fives, what result I would get my applying a single sub into the mix - or is that more bad thinking?

Cheers, R

K

 

Although I am now very curious now I have removed the ones and just have the stereo fives, what result I would get my applying a single sub into the mix - or is that more bad thinking?

 

No, this isn't bad thinking, but I have found that it is important for best results to be able to place the Sub somewhere between the two speakers, as close to the centre as possible, and then True play tune the set up. But there is one thing to realise on the value for money front - because the One units don’t have as much bass capability to start with as the Five units do, more value is obtained from the Sub by adding it to a One/One pair. You could then redeploy the Five units, singly or as a pair to other locations in the home.

Or, if you prefer, add it to the Five pair. Get a Sub and see what makes more sense to you after trying both set ups. In both cases, it will add to the sound quality, it is just that it will add more to the One pair.

PS: I remembered the turntable - that dictates the 5 pair for use it with it. But adding the Sub will for sure elevate the sound quality you get from even the 5 pair, and the combination is the top of the line set up in the Sonos line up for music listening.

buzz

You must decide what sounds “best”.

I would view using both pairs, with or without SUB, as a single speaker system. Overall, this is a haphazard “design” because the spacing between components and overlapping frequency and spatial coverage is not carefully calculated and planned. When the speakers are Bonded as a pair and Grouped as two rooms, the time alignment is within 2ms or better. Given the speed of sound this means that each speaker’s apparent position could be squirming around by a foot or two. Listener sensitivity to this sort of mayhem varies.

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