Most users would agree that Sonos’ best speaker setup for music is a stereo pair of Fives. The mids on the Five are far superior than the One. And two Fives will give you plenty of bass without a subwoofer.

I go in the direction of preferring a separate Sub whenever possible. For one thing, it cleans up the midrange in the main speakers, and for another, it allows the music to remain rich sounding even at low sound levels. Something that Sub does very well, in addition to providing a natural bass for even acoustic instruments at all sound levels; the Sub is more than just thumping bass that can disturb the neighbours if you let it. 

But this only if you have a good place to locate the Sub, somewhere between the two main speakers, in the same plane. And you have to true play tune the Sub for best results.

It’s initially an expensive solution, but buy them all and try them out - including 2xFives and a sub. Once you’ve decided what you like, return the rejected speakers for a refund under the home trial terms. 

What does Sonos or the reseller do with such returned items, I wonder...

Resell as Refurbished, I assume?

Of course, you could also set up the other speakers in another room, @ctmaddison !

Thanks for the advice. Having looked a little more at the fives and seeing how they’re constructed I can certainly see the temptation and possible advantage over the Ones + Sub. I’m leaning more in the direction of the fives now. 

This was my initial thinking but having seen the design of the tweeters in the Fives I’m swayed in that direction. The other issue I'd have is that I wouldn’t be able to place a sub between the two L+R speakers as that’s where the piano is. I think I best go find a decent audio shop and see if I can attempt to listen to these speakers in person and see what I think. 

Yep, there’s a Refurbished section in the footer of the Sonos website - with some pretty decent price reductions! 

If the Sub can be placed adjacent to the piano such that it is still between the two speakers, even if not at the centre between them, that is good enough. You don't want it off to one side beyond the speaker pair, basically.

Listening is always the best way to go. But for such an investment, the listening should be in the target space, with music you like. Where the speakers are playing can make a night and day difference to how they sound. And true play tuning necessary to get the best of them is location specific.

Hence the suggestion to buy everything and return what comes off second best in a test at home.

So I’ve been following this thread with interest…

I have a stereo pair of Fives hooked up for 2 channel audio only to a turntable and CD player. 
the Fives of course sound awesome. Just wondering how much more a sub would add?

Id be willing to cough up the $$ to add one if it’d make a audible difference. 
Thoughts?

Buy and try on the home trial; return it if you don’t like it. 

Of course that’s an option but I’d think someone on this forum has some first hand experience with this?

Yes, but not in your room with its specificacoustics, and not with your ears. 

Clemdog,

Only you know what sounds “best” (to you).

Many people will feel that there is improved clarity in the midrange in addition to more bass.

If you listen to pop and jazz with strong bass lines, I think that you will enjoy SUB. If you listen mostly to chamber music, SUB might not do much for you.

Audible difference for sure, but not as much as when the Sub is added to a One pair, because the latter is less bass capable than the Five to start with. And whether the difference will be value enough for the extra $ gets to be very subjective.

I wouldn’t add a Sub to a pair of Fives. I have a Play 5 Gen 2 which I believe is very similar to the Five.  I did some measurements with Room EQ Wizard of the audio performance of a Play 1 pair with a Sub and a single Play 5. I found that the Play 5s go nearly as deep as the One pair plus Sub. Before Trueplay the Play 5 extended as deep into the bass (about 25 Hz) as the Play 1 pair with Sub, but it also had a bit of a bump between 100 and 200 Hz. Trueplay tamed the bump, but also reduced the bass below 35 Hz. If you do try the Sub with the Fives, listen to music with deep bass both before and after running Trueplay. Of course, the amount of low bass you hear will depend on where you sit in the room and the room characteristics.

IMO, it may still make sense at the two extremes of the volume slider. At low level music listening the Sub may do much more to keep music from sounding thin, than just engaging the loudness control. And at the other high sound level end, distortion prevention strategies may have the 5 speaker bass not keep up with the rest of the sound spectrum, and the Sub will prevent that from being the case.

Of course there is the benefit of mid range clean up at all sound levels, but whether that is value for the price of the Sub is the personal assessment to be made.

One point - the assessment of the Sub when added to the 5 pair ought to be made after Trueplay tuning is done because in most cases that dials down what the Sub does to a natural level which may not be much more than what the 5 pair does anyway. Of course, some may prefer the bloated bass that will usually be heard with Trueplay off and for such preferences, the Sub will still yield more of that than a 5 pair will.

But a one pair + Sub comfortably ticks all the boxes, including the one for value for money.