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PaulinBont
Avid Contributor III
August 19, 2018

2x One and Sub in average- sized living room.

Having surrendered my music room I've just got into Sonos; I started with just the Sonos One until I read on this forum that a pair would give a half-decent stereo performance so I bought another One and paired them up. Still sounded a bit ' thin' to be honest so I went into Richer Sounds ( who were really good to deal with by the way) and after hearing a demo, bought the Sub to add a layer of depth.

I am really impressed with the set-up now, it sounds very rich considering the size of the Ones. I didn't purchase the Sub for out-and- out loudness ( don't like loud music tbh) , the Sub does add a subtle depth to the presentation so I'm very happy.

The million dollar question is whether, as funds permit, I move the Ones into other rooms around the house and replace them in the living room with a pair of 5's..........
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    Stanley_4
    Stanley_4
    Grand Maestro
    August 24, 2018
    A lot of recordings are altered by the recording engineers to have little or no very low frequency content since so many systems have issues reproducing it. The DBX reverses a bit of that by adding back the lower octave.

    The 120 is also used by a lot of live musicians as it adds a great deal of low end punch to their music, really makes a great difference in what they sound like in larger venues.

    If you read the DBX documentation on how the lower frequency sounds are created you'll see that it doesn't impact the existing music on an electronic level. It may well make a marginal amplifier or speakers cause distortion, particularly at higher volume levels or when adding a lot of low end boost plus synthesis.

    I've used mine on several systems (mine and friends) and everyone with good to great systems liked it (well not spouses and neighbors) and several folks purchased one. Some of the lower end systems did have issues reproducing both the boosted existing frequencies and the synthesized ones. All the usual symptoms, clipping, speaker cones bottoming and the rest but if dialed back to what the systems could support it still sounded pretty good.
    BrianJ
    Enthusiast I
    August 24, 2018
    Ah... My only experience of a dedicated sub channel is in our car where, if there is no road noise, the 'sub' rather dominates the mix (it's a Meridian system). Indoors our Kef floorstanders (2 bass units in each speaker) are more balanced (though, as ratty notes elsewhere, room effects may need Trueplay for those so able to do so).

    So many 'popular' tracks these days seem to overplay the bass (which crashes in after the obligatory first few bars of whispy vocals) - so predictable and formulaic (but that's popular music....). And many radio stations pump up the bass (and compress). S'pose all those Beats-esque systems love it!

    But we are off-topic a bit. Thanks for the explanation Stanley_4.
      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      August 24, 2018
      Sadly they are pumping up the mid bass, not the really low stuff. I find myself cutting that range in my EQ settings to keep from getting boomed at.

      I'm still hoping Sonos sees the suggestion to add something like this to their sub. When my big music systems go away I'm likely to go to a pair of Play 5s and a Sub and would be very happy to find that included.
      PaulinBontAuthor
      Avid Contributor III
      August 27, 2018
      Well, having tried out a pair of 5's with the Sub, I didn't find any discernable improvement compared to the set up that I had before, namely a pair of Ones with the Sub - at lower levels ( volume- wise), albeit it in a small(ish) living room- certainly not enough to justify such a large financial outlay. The Sub was almost made redundant by the bass output from the 5's at lower sound levels.
        gazza1977
        Prominent Collaborator I
        September 2, 2018
        After a short visit to my guys at the audio shop, they set up 2 play 5s with sub and playbar and then removed the sub what a difference the sub makes. Then removed the play 5s and replaced with play 1s. Wow what a massive difference. Most shops would not do this at it is a lot of messing and time consuming however after all this I purchased 2 play 5. There is a huge difference when u hear the setups side by side. I honestly think your ears become accustomed to a certain sound. To me the play 5s are a massive difference when bonded with a sub. I have no regrets at all. The only really annoying thing is when you bond them with a play bar you lose the ability to air drop on the play 5 sonos please sort this out
          Ken_Griffiths
          Ken_Griffiths
          September 2, 2018
          After a short visit to my guys at the audio shop, they set up 2 play 5s with sub and playbar and then removed the sub what a difference the sub makes. Then removed the play 5s and replaced with play 1s. Wow what a massive difference. Most shops would not do this at it is a lot of messing and time consuming however after all this I purchased 2 play 5. There is a huge difference when u hear the setups side by side. I honestly think your ears become accustomed to a certain sound. To me the play 5s are a massive difference when bonded with a sub. I have no regrets at all. The only really annoying thing is when you bond them with a play bar you lose the ability to air drop on the play 5 sonos please sort this out
          It is sorted with the new Beam, but it’s whether that would have been big enough for your room? You could add a 'sonos one' speaker elsewhere to your home and group your PlayBar Room with that and then AirPlay to the Sonos One device which in turn would output to your PlayBar and it’s bonded surrounds.
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