New Play 5 with Sub. Recommendations

I have had a Sonos Sub for two years in my living room, along with two paired Gen 1 Play 5's. I replaced the Gen 1 Play 5's this week with Gen 2 Play 5's. VERY HAPPY with the sonic upgrade of the new PLay 5's. Quite honestly, I could now probably get along without the Sub---to my ears, the new Play 5's have much better and much smoother bass response (and clearer middles) than the previous generation.

I'm keeping my Sub, because it's paid for and it comes into its own on certain material (e.g. FLAC streams of Ron Carter's acoustic jazz bass). But there is no longer such a strong case for needing to invest in the Sub in my modest-size house, IMO.

Mr Ironroot can you explain to a novice why you stream FLAC, I presume it sounds better but why? Look forward to your response, I also paired to Gen1 5's and it was good but the new setup is class, yet to blast it though!

Many (but not all) of the Deezer Elite music files are FLAC. Lossless and 5-times higher bit rate (1,411 kbps for FLAC, 320 kbps for MP3). Even with my old ears, I can hear more of the music in FLAC than with MP3.

Deezer Elite subscriptions are a special opportunity for Sonos USA owners. The subscription first became available to Sonos owners about a year ago (September 2014?). I stopped my Amazon Play music subscription service at that time and switched to Deezer Elite.

If the source material is the same, I am unable to distinguish between well recorded lossless and 256/320kbps, and I am not alone in this respect.

In almost every case, particularly for hi res, source is remastered and that is the reason for the difference in sound.

With all the tech in the 5 units allied to the way the brain works, I think the new 5 units will be quite adequate to deliver a high end listening experience. Unless tastes run to wanting the walls to move.

I have a playbar, sub, pair of play 1s and stereo pair of Gen 2 play 5s. I've been told it's overkill but I like it.

I have SUB, playbar, 7 Play:1's, 2 Play:5 (1st gen), 2 Play:5 (2nd gen), 2 Play:3s.
I have been told it's overkill but I like it 🙂 🙂

I have a setup of 2 x Play 5 gen2 in bedroom + purchased recently 2 x Play 5 gen2 + SUB for living room.

Honestly, there is no major difference with SUB / no SUB in case you listen to music with around 25% volume. Once you move it up to 75% volume you will both feel and hear a difference clearly.

As I'm not listening as loud, I can say that it was overkill to purchase a SUB. As I have mentioned above - no major difference.

Additionally, keep in mind that it also depends on music you are listening to.

If I would have a choice again, I would buy additional set of 5s to fill room better then invest in SUB.

Regards,
-M.

I have had a New play 5 for 3 months now, and I'm impressed with the sound quality and base at low to mid volume. However, once you exceed just over halfway, the base drops. To see what options are available, I borrowed a new play 5 and added to mine to test and base still drops just after half way (loudness turns off). I then added a subwoofer to just one new play 5 and was blown away by the extra base and power. There is a noticeable difference all round as the sub takes care of the base and the play 5 can then focus solely on producing great sound. The volume level also increased substantially when the sub is turned on.

End result, I bought a sub to add to 1 new play 5.

Just remember everybody has a different ear, and listen to different music, so opinions vary from person to person.

I found a stereo pair of play5 to be more than enough bass and sound Quality even at high levels

I recently purchased a Play 5 gen 2. It's currently in my combined kitchen/living room space, which is quite large - and find that even at 90% volume it struggles to fill the space. Does adding a 2nd Play 5, allow you to play subjectively louder ?. Or would I need a sub, to really allow higher volumes - with the Play 5's doing less work bass wise ?