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JackWright
JackWright
Chromatic Producer II
July 16, 2018

What Hi-Fi article on Beam tips, questionable statement

Was reading another What Hi-Fi article on Sonos Beam tips, as I am getting it tomorrow and then they go to say this...



WHAT??? haha
Price aside, the SUB makes a positively huge difference owning one myself, and listening to the Beam display at the store I work in. I also snuk a SUB into the warehouse as one of two came off display to accomodate space for the new Beam. And paired with a Play 3 in a warehouse my colleagues agreed it sounds miles better. I don't know what they mean by blunt instrument... lol
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4 replies

ckanderson
Lyricist III
July 16, 2018
Can say adding a SUB to the Beam is awesome. The Beam sounds a lot better with it. (but its not like its bad without it.....)
    JackWright
    JackWrightAuthor
    Chromatic Producer II
    July 16, 2018
    Can say adding a SUB to the Beam is awesome. The Beam sounds a lot better with it. (but its not like its bad without it.....)

    It's like What Hi-Fi dismiss psychoacoustic principles. For example, the Play 1 speakers actually roll off treble at the higher frequencies without a SUB. It's not common knowledge that speakers with less bass can subconsciously sound fuller with the treble rolled off a bit. The SUB also allows the Sonos speakers to focus on the mids and highs, increasing clarity and it also makes the sound more dynamic as it can go deeper letting you feel the bass. I also find with the smaller Sonos speakers that when they play low tones, they have this "artificial" sounding bass that just doesn't sound... right. It's like the speaker trying so hard to go as deep as possible but it can't quite match the sound coming from the SUB at the same dB level.

    EDIT: The SUB also prevents bass roll-off at high volumes. When putting even a Play 5 to 100% volume the mids are wayyyy off. Every Sonos speaker does this to prevent distortion. The SUB allows any Sonos speaker to practically go to 100% volume without compromise. Also making the SUB a no-brainer addition to large rooms, as small speakers struggle to fill them (like the beam) and sound is greatly compromised.

    There's no reason - except for price - as to why you shouldn't add a SUB to the Beam!
    Sonos is latin for sound. My mind was blown when I found that out.
    HarbourWolf
    Contributor I
    December 10, 2018
    Agree, the sub is an awesome addition to home cinema (beam, 2 x play:1s + sub) or music set up (2 x Play:5s + sub). The difference to either set up without sub is huge, a different world. Not that is was bad before, but now it's really like being at a concert or cinema.
    AjTrek1
    AjTrek1
    December 10, 2018
    And these guy's

    are WHAT :? The experts 😛
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