VITAL STATS
| Connectivity | WiFi (2.4 GHz), 10/100 Ethernet |
| Specs | None supplied |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 389 x 402 x 158 mm |
| Weight | 13.5 kg |
PRICE R24 999.00
SUPPLIED BY Cinema Architects 010-601-0653
WEBSITE www.cinemaarchitects.co.za / info@cinea.co.za
It’s called the Sonos Sub. The Gen 3 Sub if I am to expand on it’s full name.
Sonos as I have come to discover aren’t exactly the most revolutionary brand in terms of their naming. CubedSubWooferSuperMegaDeluxe might be what I’d call it, or Square Doughnut Sub is another offering likely to end up in the Sonos waste paper basket.
Meh. Who am I kidding? Sonos don’t use paper – annoying wasteful stuff requiring ink for placing words on. So last century.
And it seems the minimalist approach extends to specifications. Again. Its becoming annoying Sonos.
We have a 13.15kg rectangular block dimension out at 402mm wide, 389 mm tall and with a depth of 158mm. Into which a central smaller rectangular middle has been removed, revealing the not round doughnut design. It’s certainly unconventional.
There are 2 Class D amplifiers that drive two relatively small inward facing drivers located on the inner faces of the doughnut. The claim is that these are “two force-canceling speakers positioned face-to-face for deeper, richer sound and zero cabinet buzz or rattle”. It also has dual acoustic ports “tuned to enhance Sub performance”.
From the manual Sonos claim that the sub will reach 25 Hz and whilst there may be some internal wizardry at play with the drivers creating an interface of super deep bass between them (we don’t know since Sonos don’t say) from what I heard the only way this sub will hit 25 Hz is on it’s way down a very deep mine shaft that becomes bigger and bigger at ever increasing speeds. Think of the opposite effect of pouring petrol onto braai briquettes and then taking your eyebrows off upon ignition after the obligatory “hold my beer, watch this” moment.
Power delivery is not specced either and whilst Sonos may find this approach their quirky way of tending to shy away from performance on paper vs performance in the real world I’m over it. It’s not good enough at this pricing point to ‘just trust us’.
That all said, the Sub integrates into the Sonos App and with the Arc that I had on review at the same time by just adding it. Click the connect button, put it in the same room as the ARC and it appears with no issues.
You can adjust the Sub’s volume and phase control from the App but it does come with an onboard DSP that ensure that “all filter settings, active equalization, and time alignment are done digitally through state-of-the-art DSP (Digital Signal Processing) circuitry for zero-loss audio quality and energy”. Automatic equalisation is built in which implies some pretty nifty digital footwork behind the scenes.
And you can add a second Sub to your system too.
TruePlay is included but you need an iOS device to use it – it doesn’t yet appear on Android. In this day and age, and at this pricing point that’s an issue I’m afraid that Sonos needs to get on top of.
But how does it sound?
Off the bat, in tandem with the Arc, neither configured with TruePlay it’s impressive out of the gate. Bass is deep, nowhere near 25Hz deep but controlled and whilst it doesn’t have the low end presence that my Paradigm affords, it doesn’t take up as much real estate and looks a whole lot more attractive than just an ugly black box that you want to hide away.
A sound bar is by definition a merger of many speakers into one unit and hence will have sonic compromises from the simple physics of it, but with the increased simplicity of a one box neat and tidy no cable installation. The Sub is exactly the same approach – no cables, just sound and with minimal user intervention in the ‘trust us we got this playback thing sorted’ approach taken by Sonos.
It works and it works well. The Sub is forgiving in placement as is stands and although I did pick up that you need to let is breathe, as long as you give the open hole space to function properly the impressively rigid cabinet does a good job of presenting bass waves to the room. Placement sideways up against a wall didn’t really work too well in my room and I found that the best responses I had from the unit were when it was located front and mostly centre, orientation unimportant. That may or may not present as an issue in some rooms but we are talking relatively low impact on overall performance here.
Integration from Arc to Sub sounded seamless to my ears – I often find myself spending time with sub frequency responses fine tuning them to get them to deliver ‘just so’. But with the Sub there is no such ability to adjust and in this as much as you have to trust Sonos to get the cross over right I couldn’t fault them sonically – the transitions from Arc to Sub worked seamlessly. There are no gaps in the bass response and equally no peaks that are audibly discernable.
Most importantly the Sub goes a long way to addressing the one small gripe I had with the Arc in bass response which whilst not awful lacks in the low end punch and coverage. The Sub deals with that and fills in the bass comprehensively and my feeling is that you would need a really large room to justify adding a second Sub such is the enthusiasm for performing.
Subs add effect to movies. There is without doubt good speed to the bass which presents as the snap in response that will give you that jolt from an on screen explosion. Transients seemed to be longer than expected but not to the point of being overdone purely to impress and I suspect some digital skull duggery to be in play here. Home cinema is all about DSP and it is why it is so hard to setup sometimes in rooms that are ‘tricky’. The bottom line of course is that you need to play around with it to an extent.
Where you can’t play around is if you’re demanding critical listening with music. Here small compromises stack quickly and a final result can be underwhelming. The system after all doesn’t distinguish processing from music to movies and once you start down that rabbit hole of DSP I suspect there are few that will find their way out. That said, musically the Sub is easy to live with. It is smooth and polished with music and although I would have liked a touch more low end reach I am nitpicking for a sub in this class. You can have a properly good time with this unit and it will handle abuse and punishment in it’s stride.
The ease of use factor coupled to the ‘we know what we’re doing’ approach by Sonos will appeal to many who want that next level of sound quality in their homes without the hassle factor of having to tweak, tune and twiddle to get close to what the Sonos delivers right out of the box. It is a compelling sales argument and it integrates seamlessly into the Sonos family product offerings. Which I suppose is exactly the point. It’s clever, easy and convenient!
William Kelly
