In one look
Expert rating
Benefits
- Compact design
- Painless setup
- Adds plenty of depth to Ray and Beam soundbars
The inconvenients
- Won’t add much to larger speakers
- An expensive addition
Our opinion
The Sonos Sub Mini will add plenty of punch to audio systems built around small speakers like the Ray, Beam or One, and not just in the low end – it frees up those speakers to deliver mids and highs sharper too. It’s expensive though, more than double the cost of those setups, and the better your existing speakers are, the less benefit you’ll get from them.
Best Prices Today: Sonos Sub Mini
$429.99
Updated February 2023 to reflect a price change for the larger Sub (Gen 3).
The Sub Mini is one of those wonderfully simple products: it’s a Sonos subwoofer, but smaller than the other. It’s also less expensive and a great way to add bass on a budget.
The caveat is that the Mini is designed to pair with Sonos’ simpler speakers in smaller rooms, and the better your existing sound setup, the less you’ll get from adding a Sub Mini.
I did test the Sub Mini with three different Sonos soundbars, though, and I think Sonos Ray and Beam owners, in particular, will f ind plenty of extra punch here.
Design and build
- Available in black or white
- Not all that “mini”
The Sub Mini is a fairly simple piece of kit, although the first thing you notice is that it doesn’t quite live up to its name.
It may be smaller than the existing Sonos Sub, but at 12 inches tall and 9 inches across, it’s by no means a small speaker – in fact, it’s exactly the same height as a sub. -foot sailor, strangely enough.
It fits perfectly in my square Ikea shelves, but if you’re not so lucky you might be forced to accept a fairly chunky cylinder sitting next to your TV for the foreseeable future.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
Available in black or white, it’s at least an unassuming design, the front of which is only broken up by a single small LED and the single physical speaker control. The ports are at the bottom, and the design’s only real flair is its hollow centre, with the twin woofers facing each other internally, which is only visible from a side view.
Considering its size, you won’t be surprised that it’s also quite heavy, but you’re unlikely to move it much.
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi or Ethernet
- Connects directly to other Sonos speakers
Connections here are simple: there’s Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
The Sub Mini does not connect directly to any of your sound sources, but only connects to your existing Sonos network via Wi-Fi, with the added option of using a wired connection to your network.
Adding the Sub Mini to your network is quick and easy – all you need is the Sonos app ready to use on your phone, and a simple NFC tap from your phone to the speaker connects it to everything stay.
The only downside is that the Sub Mini can only be connected to other Sonos products – so you can’t take it to act as a subwoofer with another audio system or soundbar.
Smart Features
- Volume automatically adjusts with specific speaker
- Dedicated EQ controls
- true game
The smart side of the Sub Mini mostly comes down to how well it fits in with the rest of your Sonos setup.
Once connected, you pair the Sub Mini to a specific speaker or room in your system – most likely a soundbar, although it must be paired with one of Sonos’ static speakers ( i.e. everything except the portable Move and Roam).
The Sub Mini’s volume will then automatically increase and decrease with the main speaker. If you want to tweak things, that’s easy too – you can turn off the Sub at any time without unpairing it, and you can boost or cut bass levels independently of the main speaker’s EQ.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
The other handy touch is support for Trueplay, Sonos’ technology for tuning its speakers for the rooms they’re in. This should help optimize the Sub Mini’s sound wherever you place it in the room, making it a bit more forgiving to position – although to take advantage of this you’ll need an iPhone or iPad to set up Trueplay . You only need it once (or each time you move the speaker) though, so it’s easy enough to borrow one from a friend.
Sound quality
- Adds an impressive punch
- Best paired with smaller Sonos speakers
That’s how the Sub Mini works – but how well does it do it?
The answer, perhaps annoyingly, will very much depend on the speaker you want to pair it with. Sonos recommends the Sub Mini for “small to medium-sized spaces” and says it’s best suited for Ray and Beam soundbars, as well as One and Symfonisk speakers.
The Sub Mini uses a pair of 6-inch woofers, which face towards each other in a force-cancelling arrangement that helps neutralize vibration and distortion. Essentially, this means it adds crisp, tight bass without any unwanted noise.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
Coupled with the Beam, or especially the compact Ray, the difference is considerable. The Sub Mini adds all kinds of punch, driving bass lines through the music and adding room-filling sound to explosions and other cinematic noises. The Ray never looked slimmer than immediately after turning off the Sub Mini, and it really takes those cheaper Sonos soundbars to the next level.
It won’t create shaky bass unless you really crank up the volume, but it rounds out the sound profile of the company’s smaller speakers, adding depth in the bass and freeing up those other speakers to provide crisper high notes at the same time. time. That means it adds more than just bass, elevating your audio across the spectrum.
My usual TV speaker is the old (and discontinued) Sonos Playbase, and hooked up to that, the Sub Mini doesn’t add much. I suspect you’d find the same if you wanted to pair it with the Arc – the most powerful soundbar in the current Sonos lineup – or any of the company’s other larger speakers. For those, you’ll really need the full-size Sonos Sub to notice the extra bass, unless you’re in a particularly small room.
Price and availability
If there’s a question mark surrounding the Sub Mini, it’s the price: $429/£429/$499. It’s more than the Ray or the Beam, so the Sub Mini imagined by Sonos is at least doubling the price of their sound setup by buying this.
I suspect most people willing to spend that much on their sound system would have bought the $899 / £899 / $999 Sonos Arc first.
Still, the Sub Mini is significantly cheaper than the $799 / £799 / $899 (Gen 3) Sub, and if you’re a Ray or Beam owner looking for the next step up, or have a pair even smaller Sonos speakers, adding a Sub Mini makes much more sense than scrapping your whole system and replacing it with the Arc.
Is it worth dropping hundreds just to add some extra bass to the mix? Maybe. Maybe not. But you’ll only be looking at this if you’re already in touch with Sonos, and in that case, it’s the best option you have.
Verdict
The Sub Mini is a great way to add more bosses to a Sonos sound system for a little less than the exorbitant price of the original Sub.
It’s still not cheap and only suitable for those with smaller Sonos systems – if your kit is already high end, the Sub Mini isn’t going to be a game changer.
But Ray and Beam owners will find it transforms their existing soundbar and is a great way to improve the sound of your Sonos without having to start from scratch.
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