Sonos has lastly made the much-leaked Sub Mini official, and it seems to be like precisely the improve I have been hoping my Sonos Arc would get, bringing the dual-driver design of the full-size Sonos Sub to a smaller and extra inexpensive model.
The Sonos Sub Mini can be obtainable from October 6, and can value $429 / £429 / AU$699. It’s going to be obtainable in white or black, to match with the overall Sonos aesthetic.
Its spherical design is a little bit totally different to different Sonos product, nevertheless it nonetheless suits in properly with the merchandise total – Sonos famous to us that the oval cut-out form is identical form because the Sonos Beam 2nd Gen and Sonos Ray after they’re considered from above. And Sonos Arc additionally has a spherical design, albeit sitting in its facet relatively than upright.
It stands 12-inches tall, and 9.1-inches in diameter, so it truly is a dinky little factor that must be simple to discover a place for close to your TV. And as you’d anticipate, it connects wirelessly and seamlessly into your current Sonos system – Sonos has even added an NFC pad to the highest you possibly can faucet your cellphone on, to make it extra-easy to arrange. There’s an Ethernet port in the event you favor that to wi-fi, although.
Sonos says the Sonos Sub Mini is advisable with Sonos Beam, Sonos Ray or Sonos One models… and says that whereas it really works with Sonos Arc or Sonos 5, they already ‘highly effective bass’ so is much less impactful with them. However let’s be clear, it’ll work with any of them, and I believe that in a state of affairs like mine, it’s going to be simply as well-suited to the Sonos Arc because the smaller soundbars.
I take advantage of a Sonos Arc due to its glorious dynamic vary and nice array of audio system to supply directional sound, however the full-size Sonos Sub is just too giant, too highly effective and too costly to be a wise addition in my modest-sized lounge. However I do discover the shortage of the Arc’s bass extension, particularly once I evaluate it to different soundbars I evaluate. I’ve written about precisely this earlier than, with a Samsung soundbar/sub combo that included precisely the form of small subwoofer that Sonos has now launched.
I feel the Sub Mini may very well be enormous amongst Sub Mini house owners for that reason, assuming they do pair nicely in observe (as I will discover out quickly once I take a look at it), and Sonos would perhaps miss an enormous trick if does not advertise to Arc house owners, in addition to Beam house owners. (I’m having hassle imagining many Sonos Ray house owners opting to purchase a subwoofer that prices greater than the precise soundbar did – however I’ll take a look at it with the Sonos Ray too.)
If you join the Sub Mini to your system, your soundbar will change its sound profile in order that the sub can deal with the decrease frequencies its designed for, and there must be seamless crossover between them – although we’ll take a look at that ourselves quickly.
Sonos additionally offers you guide EQ possibility if you wish to modify how closely the bass is concerned in your setup, and the Sub Mini will work with TruePlay tuning – however you will have to retune your room in the event you’ve completed it already.
Evaluation: Use the force-canceling
$429 / £429 for the Sub Mini is a little bit increased than I hoped for, however Samsung has included the form of high-end tech that I would need from a small subwoofer that is going to do its job nicely, so I am unable to complain an excessive amount of.
Just like the full-size Sonos Sub, the Sub Mini is designed round a force-canceling dual-driver design. There are two six-inch woofers (every powered by their very own class-D amp) that promise to succeed in all the way down to 25Hz, and so they face straight in opposition to one another within the heart, with the intention that it will cancel out any undesirable extra vibrations.
When you have got a giant speaker driver – like a woofer – that films a variety of air by way of vibration in a ahead path, this causes reactionary vibrations in the wrong way (ie, into the cupboard it is in). Each motion has an equal and reverse response. That is what causes a giant stereotypical subwoofer to rattle and shake the partitions, and it is not good for sound – it is pointless.
In a force-canceling design, you have got two an identical speaker drivers enjoying the very same sounds positioned precisely reverse one another. Which means when the vibrations from every one hit the physique that accommodates them, they meet an identical vibrations coming from the opposite manner. The 2 units of vibrations cancel one another out, so that you get highly effective sound with out the rattle.
This type of setup implies that a subwoofer will be small and comparatively gentle, but additionally pack a variety of energy, with out strolling itself throughout the room from its vibrations.
The one important draw back I am noting to the Sub Mini to this point is that you could solely have one unit in your setup, which is a change from the common Sonos Sub, which lets you have two in a single system. The brand new Sennheiser Ambeo has pioneered the choice of utilizing as much as 4 small subwoofers to provide subtle bass round a room with out one giant unit dominating the bodily house, and I hoped that Sonos would offer the identical possibility, nevertheless it’s not the case. It looks as if Sonos would relatively that you simply simply spent that cash on the massive Sub as a substitute.
We’re anticipating to evaluate the Sonos Sub Mini quickly, however in the event you’ve received top-of-the-line TVs and a Sonos soundbar sitting beneath it, it seems like precisely the improve we would have liked.