Sonos SUB review

If there’s one thing you could be sure of/ in AV, it’s that subwoofers are big, ugly and difficult to position correctly. We say ‘could’ because Sonos has just changed that with its SUB, the first subwoofer that we’d actually be proud of displaying.

Designed to be wirelessly paired with one of the company’s players (the Play:3, Play:5 and Connect:Amp are all supported), the SUB adds the low-frequency effects that its players have arguably been missing, and is a great work of design.

The SUB will work with any of Sonos’ amplified players.

The sleek rounded curves and donut shape, combined with the gloss black finish make the SUB as gorgeous as every other bit of Sonos kit. More than this, the design is eminently practical: the hole in the middle houses two drivers facing each other. This concentrates the bass in the middle of the subwoofer, so you don’t have to place the SUB in the corner of a room, as with a traditional bass speaker. A small advantage is that there’s practically no vibration through the case, so you can place a cup of tea on top without worrying it’ll be shaken to the floor.

The hole in the middle concentrates the bass in the middle of the speaker and means you get little vibration through the case.

It also means that the SUB can be made smaller than a regular subwoofer, as each racetrack driver is roughly half the size of speaker Sonos would have had to of used if it had gone for a single-speaker design.

As well as being very thin, the SUB can be placed flat on its side and slid out of sight.

Where this really pays off is that the SUB is surprisingly thin at just 15.8cm wide. This dimension becomes more important when you use the SUB’s party trick: it can be placed on its side and slid underneath a sofa or bed out of the way. Sonos provides stick-on felt feet for the SUB in this position, so you won’t scratch it as you push it out of the way. Of course, it’s typical that having made the only subwoofer that’s attractive, Sonos has also made the only subwoofer that you can comfortably stash out of the way.

As with Sonos’ other kit, the SUB is wireless. it runs on the company’s proprietary mesh network. It does also have an Ethernet port underneath, next to the power input. Going wireless gives you even more flexibility in positioning the SUB, as you only need to place it next to a power socket.

There’s a Ethernet port next to the power socket, if you don’t want to use the Sonos wireless network.