Sonos Sub review

It may not be cheap, but the Sub is a worthwhile addition to the already excellent Sonos music system.

Sonos Sub
The Sonos Sub joins a growing family of audio streaming products

£599 gloss black; £499 matt black

The Sonos music system is one of the few pieces of technology that has seen huge growth powered by word of mouth recommendations: users often can’t wait to tell their friends about the possibility of wirelessly playing music in any room in the house, and of dividing each of those rooms into a different ‘zone’ so that different people can each listen to different things.

The brand has recently undergone a transformation, with a new slogan, new products and even new names for old products. The effect has been to make give it greater mainstream appeal while retaining its premium, music-lover feel.

Inkeeping with that sensibility is the company’s latest release, the Sub. This subwoofer is gloss piano black, and also something of a revelation. That’s not because Sonos speakers sounded by any means bad in the first place. The Play:5 in particular is an excellent premium device, while the Play:3 is a great speaker in small package.

Pair two Play:3s together and you get good stereo sound. But add the Sub and you get a remarkable, wireless 2.1 sound system with significantly deeper, richer bass. It’s a simple appeal, but a major difference, which would be particularly worthwhile if it could be integrated with a TV.

Setup is very easy; plug the Sub in, press a single button to connect it to your existing Sonos system and that’s about it. A couple of extra controls let you tune the sound so that bass isn’t overwhelming. Very quickly you realise that the Sub adds a great deal to sound that you weren’t previously aware was lacking.

At £599, this is not a cheap addition – but many Sonos users have already invested significantly in their music systems. Perhaps the most convincing use for the Sub is to augment older hifi speakers Sonos users might be reusing in their existing set-up, rather than upgrading Sonos’s already excellent all-in-one units. But it provides a significantly more complete experience in a lovely package, even if that is one that is more likely to be hidden away next to a wall.