The perils of owning a Sonos system are few and far between, but if there's one big risk that comes with the multiroom audio brand, it's the fact that you can expand your array of speakers so easily. In most cases, it's just a matter of turning a new speaker on, telling the app what room it's in, and enjoying a new audio option.
If you have a TV setup, that's still impressively the case, as I've confirmed recently in a bit of an upgrade journey. After swapping out my first-generation Beam soundbar for a second-gen one and then upgrading my cheap Ikea Symfonisk surrounds with Era 100 replacements, I've now completed my setup.
It's the final piece in the simplest surround sound setup you could care to build, but there's no denying that the Sub Mini is also the one piece that takes the setup into a new price bracket. After all, between a Beam Gen 2 and a couple of Era 100 speakers, you're up at £797 here in the UK – not a jaw-dropping amount, but already a decent whack of cash.
The Sub Mini costs £429 on its own, and is therefore the single most expensive component in the whole setup, taking it to a total price of £1,226, which is not pocket change or anything close to it. Then again, most experts in the field will tell you that you're going to end up spending north of £1,000 to get proper surround sound, and the whole advantage of Sonos' system is that you don't have to buy it all at once.
So, what's it like to add the heft of the Sub Mini to a Beam setup? Well, in short, it's almost exactly what I expected. I didn't have any issue with the amount of bass provided by the Beam in the first place – it's an impressively powerful soundbar for such a small footprint.
However, there's no doubt that in certain circumstances, whether it's explosive moments in action movies or music tracks with particularly wobbly sub-bass, there's no doubt that it could have a little more heft. So, add the Sub Mini into the equation and you just get a way deeper sense of things.
Some testers over the years (including our own reviewer back in 2022) have commented on the slight lack of precision that the Sub Mini offers, but I have to confess this isn't something I've noticed. I've mostly been using it for TV and movie viewing, and the Sub Mini has just filled out the low-end in a really obvious and beneficial way.
It's not even just when I watch a modern Atmos mix, either (although Master and Commander does sound unreal). In The Wire, which I'm currently watching for the first time, when a character is listening to music in their car, for example, I can really feel the bass in a way that actually matters to the scene.
That sort of added oomph can really impact your viewing experience in a heap of ways, as I've been finding, and it makes for a more complete package sonically. That said, I think there's no arguing with the fact that most people don't need a Sub Mini in their setup. It's aggressively pricy, there's no doubt, and the "Mini" in its name is also a misnomer – this isn't a small bit of kit.
You need floorspace for it, and to consider just how many vibrations you're willing to send through the floor before your neighbours start to get tired of you. It took me a bit of tuning to get my sub level right, too (meaning I had to turn it down a few times before it settled).
If you can afford it, though, and know your Dolby Atmos from your DTS-HD, I won't lie to you – this is a bass upgrade that I'll be sticking with. It sounds superb, and I'll be impressed if any other system makes me envious in the near future.
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