Sonos has unveiled its newest subwoofer, the Sub Mini, and it’s designed to work with the company’s more affordable soundbars — Beam and Ray , specifically.
The 12″ tall Sub Mini features dual 6″ woofers facing each other to stop the device from moving on the floor. Sonos says it offers a similar extension to larger subwoofers at a claimed 25Hz. The center channel is designed to “maximize bass while paying homage to the iconic Sonos Sub design.” This translates to: “If you have kids, they’ll put stuff in there.” Especially since the Sub Mini vaguely resembles a fancy trash can.
Sub Mini pairs 5GHz wireless with supported Sonos speakers, and you can use it with such Sonos ecosystems with Sonos Voice or Features like dozens of supported music services.
This model became the second subwoofer after the long-running Sub ($749) and is now in its third iteration. It’s amazing to think about now, but when the original Sonos Sub was released in 2012, the company’s Playbar hadn’t even been released. Instead, Sub was advertised as a great partner for Play:5.
Over the past 10 years, Sonos has released a range of new speakers and soundbars, and the existing Sub should happily work with them. However, the debut of the latest Ray ($279) and Beam Gen 2 ($449) speakers calls for cheaper options. The Sub Mini makes the most sense with the similarly priced Beam, and I look forward to testing how the sub improves the bass performance of certain Dolby Atmos speakers.
However, while the Sub Mini may be $429 cheaper than the Sub, it’s still not “cheap”. For that money, you can buy yourself a home theater subwoofer like an SVS or Klipsch. However, it’s more affordable than the entry-level Bose at $499 for the Bass Module 500. The Sub Mini will be available on October 6th.
