Sonos Sub Mini Review: Do You Even Need The Big Sonos Sub Anymore?

If you have a smaller soundbar like the Beam Gen 2 or the Ray, the larger Sonos Sub might be overkill. That’s where this nifty little sub comes in.

I tried the Sonos Beam Gen 2 slightly over a year ago, and it was super impressive. It was a great little soundbar for your desktop or for pairing with secondary televisions. That being said, there because it’s smaller than normal, it does get a little unbalanced when pairing with the hefty Sonos Sub. Now that Sonos has introduced their new Sub Mini, I think this is the perfect companion to their smaller soundbars.

Design

Let’s talk design first. The Sub Mini is incredibly small. Weighing in at just around 6.35KG, it’s lightweight enough to be moved around if needed. But more than that, the sub measures 31cm by 23cm by 23cm, although it’s a cylindrical shape this time around, which means it should be able to fit more easily into your home’s aesthetic or be tucked away in a corner discreetly.

This compactness is accomplished by Sonos putting both 15cm woofers opposite each other, resulting in a force-cancelling effect to minimise vibrations while producing a frequency range that the company claims goes down to 25Hz. The power and Ethernet ports are located at the bottom, and although there’s no groove to guide the wire, there are four rubber feet along the bottom to lift the subwoofer up so the wire doesn’t get squashed. Of course, there’s also Wi-Fi connectivity here, and I expect most people will be using that rather than the Ethernet wire.

We paired it with the Beam Gen 2, which is my favourite compact soundbar from Sonos and set up is as fuss-free as always. It’s picked up automatically by the app after plugging it into power and turning on, and initial setup and adding to a system is super easy.

Sound

There’s very little we can talk about in terms of actual sound because, well, this is a subwoofer. What I can say though, is that the bass increase is quite significant right off the bat for music, with added rumble and deeper slam in the lows. Here’s a short test with the Sub Mini versus without the Sub Mini.

For movies and shows though, it’s just okay. The first time I watched a show I had to put my hand into the middle to check the woofers were actually firing because it didn’t feel like it was on. Once I tweaked the settings a bit and increased the sub level, it became better for sure, but it just didn’t prove the oomph I was looking for unless I brought up the combined volume.

Overall, the bass increase is quick and responsive and very well suited to music, in my opinion. Best of all, because of the design, there’s no rattling or vibrating from the subwoofer at all.

Sonos Sub Mini Price

That being said, the pricing strategy here is very odd. The Sub Mini costs S$869 or US$429, which makes it the same price as the Sonos Beam Gen 2 here in Singapore, and even more expensive than the Sonos Ray. While, yes, there aren’t really any other better options if you have one of the smaller soundbars and you don’t want to spring S$1,399 or US$749 for the Sonos Sub, it’s just… peculiar. Most consumers would likely take a look at the price tag and just forget about getting a sub. I really hope Sonos drops the price for the Sub Mini soon because that price tag will likely put off a lot of people.