Sonos Sub Mini review: The perfect companion for your Sonos Beam

Sonos Sub Mini review: Sleek cylindrical subwoofer promises to bring extra bass to any Sonos system (Image: SONOS • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS)

Sonos’ stylish subwoofer brings an extra helping of bass to your setup. It’s not cheap, but it allows your existing Sonos speakers to truly shine

What we love

  • Improves Sonos Beam and Ray
  • Stylish Cylindrical Design
  • Two-Tone White Finish Looks Great
  • Set-Up Takes Seconds
  • Can Be Placed Anywhere
  • Cheaper Than Sonos Sub 3

What we don’t

  • Still Not Very Affordable
  • Only Available In Black Or White

Until now, the only way to add more bass to your Sonos speakers or home cinema system was to plump for the £749 Sonos Sub Gen 3. That’s a hefty outlay …not to mention complete overkill when paired with the most affordable soundbars from Sonos, like the excellent and .

Enter, Sonos Sub Mini.

This diddy subwoofer brings an extra helping of bass to your movies and music, but it has a smaller price tag (and footprint) than the Sonos Sub. The Sub Mini pairs wirelessly with any of Sonos’ current lineup of speakers – except the portable and . Speakers made in collaboration between Sonos and IKEA will also work with the Sub Mini.

Since Sub Mini is wireless, it can be placed anywhere in the room with a plug. We paired the Sub Mini with a Sonos Beam soundbar and were floored by the difference in sound. On its own, the Sonos Beam is no slouch. However, as soon as you offload the bass to a dedicated speaker, the soundbar really comes alive.

For its part, the Sub Mini offers a solid amount of rumble without ever being disruptive. If you’ve got thin walls, you can hold back the amount of rumble you’ll get from the Sub Mini too.

While the presence of the Sub Mini is definitely noticeable when streaming music, it really earns its stripes when watching cinematic television or a blockbuster. From the dread-inducing rumble in a horror film, to a triumphant explosion in the final car chase of your favourite thriller, everything comes alive with the Sub Mini. The Sonos Ray and Sonos Beam were already excellent soundbars, but you can’t unlock their full potential until you’ve paired them with a Sonos Sub Mini.

Whether that’s worth £429 – almost the cost of the Beam again – only you can decide.

Sonos Sub Mini review

From the ground up, Sonos Sub Mini is designed to sit alongside its Sonos Ray and Sonos Beam soundbars. The opening in the subwoofer is designed to mirror the Sonos Beam from a bird’s-eye view or the Sonos Ray when viewed from the front. For those with the pricier all-in-one Dolby Atmos soundbar, , the firm thinks you should plump for the Sonos Sub 3.

Sub Mini is available in two colours: white and black. Both of these are a matte finish, which looks sleek, modern, and most importantly of all, means it doesn’t look instantly dusty like the glossy case found on the Sonos Sub. The cylindrical design of the Sub Mini is a breath of fresh air compared to the usual black and grey boxes that ship with surround sound systems. In fact, this is one of the only subwoofers that don’t mind having on display in our living room.

sonos sub mini review 2022

Sub Mini has a modern matte finish, although it’s only available in black or white (Image: SONOS)

However, that might not be necessary. Standing at just 30.5cm tall and 23cm across, the Sub Mini is small enough that it can be easily tucked away. In our testing, we were able to squirrel the wireless speaker beneath a nest of tables in the corner of the room and behind the sofa. Unlike the pricier Sonos Sub, which can be laid flat – so you can hide it underneath a sofa or media unit without impacting audio performance – the cylindrical shape of the Sub Mini means that’s not possible.

Silver lining – we were assured by one of the team at Sonos that it’s perfectly fine to use the Sub Mini as a coffee table.

Setting Up The Subwoofer

Sub Mini can be placed anywhere in the room since it connects with the rest of your Sonos system using Wi-Fi.

Sonos has added support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, so you won’t notice any delay between the soundbar and the subwoofer. In our time with the Sonos Sub Mini, the subwoofer was always in perfect lock-step with the rest of the speakers, whether we were watching a movie on the big screen, streaming a playlist from Apple Music, listening to the radio, or an audiobook.

For those who prefer a wired connection, there is an ethernet port tucked away on the underside of the Sub Mini.

If you enable Night Mode on your soundbar, Sonos will automatically reduce the rumble from Sub Mini – so you won’t wake the neighbours 

Finding the perfect spot for your new Sonos subwoofer is likely to be the longest part of the set-up process. Once the speaker is in place and plugged in, getting everything up and running with your existing Sonos system takes a few seconds. Load up the Sonos app on your phone and a prompt to add your newest arrival should appear on-screen immediately.

If not, you’ll need to dive around the menu to find the Add New Speaker button.

You’ll be able to securely transfer your Wi-Fi network details via NFC by tapping your phone to the top of the Sub Mini, which saves you the hassle of typing out the password (if you can remember it). The Sonos app will then ask which soundbar or speaker you’d like to pair with the Sub Mini. We linked the subwoofer to our Sonos Beam, which is paired with a couple of Sonos One speakers for a 5.0 surround sound setup. And voila! Just like that, our home cinema system became a 5.1 system.

sonos sub mini review 2022

Within seconds of pairing the Sonos Sub Mini, you’ll have a 5.1 surround sound system (Image: SONOS)

Interestingly, when you’ve paired the Sub Mini with a Sonos speaker, you won’t see the subwoofer displayed separately in your system. Any changes you make to the paired speaker, like adjusting the volume, mute, or music selection, will also impact Sub Mini. Cleverly, if you set Night Mode on your soundbar – which keeps dialogue clear, but reduces loud noises to avoid waking up the rest of the house – Sonos will automatically reduce the rumble from the Sub Mini too. You can also manually adjust bass within the app.

But for most of us, once the initial setup is complete, you can forget about the Sub Mini entirely and just enjoy the improved sound.

Software updates – yes, you will need to update the software on your speakers – are all handled via the Sonos app. To ensure we were getting the best performance from your system, we kickstarted the TruePlay setup after adding the Sub Mini. This nifty feature uses the microphones on your phone to measure the acoustics of the room and tune your Sonos speakers accordingly. For a home cinema system, TruePlay also gets you to sit in your preferred spot when watching telly and fine-tunes everything for that location.

It all works brilliantly and you can immediately tell the difference in performance from your Sonos kit. Unfortunately, this feature is still only available on the iPhone app, which is disappointing.