Our open-concept kitchen, living room, dining room is around 30x25 feet. No TV. We plan to listen to music at a low volume, and so was looking at setting up 3 stereo pairs using Era 100s (6 in total).
We likely would play the entire grouping of the 3 stereo pairs together at once.
Was considering adding a sub to the space.
Is it possible sor desirable] to add two sub-minis for instance? Or is one likely sufficient? Or would a single sub gen 4 work better perhaps?
Thank you for any suggestions
It’s possible, sure. One sub mini would be connected in a Sonos ‘room’ with a pair of Era 100s.
Hard to answer the ‘desirable’ part. Sonos has suggested a single standard Sub is ‘more’ bass than two mini-Subs, But your ears are ultimately the decider there.
If it was me, I’d go with a single standard Sub, bonded to one pair of Era 100s, the Sub placed strategically, and then group the other two rooms of Era 100s…with the understanding that only one of the three rooms gets the ‘cutoff’ of the Sub. But the other way, only two of the three get that ‘benefit’ , and I really doubt you could ‘hear’ a difference.
However, I hesitate to offer additional input as you didn’t provide a layout of the space. Preferably a blueprint like view showing placements of cabinets, tables, island, appliances and any room offsets.
Placing three stereo pairs of Era 100’s sounds good on paper but room layout may change how they should or shouldn’t be positioned. Can you provide such a diagram?
One advantage of adding a subwoofer, especially for a smaller main speaker, is that responsibility for playing bass is removed from the small main speaker. This results in clearer midrange because the complexity of the small speaker’s task is reduced. Since a SONOS SUB can only be integrated into a single Room (single, pair, or surround) only that Room benefits from the midrange improvement.
This is a complex configuration to evaluate. Only speakers with a bonded subwoofer will have improved midrange. The physics of subwoofer placement in the room is complex. In this arrangement you will have multiple subwoofer placements to work out because each subwoofer output will interact with the room acoustics and this includes interaction the other subwoofers. In terms of bass output, I think that most listeners would feel that one SUB would yield better bass than two MINI’s.
Sorry, it’s the physics, there’s no simple answer to this situation. Since you are listening quietly to music and there’s no need to accommodate thundering fight scenes, I think MINI’s will probably do the job. But, if you are a thumping rock listener, you may appreciate more bass. Another scheme would use one SUB and two MINI’s. In a large open room the SUB could probably handle the heavy hits, while the MINI’s will provide the midrange clarity improvement for their mates.
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