120 MACWORLD DECEMBER 2019
PLAYLIST REVIEW: SONOS AMPrealistic—volume levels that would permit
folks to talk to each other at a party, I
played the title track to Lyle Lovett’s Step
Inside this House (ripped from CD and
encoded in FLAC) and the amplifier
produced Lovett’s vocals clear and strong
against an engaging backdrop of guitar,
pedal steel guitar, and bass.
The B&W M-1 Mini Theatre satellites are
smallish two-way speakers (1-inch tweeters
and 4-inch mid-range/woofers), and they
came across as very bright on their own
while I was listening to “Send My Love (to
Your New Lover),” from Adele’s album 25
(also ripped from CD and encoded in
FLAC). Note that the Sonos app provides
very limited EQ adjustments: It has sliders
to boost or cut bass and treble, and to
adjust the left/right balance, but that’s all.
I’ve always augmented the M-1s with a
Sonos Sub paired with a Sonos One smart
speaker in a bedroom on the other side of
the wall (the Sub can’t operate on its own, it
must be paired with another Sonos
component). The M-1s themselves are
usually driven by an Onkyo M-282 stereo
power amp wired to a Sonos:Connect. Yes,
that’s a weird scenario for Sonos
components, but it works great for me—
thanks in no small measure to Sonos’
exceptional networking technology that
keeps all the audio streams in perfect sync.
While testing the Amp with the M-1s, I
linked the Sonos Sub to the Amp instead.
You can use Sonos’ excellent Trueplay
technology (go.macworld.com/trpy) to tune
its Sonos by Sonance architectural
speakers (provided you have an iOS
device, that is), but that option isn’t
available with third-party speakers. Sonos
nonetheless gives you an opportunity to
tune the Sub to the room you’re using it in
(and by extension, to the loudspeakers
you’re using it with).
This is accomplished in two steps,
starting with a simple A/B test that lets you
correct the Sub’s phase. In the second
step, you can further boost or cut the Sub’s
output. If you’re not satisfied with these
tuning results, you can adjust the Sub’sThe second step
of the Sonos Sub
tuning process
gives you an
opportunity to
boost or cut the
Sub’s output.