Basically, a $1,500 soundbar is all the time focused at a distinct segment viewers. You solely spend that a lot on a single piece of dwelling theater equipment in order for you excellent sound however can’t be bothered (or don’t have the house) to construct out a full-on encompass system with devoted entrance, rear, and heart audio system. The humorous factor is, whereas Sennheiser’s $1,499.95 Ambeo Soundbar Plus would strike many as an extravagant buy, that is truly the cheaper choice of the corporate’s two soundbars. The Ambeo Soundbar Max, initially launched in 2019, remains to be the flagship — and nonetheless has an eye-popping value of $2,499.95.
When it comes to pumping out fascinating, immersive Dolby Atmos audio, the Max (which was renamed upon the introduction of the Plus bar) nonetheless ranks as maybe the most effective standalone soundbar available on the market immediately. Its 13-driver array outclasses a lot of the competitors from Sonos, Samsung, Sony, and others — and does so with out the assistance of a separate subwoofer. Vergecast lead producer Liam James says the Ambeo is among the many finest front room purchases he’s ever made, although he admits it’s “throwing cash at an issue” to provide you with the best-performing sound resolution for a New York Metropolis condominium.
With the Plus, Sennheiser got down to make a smaller, sleeker, cheaper soundbar that also showcases the corporate’s knack for creating spacious sound by superior 3D audio processing. It helps Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, plus a spread of wi-fi audio add-ons, together with AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Join, and customary Bluetooth playback. So it’s stuffed to the gills with software program compatibility, which is strictly what I’d hope for, contemplating the worth. The Plus nonetheless prices a ton of cash, however a minimum of there’s different competitors in the identical ballpark; you may’t say that in regards to the Max.
Pulling again on the worth required Sennheiser to train some restraint with the variety of drivers it might cram into this soundbar. The Ambeo Soundbar Plus consists of seven full-range audio system that work along with twin 4-inch subwoofers. That’s clearly not as extreme because the Max, however mixed with virtualized phantom audio system, the corporate says this configuration is ready to ship a 7.1.4 encompass expertise from a single unit. It additionally resulted in a product that’s extra sensible and fewer colossal. For reference, the Max weighs over 40 kilos (!) and is so giant that it mainly requires your TV to be wall-mounted.
However the Plus sat in entrance of my Hisense U8H with out obstructing my view of something on the backside of the display. It truly measures shorter in size than the Sonos Arc. And at 13.86 kilos, it was much less of a chore to unbox and place on my media stand. The Plus isn’t almost as imposing because the Max. It’s bought a trendy design that blends a tough plastic high (with capacitive controls) and material wrapping across the entrance and sides. The entire thing exudes high quality and feels past sturdy. On the entrance of the soundbar are two small LEDs: one lights up with “Ambeo” every time the 3D audio mode is engaged. The opposite shows Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, or MPEG-H if any of these codecs are in use.
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Sennheiser features a distant management that permits you to toggle on the proprietary Ambeo 3D audio processing, swap between presets (film, music, adaptive, and so forth.), activate evening mode (which cuts down on deep bass) or enhanced dialog mode, and so forth. It’s straightforward sufficient to make use of, although bizarrely, the distant lacks a standard mute button. I don’t know the way you overlook that on a soundbar distant. As an alternative, there’s a complicated multi-function “o” button that juggles each mute and Amazon Alexa (in case you’ve enabled voice instructions).
Sennheiser additionally curbed the Ambeo Soundbar Plus’ long-term potential with one unlucky {hardware} choice: whereas the system helps HDMI passthrough and has two inputs for this objective, these passthrough ports are solely HDMI 2.0a — so the Plus can’t deal with 4K 120Hz gaming, VRR, and different options which might be thought of musts for Xbox Collection X and PlayStation 5 house owners. It may possibly ship by HDR codecs completely advantageous, however I nonetheless think about this a brutal compromise for such a premium product. It’s sufficient of a destructive that I hope Sennheiser refreshes the Soundbar Plus inside the subsequent yr or two with full HDMI 2.1 passthrough. Proper now, you’ll have to preserve your gaming consoles plugged immediately into the TV. However many TVs solely have two HDMI ports able to 4K 120Hz, and considered one of them usually doubles as eARC, which you’d be occupying with the soundbar. We’re too far into the HDMI 2.1 period to excuse Sennheiser for lacking the boat — particularly when opponents are getting this proper.
In the event you can reside with the Ambeo Soundbar Plus being hamstrung within the passthrough division, it’s a standout performer in almost each different means. The audio it produces is splendidly clear and wealthy. You’d anticipate top-notch sound for the cash, however you’d be stunned what number of upper-tier soundbars can nonetheless have a whiff of artificialness of their tone.
However I’ll say proper off the bat that I want Sennheiser would supply devoted rear audio system for its soundbars. Because it stands now, all you may add to the Ambeo is the corporate’s $700 wi-fi subwoofer. (You may also wire third-party subs to the soundbar immediately through an RCA socket, offering extra flexibility than you’d get from a Sonos system.)
Because it stands, Sennheiser merely doesn’t supply rear surrounds, so whereas the Ambeo Soundbar Plus did an amazing job at blanketing my room with spatial audio, it felt extra like a 180-degree presentation as a substitute of placing me in a bubble of immersion. The peak results had been noticeable with Atmos content material that strongly utilized them, however I used to be by no means tricked into considering something was occurring behind me. That is an space the place competing, multi-speaker methods objectively win out.
After plugging within the Ambeo Soundbar Plus, you’ll wish to set up Sennheiser’s Sensible Management app in your iOS or Android system to finish setup, alter settings, and run the sound optimization take a look at. That course of takes a pair minutes, and the take a look at tones concerned can get pretty loud. I don’t advise operating it in the course of the evening. When you’re achieved, the soundbar may have a greater understanding of your room and might alter its spatial output accordingly.
Extra regularly than not, I activated the “Ambeo” function when watching each motion pictures and TV. It really works it doesn’t matter what content material you’re taking part in, and the aim is to extend the encompass impact for a wider sound subject and grander scale — or create a spacious combine for stereo content material. Sennheiser has put a variety of effort and time into its 3D processing, and it reveals: Ambeo largely avoids the disagreeable, reverb-y “enviornment” impact that’s so widespread when units virtualize encompass audio. You may actually hear a few of that in case you crank Ambeo to the “enhance” setting in Sennheiser’s app, however the regular degree was the best stability in my room. Nonetheless, there have been occasions once I most well-liked to depart it disengaged when watching native Atmos content material: voices can lower by cleaner with out the added processing.
Music is the place Ambeo’s spatialization tips will be hit-or-miss, and I largely saved it off except I used to be taking part in Atmos mixes on Apple Music. (And even then, as we’ve usually talked about, Atmos mixes are sometimes worse than stereo.) However music sounds full and like music, which isn’t all the time true of soundbars that prioritize visible leisure. Vocal response and mids are wonderful on the Sennheiser, and there’s no sterility or tinniness to the sound.
I examined the Ambeo Soundbar Plus each with and with out Sennheiser’s wi-fi sub. By its lonesome, the soundbar remains to be loads succesful: it’s working with 400 watts of amplification energy, in any case. In the event you’ve bought a small-sized condominium, that could be the suitable stopping level. I watched Dune and Black Adam on HBO Max, and the Soundbar Plus offered each movies with fascinating, cinematic Atmos sound that genuinely felt prefer it was surrounding me — besides from behind, as I famous earlier. The whole lot about The Final of Us has been crisp, from dialogue to the attractive underlying music rating. Maybe the largest spotlight to date was streaming All Quiet On The Western Entrance from Netflix. Struggle motion pictures all the time make for good demo fodder, and this was no exception: the chaos on the battlefield whirred throughout me and appeared to defy the soundbar’s bodily measurement.
You may customise any of the soundbar’s presets to your liking with a graphic EQ. If you wish to enhance the middle channel to deliver voices much more ahead within the combine, you may. Including the Sennheiser Sub into the equation introduces a complete new layer of low-end drive. It hyperlinks to the soundbar wirelessly, and Sennheiser calibrates the sound profile between each units to divide frequencies for the most effective efficiency. The Sennheiser app offers you full management over the sub’s energy, so in case you’re anxious about neighbor complaints, a minimum of that’s an choice.
Night time mode additionally does the job and slices away all replica of growling bass, however I’d solely think about it for late-night viewing. It has a means of robbing the Ambeo Plus of an excessive amount of punch. AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast (for audio), and Bluetooth all labored as anticipated. And although I not often hassle with voice controls from my gear, establishing Alexa and testing a number of instructions went easily. Sennheiser’s Sensible Management app is kind of good, and I like that you simply’re all the time capable of examine what number of channels the soundbar is receiving from no matter content material is taking part in.
As you’ve in all probability concluded, I feel Sennheiser’s Ambeo Soundbar Plus is a terrific product by way of pure sonic efficiency. However there’s no getting round what a considerable funding it’s. In the event you go for a Sonos Arc, you’ll save substantial cash and get multi-room audio integration that the Ambeo merely simply can’t match. In the meantime, one thing like Samsung’s Q990B Atmos soundbar gives you a superior encompass expertise because it comes with rear satellite tv for pc audio system. Sennheiser would actually do effectively to deliver its personal rear surrounds to market.
For now, the Ambeo Soundbar Plus affords most of the similar positives as the unique Max. You’re getting a degree of readability and tonality that many soundbars don’t start to method. I believe that the Max, with its further drivers and monstrous measurement, nonetheless outranks the Plus at producing spacious audio — particularly in bigger rooms. However for a single unit in the best surroundings, the Plus, at occasions, feels like a marvel.
I badly want Sennheiser had gone the gap and future-proofed this $1,500 soundbar with HDMI 2.1 passthrough. In the event you’re not involved with that and have a whole rubbish bag value of disposable money, the Plus fulfills its promise of being a one-stop store for excellent dwelling theater sound. It’s a complete luxurious purchase, however a very good one.
Pictures by Chris Welch / The Verge