Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar review: Excessive-pause sound for a excessive-pause ticket

A soundbar is a marvelous different to a fats-blown outboard speaker system. It affords greater sound quality than a TV’s constructed-in audio, and it’s a ways more helpful to area up and remark. On the opposite hand, a soundbar can’t reproduce a fully directional surround or immersive soundfield indulge in a system with separate audio system located all the intention by the listening space.

Or can it? That’s the goal Sennheiser area for itself with its Ambeo Soundbar. This excessive-pause behemoth sits shut to the pause of the soundbar ticket differ and claims to reproduce a digital 5.1.4 immersive soundfield—a claim that has some benefit, despite the indisputable reality that it with out a doubt now no longer fooled me into thinking I became paying attention to an genuine immersive multi-speaker system.

Up up to now April 23, 2021 to myth Sennheiser has launched a firmware change for the Ambeo Soundbar that provides relief for Sony’s immersive 360 Actuality Audio expertise. We returned our review unit quickly after this review became published, so we won’t be in a position to evaluate the fresh feauture, however we wished our readers to understand about it.

Ambeo characteristic area

The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar is huge, measuring about 50x5x7 inches (WxHxD) and weighing nearly 41 kilos. It sports a total of 13 speaker drivers—six 4-stride long-throw, cellulose-sandwich cone woofers, five 1-stride aluminum-dome tweeters (two of which hearth to the perimeters at an angle), and two upfiring 3.5-stride fats-differ drivers powered by a total of 500 watts. The frequency response is meant to develop from 30Hz to 20kHz (-3dB).

Sennheiser

So, how does a single soundbar—even this form of natty one—simulate the attain of a 5.1.4 speaker system? On this case, it uses all those drivers and some crucial DSP to squawk the surround and overhead channels to the room’s walls and ceiling, the set up they are reflected toward the listening space. In accordance to Sennheiser, the attain is easiest if the walls and ceiling don’t appear to be any more than five meters (about 16 feet) from the soundbar; otherwise, the reflected sound can be noticeably delayed.

To acquire this feat of virtualization, the Ambeo Soundbar must be calibrated to the room in which this also can furthermore be vulnerable. To boot to the soundbar itself, the kit incorporates a 28-stride-wide, free-standing calibration microphone linked to its hold heavy inferior and an extended cable that connects to the entrance of the soundbar. To calibrate the unit, you area the mic so its high is at ear high within the listening area and preserve the Ambeo button on the a ways away or the pause of the unit. The soundbar performs a chain of sweeping tones and then calibrates the DSP consistent with what the microphone picks up from reflections within the room.

Bodily inputs on the help consist of three HDMI 2.0a ports (18Gbps), one ethernet port, one Toslink optical port, and one pair of RCA analog-audio jacks as neatly as a 2.5mm microphone enter on the entrance for the calibration mic. It also provides several wireless inputs, including Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac). At closing, it has Google Chromecast in-constructed, and it could perhaps most likely perhaps well be a part of a UPnP media community. Outputs consist of one HDMI 2.1 port with eARC and a subwoofer pre-out with an RCA connector. A USB port helps carrier and firmware updates however now no longer media playback from storage devices.

Sennheiser

The Ambeo Soundbar can decode a huge sequence of audio codecs, including virtually all forms of Dolby (including Dolby Atmos) and DTS (including DTS:X and DTS 96/24). Diversified supported codecs consist of DSD (the format vulnerable with SACD discs) and MPEG-H, a barely fresh codec meant to be used with next-generation TV broadcasting by ATSC 3.0. It also can furthermore upmix stereo and 5.1 dispute material genuine into a fully immersive soundfield.

You could perhaps perhaps capture the Ambeo virtualization with three intensity phases (Light, Long-established, Enhance), and you’d gash or boost four bands of EQ by up to ±10dB. After all, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance disable it altogether as neatly. The soundbar also affords five preset sound modes: Movie, Song, Info, Sports, and Neutral. To boot, it affords a Evening mode that compresses the dynamic differ so that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance hear every thing with out having to crank it up and per chance disturb others seeking to sleep within the following room.

If the audio is in with out a doubt one of many Dolby formats, the Ambeo Soundbar can use Dolby Virtualizer, in which case the Ambeo 3D audio attain is disabled. It also affords Dolby Dynamic Vary Regulate (DRC) with three different settings (Auto, Customary, Heavy) and dialog normalization. If the audio is a DTS bitstream, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance area DRC to any cost from 0 to 100 p.c and boost dialog up to 6dB. These and most other controls are repeat within the Sennheiser Neat Regulate app (more in a moment).

After all, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance area the soundbar on a credenza or other surface, and it comes with protecting feet that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance set up when you desire. You also can furthermore wall-mount it with an now no longer considerable hardware equipment. Take into myth, on the opposite hand, that it’s five inches wide, so the backside of the TV must be at the least that a ways above the outside the set up the soundbar sits.

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Ambeo particular person interface

The entrance of the soundbar sports an OLED present with an ambient-light sensor and area LED within the heart. An LED-illuminated Ambeo badge on the neatly suited-hand aspect of the cupboard lights up when the virtualization is engaged. Fortunately, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance withhold watch over the brightness of the present and Ambeo indicator the remark of the Neat Regulate app.

On the pause of the soundbar are a pair of total withhold watch over buttons, including energy on/off, provide choice, Ambeo on/off, quantity up/down, and nonetheless. A multifunction button lets you withhold watch over playback of tune recordsdata—press as soon as to play or pause, press twice to skip to the following notice, press three times to skip to the old notice. Pressing the multifunction and provide buttons together for 2 seconds locations the soundbar in Bluetooth-pairing mode. If the system helps NFC pairing, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance merely preserve the system shut to the NFC ticket on the soundbar and so they’re going to pair robotically.

The slim a ways away is blessedly easy, with easiest 14 neatly-separated  buttons. Naturally, there are buttons for energy on/off button, Ambeo on/off, and nonetheless on/off as neatly because the same multifunction button as stumbled on on the unit itself. The provide up/down and quantity up/down buttons are a small bit contoured (up is convex, down is concave), making them very easy to salvage by truly feel. The five sound modes and night mode have their very hold devoted buttons, which is sizable, despite the indisputable reality that they all truly feel the same, and with out illumination, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance also must memorize the set up they are to swap modes at hour of darkness.

Sennheiser

As that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance demand, Sennheiser’s Neat Regulate app affords essentially the most withhold watch over alternate choices. After all, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance energy the soundbar on and off, withhold watch over the amount, obtain out inputs and sound modes, and capture and disengage the Ambeo attain and Evening mode. To boot, the app lets you make a choice the energy of the Ambeo attain and adjust the 4-band EQ as neatly as rename the inputs. You also can furthermore withhold watch over the brightness of the present and Ambeo LED manually or area it to robotically adjust essentially based entirely on the amount of ambient light within the room. As mentioned earlier, the Dolby and DTS DRC and dialog controls come in within the app as neatly. Even greater, that you would be succesful to perhaps well per chance specify that your settings are remembered for every enter as neatly as whether or now no longer or now no longer the soundbar performs audible cues for loads of actions.

Total, the app is designed rather neatly. The fundamental controls are stumbled on on the home video show, while the Ambeo energy and EQ controls are two phases into the Acoustical Settings; besides they are able to furthermore be adjusted and saved one at a time for every sound mode, which is extremely nice. All other controls are repeat within the Machine Settings, which could perhaps perhaps well be organized pretty intuitively.

Scott Wilkinson / IDG

Ambeo performance

I placed the Ambeo Soundbar on a minute table in entrance of my Sony 65A1E OLED TV; luckily, the table is appropriate low ample so the soundbar didn’t block any of the video show after I became seated in my customary chair. The room is virtually fully rectangular with out a longer fresh drywall, despite the indisputable reality that there’s an start closet to the neatly suited of the seating space, and with out a doubt one of many gear racks is in opposition to the wall next to the closet. There are some cabinets of Blu-rays to the left of the seating space.

Next, I area up the calibration microphone at ear high in my chair, linked it to the soundbar, and ran the calibration routine. It performs a area of sweeping test tones, after which the DSP processes those measurements. As I listened to the sweeps, I became in particular impressed with the low-frequency output.

Unfortunately, the calibration failed, even after repeated makes an strive. A Sennheiser obtain urged that I cycle the AC energy by unplugging the unit for 15 minutes, then plugging it help in and making an strive all as soon as more. Sadly, that didn’t work, so they sent me one more calibration microphone, which worked the predominant time.

I linked three provide devices to the HDMI inputs—a Dish Hopper 3 satellite tv for pc receiver, a Roku Ultra 4K streamer, and an Oppo UDP-203 UHD Blu-ray player—the remark of 18Gbps cables. I also linked the soundbar’s HDMI output to the calibrated HDMI enter on the TV.

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Each time I grew to change into on the soundbar, it switched to the HDMI TV (eARC) enter. Unfortunately, I will salvage no withhold watch over within the app that enables you to specify which enter it’ll obtain out at energy up. In accordance to Sennheiser, the soundbar must robotically obtain out the most recent active enter, however even after I powered up with out a doubt one of many provide devices closing, the soundbar’s enter remained on HDMI TV, so I had to manually swap to the desired enter every time. I wish the app incorporated a atmosphere that enables you to specify one thing indulge in “stay on the enter chosen lastly energy down” or “constantly obtain out HDMI X when powering up.”

One other operational topic became that the app lost its connection to the soundbar after my phone went to sleep. When I woke it up and went to the app, it became no longer linked, and I had to manually reconnect, which got dull after a while.

I started my formal review by playing the 5.1.4 test tones—red noise, truly—from the Dolby Atmos demo Blu-ray. After all, the entrance LCR channels came from the set up they were supposed to, however the surround and overhead channels were also in entrance of me. The surround channels were farther to the perimeters than the entrance LR channels, however they didn’t appear to return from the perimeters of the room. The overhead channels perceived to be coming from the upfiring audio system within the soundbar, now no longer from the ceiling.

The helicopter and 747 takeoff demos from the Dolby Atmos disc sounded concerning the same—fully in entrance of me with some width and high within the soundstage. The rainstorm demo, on the opposite hand, became a ways more effective; the sound of the rain truly perceived to be coming from overhead, especially the greater frequencies.

I in contrast the Ambeo attain with Dolby Virtualization all the intention by the rainstorm demo, and stumbled on that Ambeo became a ways more effective. Dolby Virtualization rendered the sound more within the entrance of the room with a a small bit smaller soundstage.

Next, I played a pair of of the short Atmos demos with video. In all cases, overhead sounds with excessive frequencies gave the affect to return from overhead, and the width of the soundstage became very correct, despite the indisputable reality that I heard nothing from the set up genuine surround audio system could perhaps perhaps well be. The Horizon demo incorporates a airplane flying over from help to entrance, however the total sound came from the entrance. On the plus aspect, low frequencies were in particular impressive.

Sennheiser

• Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar

  Unheard of sound for a princely sum, however it would no longer obtain a unprejudiced immersive soundfield as it claims—at the least, now no longer in an injurious room.

  Mavens

  • Unheard of total sound quality
  • Expansive soundstage in entrance of room
  • Distinctive bass with out a separate subwoofer
  • Constructed indulge in a tank

  Cons

  • Didn’t obtain a fully immersive soundfield in my room
  • Supplied calibration mic failed, required replace
  • Enter auto-switching would no longer work
  • App disconnects from soundbar when phone falls asleep
  • Large pricey