Sennheiser Ambeo Plus review: Convincing virtual surround sound | Siege Tech

Worth When Reviewed

$1,499.95

Finest Costs At present: Sennheiser Ambeo Plus

$1,399.95

$1399.99

Sennheiser has been a pacesetter in audio expertise since its founding in 1945. The corporate has developed generations of microphones and headphones which have develop into normal gear within the professional audio neighborhood, and, over the previous decade, they’ve invested hundreds of thousands of {dollars} researching immersive audio. That analysis yielded the Ambeo expertise on the coronary heart of the distinctive Ambeo Soundbar Plus reviewed right here.

Ambeo made its first look in a shopper audio system in 2019, with Sennheiser’s huge Ambeo soundbar, since renamed the Ambeo Max. Right here’s a hyperlink to TechHive’s Sennheiser Ambeo Max evaluate, printed previous to the title change.

This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the very best soundbars.

The Ambeo Soundbar Plus soundbar is a a lot sleeker, lower-profile unit that showcases Sennheiser’s audio processing prowess in a bundle that will probably be extra engaging to prospects who don’t have the kind of massive residence theater the Max was designed for. The Soundbar Plus helps Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Sony 360 Actuality Audio along with stereo, 5.1- and seven.1-channel indicators, so the unit can deal with no matter streaming or bodily media codecs you employ.

We examined the Ambeo Plus Soundbar each with and with out Sennheiser’s Ambeo Sub subwoofer ($699.95), which options an 8-inch proprietary woofer and 350W Class-D amplifier. Other than its incredible sound, one benefit of the Ambeo Sub is that it robotically pairs with the Ambeo Soundbar Plus while you flip it on. You should use the Soundbar Plus with any subwoofer you select by way of a wired connection.

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What’s contained in the Ambeo Soundbar Plus

The Ambeo Soundbar Plus will inevitably be in comparison with Sennheiser’s unique Ambeo Soundbar (as I’ve already point out is now known as the Ambeo Max), however the Max is a beast, weighing extra 40 kilos and dominating any room; and contemplating it’s 5-inch peak, blocking the underside of any tv not hanging on the wall. It’s a spectacular and costly ($2,500) piece of drugs that has no actual parallel available in the market.

By comparability, the Ambeo Soundbar Plus has a glance that’s much more in step with what we’ve come to count on with a soundbar, measuring 41.25 x 3 x 4.75 inches (WxHxD) and weighing simply 14 kilos. The Plus cuts a far decrease profile in your lounge, with a small Sennheiser brand, rounded corners, and a material grille. It’s the form of design that doesn’t draw consideration to itself however seems to be good while you do give it an in depth look.

The Soundbar Plus ships with a high-speed HDMI cable, an influence cable, a distant management with CR 2032 battery, and a well-illustrated and clearly written Fast Information that made for straightforward setup. You’ll additionally wish to obtain the Sennheiser Good Management app to your iOS or Android system.

James Barber/Foundry

You should use the Ambeo Soundbar Plus as the middle of your property leisure setup as a result of it comes with all kinds of inputs for nearly any system you wish to join. That stated, the HDMI eARC connection to your tv anchors the setup and could possibly be the one one you want. The next hyperlink will let you know all concerning the variations between HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC.

There are one other two HDMI ports for a Blu-ray participant or streaming system, RCA inputs for a CD participant or cassette deck, and an optical connection for older TVs with no HDMI ports or a CD participant. There’s additionally an RJ-45 port for customers who wish to join on to their router with an ethernet cable, bypassing Wi-Fi. The USB-A port is for updates solely.

Establishing the Ambeo Soundbar Plus

When you’ve unpacked the soundbar, you may set it up for tv playback by plugging within the included HDMI cable into the eARC connections on the tv and the Ambeo Soundbar Plus.

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Set up the Sennheiser Good Management app (obtainable for each iOS and Android) in your telephone, hook up with Wi-Fi or ethernet, after which arrange the Soundbar Plus with the System Calibration function. The app makes use of the system’s onboard mics to learn your room, and after a 5-minute cycle of beeps and tones, it’s adjusted the playback to offer your room a customized sound profile.

There’s an choice to arrange Alexa or Google Assistant to make use of the Ambeo Soundbar Plus as a wise speaker. When you’re the form of one who will get numerous alerts from Amazon, you won’t wish to arrange Alexa. I obtained numerous package-delivery alerts whereas watching motion pictures till I turned off that function.

If you wish to use the soundbar for music playback, the speaker works with each Spotify Join and Tidal Join. When you use one other music service, the Ambeo Soundbar Plus helps AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. (Don’t miss TechHive’s suggestions of the very best music-streaming providers.)

James Barber/Foundry

How does the Sennheiser Ambeo Plus sound?

True {surround} purists can step away now, as a result of Sennheiser makes use of processor-based virtualization to create the phantasm of a room stuffed with audio system. The corporate says the rules that information these phantom audio system have been developed by means of in depth psychoacoustic analysis. Sennheiser planted its flag with the proof-of-concept Ambeo Max, and now it’s migrated that expertise into a much more sensible design with the Ambeo Soundbar Plus.

The virtualization creates an immersive expertise that can appear to be magic for anybody who’s struggled to cover the cables for an old style 5.1 audio system. It won’t fairly match the expertise of getting a pair of audio system blasting at you from behind, however your ears will nonetheless expertise sounds coming at you from what looks like a number of angles.

The Lady King, the 2022 film concerning the feminine warriors who fought for the African kingdom of Dahomey within the nineteenth century, options loads of hand-to-hand fight scenes. The Ambeo Soundbar Plus did an awesome job with a Dolby Atmos combine that takes the viewer inside a battle with motion taking place concurrently on all sides. There was a constant sense of the discrete fights happening across the motion going down within the middle of the display. 

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There’s a noticeable distinction in case you take away the Ambeo Sub from the equation. The digital {surround} sound expertise remains to be evident, but it surely’s far much less convincing with out the subwoofer in play. When you’re largely watching sports activities and binging Netflix collection, you most likely gained’t miss the sub, however film followers ought to funds for including a sub to the setup.

Music sounds incredible by means of the soundbar, with stereo tracks blowing away what you’d get from a Sonos 5 (beforehand generally known as the Play:5) and evaluating favorably to excessive finish devoted music audio system just like the Naim Mu-so or the Sonus faber Omnia. You’ve additionally obtained entry to immersive audio by way of Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple Music and Sony 360 Digital Audio on Tidal and Amazon Music HD.

De La Soul’s basic 1989 hi-hop album 3 Ft Excessive and Rising is lastly coming to streaming after a long time of authorized points with its samples and will probably be obtainable in Dolby Atmos by way of Apple Music. They’ve launched “The Magic Quantity” upfront of the album, and the Ambeo Soundbar Plus does a convincing job of matching the observe’s sound placement when listening by way of Apple AirPods Professional 2.

Miles Davis’ 1960 album Sketches of Spain additionally has a high-res Dolby Atmos combine, and streaming to the Ambeo Soundbar Plus by way of Apple Music matched the expertise of taking part in a CD of the latest Sony remaster by way of my residence audio system.

Sennheiser’s distant management is a dud

Sennheiser has included its SB02-RC distant, which might be among the best residence theater remotes I’ve ever used apart from one exceptionally bizarre design selection, which I’ll get to in a bit. The buttons are laid out nicely, with loads of house between every one. And whereas they’re not backlit, I used to be in a position to be taught to decide on settings by really feel over the course of my testing.

Sennheiser

There are volume-up and -down buttons subsequent to the Supply ahead and again buttons, and the respective volume-down and source-back buttons have indentations that make them particularly simple to establish with out trying. The Ambeo Soundbar Plus’s processing modes (film, music, information, sports activities, impartial, and adaptive) have particular person buttons, as do the evening and voice settings. Every of those modes will be tweaked to your liking by way of the Good Management app. When you ever need the virtualization processing turned off, use the Ambeo button to regulate the setting.

The true thriller is why Sennheiser didn’t included a devoted mute button on the distant. There’s an “O” multifunction button that mutes the soundbar with a single press out of the field. When you’re utilizing the Soundbar Plus for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Spotify/Tidal join, the “O” button performs or pauses your music stream. When you activate Alexa, a single button-press calls up the voice assistant, and also you now want a 3-second press to mute the tv or pause music playback.

Even with out Alexa activated, I skilled a startling lag each time I attempted to make use of the “O” button. Tv muting was not the near-instant expertise you get from even the least-expensive televisions or soundbars in the marketplace. It’s a jarring and deeply unusual flaw from a speaker that’s in any other case almost good.

Is the Sennheiser Ambeo Plus a very good worth?

Sennheiser is aiming for a candy spot that offers the absolute best audio expertise from a soundbar that’s as unobtrusive as doable. The onboard digital processing permits for a satisfying surround-sound expertise from a single system. The Ambeo Soundbar Plus won’t ever fulfill hardcore residence theater aficionados who gained’t accept something lower than the complete array of audio system required for the really immersive expertise.

James Barber/Foundry

Sennheiser has constructed a plug-and-play soundbar for the large quantity of people that need a easy and chic resolution to works with their big-screen tv. The Ambeo Soundbar Plus delivers a powerful Dolby Atmos expertise and sounds nice for music playback.

The expertise is considerably improved in case you add on a subwoofer, and the Sennheiser Ambeo is a superb selection regardless that the mixed value of this soundbar and subwoofer is getting near the value of the really wonderful Ambeo Max soundbar. You’re nonetheless going to get pleasure from a far much less obtrusive presence with the Ambeo Plus and Sub than you’d expertise with the huge Ambeo Max dominating your lounge. Sennheiser has designed and delivered a unit designed to be an all-in-one residence leisure resolution for anybody who has deserted bodily media, and it’s a incredible possibility for anybody who’s on the lookout for one thing each easy and wonderful. You possibly can simply add bodily media like Blu-ray or CD to the equation with out a lot bother if these are nonetheless a part of your combine, however the Ambeo Soundbar Plus shines as a low-profile, great-sounding system for the digital media period.