Sennheiser - AMBEO Soundbar | Max 5.1.4 Channel with Dolby Atmos/DTS:X - Black

I have been looking for a soundbar for sometime to replace my receiver setup because of space constraints and heat production. I read tons of reviews on soundbars. Like most of them you take them at face value and make your own mind up. Well after reading quite a few on this soundbar I'd say their right on the money. I was highly resistant to this one because of the price, but I took the plunge and now don't regret it. This is an awesome piece of AV equipment sounds excellent and has some descent bass to it also. But like most of the reviews you would read about the bass, it's a personal preference on how much you want. Well I wanted more and paired it up with a REL HT/1205 Subwoofer that I already had and WOW, WOW. I'm extremely happy with my purchase despite it's hefty price tag. Very well built and the app is very easy to use for setup and soundbar settings. Only other area of concern was the height of the unit. I had to use a TV riser to raise my TV up 5" to clear the bottom of the TV.

This soundbar has really impressed me with the sound quality and immersion. I bought it to replace my aging surround sound system which consisted of a receiver and a 7.1 speaker setup. I choose the Ambeo Max cause I wanted something which could truly fill the room with sound, and so far I've been very happy with switch. It really does sound awesome. The Ambeo effect, which is customizable, is really cool and is especially impressive when watching Atmos content. I would say compared with my old setup, this sounds more cohesive - more like an overall soundfield rather than sound coming from a series of distinct speakers. I appreciate that it can do this by itself, without multiple separate speakers. Regarding bass: I have been happy with the level of bass and bass response in music, movies, and games. I love that it has an output for a sub - I still have my old dedicated sub and I'll probably end up hooking it up to see the difference. I would say try it without a sub to see how you like it, if you think you need more bass, you can always add one later. One small thing I like is the little screen in the front. Much easier to read when changing inputs or sound mode than a series of dots or something behind a mesh. Right now I have my Xbox Series X plugged into the Soundbar, then the soundbar to the TV. The TV and Xbox say it's passing through 4K HDR and Dolby Vision. Setup was a bit tricky/wonky at first between with the app and is probably the only con. I plugged the soundbar into a lan internet connection and that helped it to pull down the update. After that it's connectivity has worked great. I'll also mention that with my 2017 TV (arc, not earc) I sometimes have to be careful in the order in which devices are turned on/off otherwise there won't be any sound/picture. Also, this is a big, heavy unit. Make sure you have space for it and possibly some help maneuvering it into place. Temporarily I've placed my TV stand legs on 2x4s to lift it up, in the future I will wall mount the TV.

I'm an apartment dweller and don't want to clutter the room so bought this as I did not want to take out my stereo speakers all the time for watching movies. The stereo speakers are perfectlyl capable of filling up my room with sound but I have to usually pull them out from back wall when I use them hence I needed something that was always usable and gave similar performance or better. Turns out the Ambeo works better than my stereo for Atmos and Movies. Soundstage seems more like 180Degrees and in my room, sounds better in midfield position. I have a wall on left side and don't have continuous wall on right side so i get pretty good surround on left side. In the Jack Reacher Car chase, I was hearing cars screeching on the left side of the room. more @ 150 degree angle. I don't get any sound over my head but I do get overhead sound in front of me. The atmos effects did manage to project sound overhead from left/right falling just short in front of me but again my room is not perfect for reflections esp on right. I'm very happy with it so far. For movies, I mostly used ambeo boost mode and bump up the midrange in the equalizer to as the effects tend to be just as strong as the vocal in that mode. I believe bass is good, infact I have to bring it down by 1to2db so that I don't disturb my neighbors but ofcourse you can add a sub if you need. Also the ambeo boost mode sounded great with Youtube Live Music. Just use the Equalizer to tailor it to what you prefer. Although the ambeo mode gives good enough 3d sound and soundstage and instrument separation in music, it's not perfect and definitely good stereo speakers like adam a7x, kef ls50 and other good stereo speakers/monitors. But in the end the soundbar does movies better in ambeo boost mode than my stereo speaker and manage to fill up my room with the effects so pretty sweet and satisfying although leaves a huge hole in my pocket.

I've had the AMBEO for about two years, and I wanted to get my thoughts out in a review. This thing rocks, but has some serious annoyances. First, the pros: Sound quality - I'm not an audiophile, so I'm not gonna quantify this with words. However, the sound is excellent, and brings my games/movies/music to life. Bass - The bass is strong with this one. Is it inferior to a standalone subwoofer? Yes. However, you have the choice of adding one if you prefer. I live in a condo, so I kept it subwoofer free for my neighbor's sanity. Size - I know it's one massive 40 pound bar, but it's still way smaller/cleaner than a traditional surround sound system. It goes a long way in keeping your entertainment area clutter free. Mixed: The AMBEO effect - The surround sound effect does work, but you need a perfect room with rectangular walls to receive the full effect. For example, my living space has a flat wall on the right, so the surround sound is absolutely UNCANNY there. The left, though, extends off into a kitchen/dining area. Not as many perpendicular walls for the audio to bounce off, so the effect is weaker and more diluted on that side. Definitely think about your room setup before you buy this. It can be the difference between an excellent experience VS a poor one. Cons: Jank - I've had this soundbar freeze on me, to the point that I can't even power it off and on. Only way to fix it is with a power cycle. Happens once a month, just enough to be a nuisance. Wi-fi reliability - every 3-4 months, this thing will disconnect from my home network and refuse to reconnect. Sometimes a simple router/soundbar reset will fix it, sometimes I really need to go digging. If that's the case, it's a 30-45 minute experience in frustration. Reliance on app - 80% of the functionality of the soundbar, including fine-tuning the audio and most soundbar settings, is built into the app. Therefore when the wifi breaks or the app glitches out, the show stops until you can get it working again. Final verdict: Solid hardware, but lots of bugs and jank and connectivity issues that makes it painfully obvious that this thing has teething issues. Frankly, I've owned it for 2 years, and even after multiple firmware updates, these problems still occur. Without any software issues, this soundbar is tremendous. It's worth the asking price. However, we don't live in that world. I'd still recommend this AMBEO, but only after a deep, DEEP discount.

My initial “out of the box” thoughts on the Sennheiser Ambeo: 1.) I think it can hardly be called a “sound bar”, it’s huge and weights 41lbs. I even had to raise the height of my TV on the stand because the soundbar is 6” tall. 2.) It rivals audio quality from almost any home system I have ever personally heard. No other single soundbar even comes close. I think adding an additional subwoofer would be best for me because I love over the top base at times. However, it really blew me away as a single unit. That would ideally add an additional $500-$1000 however for something of similar quality (thinking one from SVS). 3.) Dolby Atmos sound is incredible, but “other” processed codec is far less impressive due to an absence of dedicated rear channel speakers with their physical location behind you. The Ambeo engine does do a really nice job of simulating 3D spatial sounds however. It can be a pain to find rear channel speaker locations with power readily available in the ideal speaker location. 4.) Is it worth $2700 with tax? I’m not sure. I will continue to use it for a week or so and then decide to keep or return and try something else. 5.) Reported lip sync issues seem to be fixed with firmware upgrades. There is also an adjustment within the Sennheiser App to address this issue if it still exist. 6.) I still need to test this on my LG GX OLED. There have been some reported issues with eARC with this unit. 7.) Finally, stop reading negative reviews and just test myself and enjoy.