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

I purchased the Ambeo after a lot of soul searching, review reading, and nervous sweat. After all, spending $2500 on a single component and then needing to drop an additional sum on a subwoofer is no easy decision. I read reviews that said the Ambeo was amazing in a home theater setting, and others that said it just wasn't as good at home theater as the Samsung HW soundbars with their additional satellite speakers, much less a dedicated Atmos setup with discrete speakers and home theater receiver. Some reviews said the Ambeo sounded great with music; others said that music was 'harsh' sounding or just didn't sound good. With all these varied reviews, how does one pull the trigger on something that is pretty pricey? Here's what I needed in a soundbar: 1) It needed to sound good with music. I've had dedicated integrated amplifiers with B & W speakers, so I've become picky when it comes to stereo music. 2) I wanted it to be capable of playing music from Roon. For those of you who don't know Roon, it is a specialized music library software that brings all your music from Tidal, Qobuz, and personal drives together and organizes it for listening. Only certain devices are Roon Ready or Tested, and it's been tough to find a soundbar that has this ability. 3) I need a soundbar with an aux input so I can feed it a signal from my Technics SL1200 and DJ ART phono preamp. I prefer actual L/R RCA cables versus a headphone plug. Hard to find a soundbar with this option! 4) I needed it to sound good with Atmos surround, without the need for all sorts of cables, wires, and speakers. I have limited room and my room is far from optimal with an open floor plan on one side. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a soundbar that meets those four requirements. Most met only two. I had the Samsung HW-Q90R, and while it sounded great with music and movies, there is no aux input and no Roon ability (as well as requiring rear speakers to sound its best). The Sony HTST 5000 had an aux input but the sound quality was only so-so for me. The LG SN11RG got loud and proud, with an aux input, but sounded harsh and also needed rear speakers to sound good. When I first saw the Ambeo, I scoffed at its high price. When I include in the $800 price tag for the Martin Logan sub I have, you're looking at $3500 for the package. But, the result of this pairing? Audio nirvana. The Ambeo has a RCA L/R input that I can run my turntable into. It is Chromecast ready, so I can cast music from Roon. Music, with the Ambeo Music function engaged, is three-dimensional and has great height and width. It sounds very close to a nice, budget audiophile stereo system. It has three HDMI inputs so I don't have to run everything into the back of my TV. It sounds shockingly good with surround sound material including Atmos encoded movies. In summary, it ticked all my boxes. Listening to Captain Fantastic and the Dirt Brown Cowboy on 180 gram vinyl through the Technics and DJ Art preamp fed into the aux inputs with Ambeo Music reveals the Ambeo's musicality. Instruments are spread out in their distinct locations, while Elton's piano is dead center as well as his voice. The final track on this album, Curtains, has a closely miked drum kit with a ton of tom work. The thumps of the toms were realistic and exciting. Using Roon and listening to Tool's Undertow album fed via Chromecast to the Ambeo (again with the Ambeo Music setting engaged) revealed the Ambeo's ability to get loud. Danny Carey's drum kit was distinct, and the growl of the bass and shriek of the guitars was immaculate while not fatiguing. I've watched a handful of movies, and come away feeling like I'm not missing anything over a dedicated 5.1.4 setup. Riddick has a scene where rain starts falling on the building that the group is huddled in before getting attacked by a bunch of really crazy looking creatures with scorpion-like tails and giant jaws. The rain sounded like it was coming from directly above me, and at all times I was surrounded by a distinct sound field that really surprised me. I thought that with my open floor plan enveloping surround sound would not be possible with the Ambeo. I was wrong. I don't find myself wanting when it comes to surround sound. The Ambeo comes with a calibration microphone to help it achieve the amazing sound. It also calibrates the sub while its at it. The remote is nice and heavy. Everything about the Ambeo shouts high quality. When I brought the Ambeo home, I hoped I would hate it. I hoped that I would take a listen and then take it back. How could I pay so much for just this one component of my home theater? In conclusion, it has been worth it. Gone are all the speakers, speaker cables, and different wires needed to power a discrete setup. Now, all I have is the Ambeo and a sub. My place looks so clean and organized! Ambeo made it possible. What a piece of audiophile equipment this is!

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.

Love it! It’s a beast, it’s a little heavy because it’s all in one surround sound.

I have been an audiophile for years. Have a system built around Magnepans. It begins to be a money pit. Especially with technology changing so rapidly. I bought the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar for a high end/simple setup in another theater room and it was the cheapest way to replicate being in a movie theater. Of course, I output to a REL subwoofer. But so nice to have all of this in 1 soundbar and no preamp/amp/receiver/7 speakers and a sub to deal with. Don't get me wrong, each end user has their preferences for Movies/TV/Music/Sports, but life is short. Hooking up the Sennheiser was easy. Calibration is amazing. And it took very little effort from me. The Ambeo even tells you to get out of the way during calibration. I would recommend getting a high end Blu-ray player that decodes Dolby Vision and Atmos. I bought 3 OLED TV's in 2018 and please don't get too in the weeds with the eARC vs. ARC debate. It sounds great on just ARC. Then on a high-end Blu-ray player that splits the audio/video, you will get amazing picture and sound on another source anyway. But all in all, above my expectations. Well done Sennheiser!

I had a fantastic home theater syste, moved and started over. I bought this sound bar to "simplify" and replace all of the wiring, receiver, subwoofer, tower speakers and atmos speakers. I expected a lot less from this one sound bar. But... I have to admit, it is almost as good as having all of the above equipment. Once set up in your home (simply done) is complete, the sound is incredible. The bass is plenty for watching movies, the atmos and rear projecting sounds are very good and the voices are clear. Overall - expensive as far as soundbars go but less than buying the home theater sound piecemeal. I tried Samsung and Yamaha and this soundbar is waaay better.

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.

I purchased the Ambeo when it was in sale and can safely say it is the best sounding soundbar I have owned. Dialogue is crisp and clean with ambient effects from the surround speakers bouncing off the walls as expected. I was hesitant to purchase a soundbar without a subwoofer or rear speakers, but have been blown away by how the device performs. I may add a subwoofer down the line, but for now it has exceeded my expectations.

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.