Sennheiser Ambeo Plus review: Convincing virtual surround sound

Sennheiser has been a frontrunner in audio expertise since its founding in 1945. The corporate has developed generations of microphones and headphones which have turn into normal gear within the professional audio neighborhood, and, over the previous decade, they’ve invested tens of millions 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 client 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 review, printed previous to the identify change.

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

The Ambeo Soundbar Plus soundbar is a a lot sleeker, lower-profile unit that showcases Sennheiser’s audio processing prowess in a package deal that shall be extra engaging to clients 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 improbable sound, one benefit of the Ambeo Sub is that it mechanically pairs with the Ambeo Soundbar Plus while you flip it on. You should use the Soundbar Plus with any subwoofer you select through 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 authentic 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 substances that has no actual parallel out there.

By comparability, the Ambeo Soundbar Plus has a glance that’s way more according to 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 front room, with a small Sennheiser emblem, rounded corners, and a material grille. It’s the sort of design that doesn’t draw consideration to itself however seems 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 simple setup. You’ll additionally wish to obtain the Sennheiser Sensible Management app to your iOS or Android system.

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You should use the Ambeo Soundbar Plus as the middle of your private home 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 on your tv anchors the setup and might be the one one you want. The next hyperlink will let you know all about the differences 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.

Organising 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 Sensible 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. If you happen to’re the sort of one that will get a number of alerts from Amazon, you won’t wish to arrange Alexa. I acquired a number of package-delivery alerts whereas watching films 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. If you happen to use one other music service, the Ambeo Soundbar Plus helps AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. (Don’t miss TechHive’s suggestions of the best music-streaming services.)

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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 via 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 school 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 as if 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 happening within the heart of the display. 

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There’s a noticeable distinction if you happen to take away the Ambeo Sub from the equation. The digital {surround} sound expertise remains to be evident, nevertheless it’s far much less convincing with out the subwoofer in play. If you happen to’re principally watching sports activities and binging Netflix sequence, you in all probability gained’t miss the sub, however film followers ought to funds for including a sub to the setup.

Music sounds improbable via the soundbar, with stereo tracks blowing away what you’d get from a Sonos 5 (beforehand referred to 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 acquired entry to immersive audio through 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 Toes Excessive and Rising is lastly coming to streaming after many years of authorized points with its samples and shall be obtainable in Dolby Atmos through Apple Music. They’ve launched “The Magic Quantity” upfront of the album, and the Ambeo Soundbar Plus does a convincing job of matching the monitor’s sound placement when listening through 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 through Apple Music matched the expertise of enjoying a CD of the latest Sony remaster through my residence audio system.

Sennheiser’s distant management is a dud

Sennheiser has included its SB02-RC distant, which might be among the finest residence theater remotes I’ve ever used aside from one exceptionally bizarre design selection, which I’ll get to in a bit. The buttons are laid out properly, with loads of area 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.

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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 straightforward to determine 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 through the Sensible Management app. If you happen to ever need the virtualization processing turned off, use the Ambeo button to manage the setting.

The actual 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. If you happen to’re utilizing the Soundbar Plus for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Spotify/Tidal join, the “O” button performs or pauses your music stream. If you happen to 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 practically good.

Is the Sennheiser Ambeo Plus a superb worth?

Sennheiser is aiming for a candy spot that offers the very best audio expertise from a soundbar that’s as unobtrusive as attainable. 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 total array of audio system required for the really immersive expertise.

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

The expertise is considerably improved if you happen to add on a subwoofer, and the Sennheiser Ambeo is a superb selection although the mixed value of this soundbar and subwoofer is getting near the value of the really superb 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 large Ambeo Max dominating your front room. 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 improbable possibility for anybody who’s in search of one thing each easy and superb. You’ll be able to simply add bodily media like Blu-ray or CD to the equation with out a lot hassle 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.