AMBEO Soundbar Plus for TV and Music with Immersive 3D Surround Sound, Virtual 7.1.4 Speaker Setup, Built-in Dual Subwoofers, Advanced Streaming Connectivity, Night Mode, Black

It is a soundbar, short in length and height with respectively tiny speakers. However, Sennheither, making use of audiophile quality of its headphones, was able to create an audiophile soundbar to my ears. They also have Max, which I also tried but I do not have enough space for it. In the same room with Plus I have my stereo bookshelves from PMC and I am OK with even stereo music from Ambeo Plus bar next to it for ambience sound. It is, in general in the same class of sounds to me. I also tried Sonos Arc with a sub and era 100 - it kis something that sounds very good but they are in a completely other family of sounds. I have a separate HT room with projector, and this bar is intended to be used in a family room with 55” lg oled tv, mostly for Amazon prime and Netflix watching. One wall of it is just windows from ceiling to floor with light curtains, the opposite wall does not exists - 2 entries to 2 stairways and to a kitchen, ceiling has a 0.34 slope, rather high, , then further away even more complex in geometry. So this soundbar, according to its full online manual should not produce a surround Dolby Atmos sound in this room (you need a shoe box, with no curtains, with bar to be centrally placed - not my case). But it does! And it is much better than wit Arc, era 100 and sub mini from Sonos. Much more spatial, thick, intense, and extremely natural. I use for my tests 4k dvds (streaming is principally worse, especially in sound ) No time to die , chapters 1 (ice cracking) and Chapter 7 - all of it from walking on the street to entering into the action room with sound coming from earpieces of mail characters to shooting scenes (showing a clear 7.1.4 setup with bullets landed clearly behind you) - all works great (and I also can compare it to my other full size audiophile 5.1.4 system with separates as electronics, I used to have 9.1.4 but 5.1.4 is far better sounding to me in my room). The other test was based on Netflix Aletered Carbon shooting scene in season 2, I thin episode 2 - also great. Chapter 14 of Dune Part 1 in a sand storm is outstanding - you are placed within a flyer's cabin and hear all the sounds coming from all around you very clearly positioned and highly refined soundstage - I use 4k dvd (on Netflix it is HD and 5.1? - not anywhere close in sound). In Dune the soundstage is really half of otherwise somewhat dull movie to me. The soundbar produced a very high volume of 3D sound, with no congestion with outstanding bass (its own). Sometimes I was forgetting that it is soundbar, and though I am in my HT room. I observed a clear 7.1.4 ambience soundstage on Underworld 4k discs in 5 movie collection (movie #4, for example) as well. Of course, it is soundbar and no sound comes directly from behind from a separate long term moving sources like a moving car (it works for shootings though great - see above) as you can get from the aforementioned Sonos Arc+era 100+ Sub Mini setup. But those are rather rare and often unnatural to me (what was that?) and this is the price to pay for a single item soundbar, which is perfect for my family room, where surround speakers look out of place and in a way... Again, the sound of Plus is principally better to me than the above Sonos set up. The sound soundstage of Ambeo Plus is very space filling, you sort of feel all of it in a naturally involving way, why with Sonos set up, it is not so such, comparatively. 'Blood coast" on Netflix stunned me when a rap music started in one of the episodes, it was so big and be so naturally present. I was stunned.. Don’t take me wrong - Sonos system is an outstanding choice #2 for me (especially with era 300s) but in a different way, you cannot really directly to compare these two. Technical comments: I tried first to connect Nvidia shield tv and 4k player to TV and by a single Supra 8k cable to the bar. And had some connection handshake problems - it felt like Ambeo is not on, turns itself off, but, in fact, it was soundbar Plus disconnected, and I was hearing TV speakers, turning on automatically when no soundbar is available. Then I added something on LG tv setup about enhancing 4k hdmi connection in an advanced settings and it worked ok. Now, following Sennheither manual I connect Nvidia and player to the bar directly instead. It works fine. Also, this bar seems to be a massive computer and turning on, restarting, turn on HDMI connections inputs takes some noticable time, you need to wait noticably longer than say wit sonos arc. It does note mean Plus is broken, just it's computer power seems slows things down quit a bit. I also used a 12” sub from Focal which resulted in a full size sound, even more of audiophile sound, but it was too much of excitement in a night watching in a family room. I set it to -10db. Yes, this bar has an audiophile level of available settings! Then I decided to just use the bass from Plus. Excellent - see above about Dune. For music, I use Roon with Supra cat8 cables and Nucleous for lossless streaming with stunning bass not unsimilar or my 12” sub. Say, sub mini sounds very nice but it is a different quality. Update: I added Ambeo sub - it is a new level of sound. Unlike Focal sub, Ambeo sub has integrated seamlessly, probably due to Sennheiser software code. It was a bit difficult to find the right spot and I ended up by putting it on a shelf far behind my seating position (further than tv in front) and above my head out of the way completely - it is light. The sub added a principally better surround soundstage of 7.1.4 setup and sort of removed all congestion from processing (which now vibrates less too). For example, watching Fool me once yesterday I clearly heard as a car drove around me and made some turns behind my back. The soundstage seems better with those small surround speakers like era100, when you hear the SPEAKERS and amazed. With Plus + sub you hear a movie scene around you. Also Ambeo Light setting is much better in my room. Regular increases the range quite to far, needs a bigger room to feel it with no problem. Update: I finally added a sub from Bowers and Wilkins asw608 on spikes. The Ambeo sub did not work for me, probably because it is upfiring and it has automatic setup only. I generally think that it is only a sub for a soundbar, with not really an audiphile sound quality, while asw608 is a Hi Fi quality sub with many controls, just for a smaller space. I added it also because when I add a sub on the Smart app to the soundbar, it turns on a crossover (even if there is no sub connected!) apparently at 80Hz, which IMMEDIATELY IMPROVES THE SPEECH QUALITY by far. Addition of ASW608 also dramatically removes sound congestion and respectively improves the 3D soundstage because no power is used to run internal subs and, in particular, this also reduces the bar’s vibrations. Another Update: I returned to Sennheiser Ambeo sub because it clearly provides much better immersion due it's special design as it is calibrated as one system with the bar. Other wired subs are not calibrated within this system. Only Ambeo sub. Negative is that Ambeo sub sometimes does sound clearly wrong on some movie soundtracks in some small places: can be too much on some songs in movies or it does some cracking noise/ nock occasionally. But over the immersion is stunning especially in terms of background sound like wind or waves on a boat in Road House. Technical comment: in my room I tried to put the sub at front and rear walls, and next to a sofa. All locations were very ineffective and did not do an immersion magic. Then, I put it half way next to a side wall and the soundstage became magical. The bass is extremely detailed and goes extremely low. Also, I did not really have connection problems with the bar, however it takes some time before it connects via eArc to my LG Oled TV. I did have a couple times when the bar refused to calibrate, in which cases I had to unplug it first. The Smart app also sometimes needed to be restarted. Highly recommended!

I'll start by stipulating that no soundbar can provide as immersive a sound as separate speakers. (Rumor has it that Sennheiser will in the future release wireless side and/or rear speakers to use with this soundbar.) Also, for the deepest bass, an additional subwoofer is helpful (Sennheiser offers a matched one separately), but the bar itself extends all but the lowest bass frequencies surprisingly well, so a subwoofer is not strictly necessary. The Ambeo Plus soundbar, when used on its own, produces excellent sound for movies, TV shows, and music -- and I'm picky about sound reproduction. I've appreciated Sennheiser headphones for years, and this bar is consistent with the brand's expected quality. I definitely couldn't justify the Ambeo Max soundbar because of its even larger size, weight, and cost, and also the Max probably would be overkill for my smallish TV room. Even the Plus version, much smaller than the Max, is quite heavy -- too heavy in fact for mounting even on a good mantel TV mount, so I keep it on a low table beneath, and slightly forward of the TV. The Plus's Ambeo virtualization is somewhat effective, but it's a far cry from properly placed physical speakers for multi-channel audio. However, natural-sounding reproduction is more important than immersion for my purposes. When I first plugged in the Plus, the unit sounded relatively flat and colorless, but after a few days' intensive use, the sound opened right up and became very noticeably better. This characteristic is not uncommon in other good speakers I've used in the past. Also, the room calibration does seem to work well, but I'd prefer to use an external microphone placed in a listening position rather than the internal mic of the Plus. Overall, I'm enjoying very satisfactory results from this product, and I highly recommend it.

Great product and definitely as advertised. One call out I would make though is that if you want quality sound for music or bass for movies, you need a sub. I ended up ordering the sub separately and it paired super easy. Once I did it’s a great set up. I would set expectations of “surround.” The “rears” sound like they are in the ceiling about 40 degrees up from my seating position. But that’s ok with me as I wasn’t expecting real surround. It does a nice job though for a single bar of speakers! It is a bit expensive though and I don’t know how it compares to less expensive products.

I’ll start by saying this soundbar is superb acoustically. Growing up in an audiophile(ish) household, I’ve always been taught that clean, powerful sound always trumps loud. You can push a clean sound far harder with better results than just making something loud. This soundbar has audio quality in spades. Fanstastic bright highs, clear full mids, and though the lows aren’t going to match what you can get out of a quality subwoofer, the two 4” drivers do a very nice job, especially if space is limited or you live in an apartment where neighbors might be a bit perturbed by your listening habits. Another review suggested giving this some time to open up to really get the full experience and range from it and it’s true. I believe the AMBEO algorithm is doing a lot of work to analyze the room for the best experience initially, so it errs on the side of caution until enough audio analysis is done to brighten the sound floor. The lows especially are noticeable as being lacking at first, but it’ll adjust and when it does, wow, very, very nice. Alright, that’s the positive. Here’s the negative. ***End your reading here if you just wanted to hear the good. If I could lace the rest of this with expletives, I would, because this has to be the worst experience I’ve ever had getting something A/V related to work properly.*** This is not necessarily Sennheiser’s fault, so take whatever with a grain of salt, but this is a complaint about the industry overall and unfortunately Sennheiser is going to get some flak from me. I have never had to restart things so many times in my life and I work in IT. The audio sounds fantastic when it’s in sync. Unfortunately, using eARC and CEC, this is a nightmare of an experience. The audio sync drifts within 30 seconds to nearly a 3 second audio delay near constantly. I have tried all manner of disabling and reenabling things from CEC, delaying audio on the TV, on the soundbar, changing cables (8K, eARC certified), rebooting the TV, game console (Xbox Series S), the soundbar itself, setting lip sync from auto to manual and back within the Sennheiser phone app, disabling Dolby Atmos in the TV, DTS:X on other devices, bypassing all the cool fun 3D audio functions, even resorting to using Toslink optical, and it just keeps coming back. The worst part is.. sometimes.. it works fine. That is seriously infuriating. I can’t troubleshoot something if I can’t reproduce the issue and reliably disable or enable something to fix it. If there was a single setting that when disabled or enabled, fix the whole thing, I would’ve found it. When I get to that moment where I have dialed it in and think I have it fixed, the next day, it’s like everything forgot what it was supposed to do. This is where my frustration lies. I’ve read up on CEC, eARC, and all of this extensively and it seems the consensus has come down to manufacturers just can’t get their act (that would be a far stronger word[s], trust me) together and continuously cause more user frustration than they’re helping. At least with Toslink, you plug it in and it works, but even that is failing here. This is a 1K+ soundbar. I’ve been waiting and saving to get this for over a year when I first saw reviews of it. And the thing is, I don’t want to get rid of it. It’s so very nice, it has everything I want and sounds fantastic. Why, then, are all of these issues coming up? Is it my TV? Maybe, but I don’t have thousands of dollars to throw at TVs just to see which one works with the soundbar. All of this is insane. Yeah, pretty lame to be complaining this much about a soundbar, but I’m not alone in my frustration and seriously, I researched what was supposed to be one of the best and paid serious cash to get it and this is the result. An endlessly frustrating experience. I mean, at least I can listen to Spotify on it, I guess. That works, sounds great. Sorry Sennheiser, don’t mean to 1 star you, but come on.

It's a huge upgrade compare to the Vizio I got at Tar-zhay. It has a lot of convenient features, including multiple connection types(1 HDMI out, 2 HDMI In, optical and RCA in, sub out) and plays pretty much any format you can think of including Dolby Atmos (hearing a dragon fly *above* me was impressive). It's all configurable from your phone using the Sennheiser Smart App. After setup, if you have Spotify on your phone, the speaker shows up as an output device. You will probably get a prompt to update the firmware for the soundbar from the app. It took about 10 minutes. I added a sub for extra bass. It's not cheap but I think it's worth it if space is an issue. UPDATE Nov 26th. It's still working well, but about once a month it seems to not activate- especially if I switched between sources.The solution is just to restart the speaker via the phone app.

Everything comes very well packaged, it's easy to setup, the app is friendly and easy to use, but I was NOT impressed with the subwoofer sound. My previous JBL SB 400 soundbar has a richer bass, more punch and fills the room with sound. I also have the Rybozen Wireless Microphone Karaoke Mixer System, which is connected to the SB400 via the optical port, but the Ambeo Soundbar didn't recognize it. I tried several times with various optical cables, and it just wouldn't work. My conclusion is that it's a very good soundbar, with good surround sound and very clear voice sound, but its bass is not what I expected. I will return and change for the JBL Bar 9.1

I used to have an AVR and 7.1 surround sound system. Had my Xbox series x, ps5, switch and turntable hooked up to my AVR along with a Sony 4K Bravia tv. This setup meant I had a ton of cables and wires — I wanted to simplify my life & I understood it might come at the cost of audio quality. The cool thing about the Sennheiser is it does indeed sound really good. I have a pretty large vinyl collection and I’m accustomed to some albums sounding a particular way — this soundbar, which isn’t ideal, did a decent job with everything I threw at it. I really appreciate that I’m able to hook my turntable up to it directly. The Ambeo also does a pretty good job with sound separation. I haven’t had many complaints with game or movie audio. Is it on par with my former 7.1 system? — no, it’s not, but by no means is it bad. Plus it’s loud. This soundbar more than adequately fills my living room with bright, clear sound. However — I have had non-stop compatibility issues with both the ps5 and my Bravia tv. Issues seem to revolve around earc. Had to turn off automatic audio switching functions in both the tv and ps5 — it’s kind of a pain. Things will work great for weeks at a time and then — for no rhyme or reason — I won’t get audio at all. Lots of rebooting and restarting. Sennheiser is VERY slow responding to support emails, and their advice is the usual trash response we’ve all come to expect — like unplugging the speaker & plugging it back in again….as if that’s not the first thing most people try. UPDATE: This week the Ambeo soundbar has decided to stop playing 3D sound. The Ambeo and Atmos lights are off, and the only thing I can do to get them back on is reset the soundbar. Sennheiser’s advice? “Try unplugging the soundbar, then plug it back in again” — so helpful. Unless you like constantly diagnosing problems I’d say avoid this soundbar.

Clarity on vocals is superb. Dolby Atmos is amazing that the sound comes from all directions. It is a little light on bass, but I really didn't expect thunder for two 4 inch subwoofers. For some reason, it likes to drop out whenever streaming for about 2 seconds on a random basis. This does not happen when watching anythin on my antenna so I'm planning on contacting Sennheiser to see if there is any resolution.

Excellent as a Soundbar. I thought it may replace the full Bose 900 system but it doesn't. Soundbar alone can't work as a full system yet. Movies sound is top notch, music is very good. Volume normalization is not working so expect to get different levels of sounds even from one source which is the only disadvantage.

El pedido llego muy rápido, es fácil de instalar y el sonido es super!! El que es un tanto complicado de inicio es el control remoto, pero se aprende rápido

Très bonne qualité sonore avec des basses de qualité. L’effet 7.1 est pas présent une barre de son unique ne peut remplacer plusieurs haut parleurs physiques, mais je ne voulais pas m’encombrer de branchement multiples.

Best all in one compact system period … The Only problem is heating and some minor glitches like temporary dropouts Otherwise it is superior in its kind and category

A great soundbar. Comes with a good remote but can be controlled by other remotes. Speech is clear and the app allows a fair amount of adjustment. While it can't put its Phantom speakers behind you the ones to the side work well in the average size room. The soundbar is big, so you do need some room under your TV. There is a good level of base from the 4 woofers but if you watch movies a lot I think the optional sub woofer is necessary.