Sennheiser's Ambeo 3D Soundbar makes me want a soundbar

[Shawn Knight]

One of the many joys of moving out of an apartment and into my own home was being able to revive my home entertainment system. You see, I foolishly purchased a receiver, two bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer right after college but immediately received noise complaints when I tried to use the system. The only workaround was to turn the bass all the way down and disconnect the sub which sat in the closet for nearly a decade.

The fully assembled system is more than capable although after seeing Sennheiser’s new Ambeo 3D Soundbar at CES this week, I suddenly feel the upgrade bug creeping in.

As the name suggests, Sennheiser’s new soundbar features the company’s Ambeo 3D audio technology (virtual surround sound). It features a whopping 13 speakers – six four-inch woofers, five tweeters and two top-mounted speakers – that bounce audio off the walls and fine-tune the experience for believable surround sound.

The soundbar will have the option to add a sub but according to first-hand reports, it’s really not needed. Sennheiser says the system will include three HDMI inputs, one HDMI output and inputs for both analog and optical. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will play a role in wireless connectivity, we’re told. Personally, it just looks badass and I’d love to own it.

Sennheiser isn’t yet discussing pricing or availability although hopefully, audiophiles won’t have to wait much longer for those details.

Lead image via Digital Trends, follow-up courtesy Gizmodo

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72737-sennheiser-ambeo-3d-soundbar-makes-want-soundbar.html

 

[Cubi Dorf]

I wonder what are the spec for harmonic distortion, signal to noise ratio, frequency response, and output power.

 

[Evernessince]

"audiophiles won’t have to wait much longer for those details."

Soundbars were never intended for audiophiles who want the best of the best, they were designed as a compromise for people with less space. Bouncing audio off the wall won't be as good as a true surround sound system.

 

[nnguy2]

Am I the only one that never even remotely experienced "virtual surround" sound out of a sound bar? I like all I got was bad stereo and bad imaging

 

[tipstir]

Looks impressive, but I would have to past on this. I am old school. I rather spend the money amp, power active sub, and left and right front speakers, center channel and left and right channels and extra wide left and right channels for 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. Trying to save up for Dolby Atmos Experience installing 4 additional speakers on the ceiling giving me 12 speakers instead of the current 8. I've always been into surround sound since building my own matrix surround system. I have a few 5.1 systems one DSP from Pioneer a two 7.1 from SONY. These boom bars are for people who doesn't want to use power amp and many speakers like I do. They call that the one solution. Some of my older 5.1 gave me the option to use either 4 ohm or 8 ohm speakers. I use mostly 8 ohm here. I am looking forward to get Dolby Atmos Amp.

 

[Lionvibez]

"audiophiles won’t have to wait much longer for those details."

Soundbars were never intended for audiophiles who want the best of the best, they were designed as a compromise for people with less space. Bouncing audio off the wall won't be as good as a true surround sound system.

This a sound bar will never replace or beat a full dedicated system.

 

[Evernessince]

Looks impressive, but I would have to past on this. I am old school. I rather spend the money amp, power active sub, and left and right front speakers, center channel and left and right channels and extra wide left and right channels for 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. Trying to save up for Dolby Atmos Experience installing 4 additional speakers on the ceiling giving me 12 speakers instead of the current 8. I've always been into surround sound since building my own matrix surround system. I have a few 5.1 systems one DSP from Pioneer a two 7.1 from SONY. These boom bars are for people who doesn't want to use power amp and many speakers like I do. They call that the one solution. Some of my older 5.1 gave me the option to use either 4 ohm or 8 ohm speakers. I use mostly 8 ohm here. I am looking forward to get Dolby Atmos Amp.

Dolby Atmos is really great, you'll enjoy it when you get your system setup. There are even some games that support the tech, like overwatch.

 

[wiyosaya]

"audiophiles won’t have to wait much longer for those details."

Soundbars were never intended for audiophiles who want the best of the best, they were designed as a compromise for people with less space. Bouncing audio off the wall won't be as good as a true surround sound system.

This! And I would not be surprised if for the price of this, better speakers might be bought, and perhaps a lower-end AV receiver that can do things like DTS-X or Dolby Atmos that can produce the equivalent sounds without extra speakers in the mix.

A local AV dealer told me that they do not like to sell TVs with soundbars especially when the sound bar costs more than an equivalent set of better speakers.

Personally, looks would be the last thing driving my purchase of something like this.