A soundbar is a lovely different to a full-blown outboard speaker system. It presents higher sound high quality than a TV’s built-in audio, and it’s far more handy to arrange and use. On the opposite hand, a soundbar can’t reproduce a completely directional encompass or immersive soundfield like a system with separate audio system situated across the listening space.
Or can it? That’s the aim Sennheiser set for itself with its Ambeo Soundbar. This high-end behemoth sits close to the highest of the soundbar worth vary and claims to breed a digital 5.1.4 immersive soundfield—a declare that has some benefit, although it by no means fooled me into considering I used to be listening to an precise immersive multi-speaker system.
Ambeo characteristic set
The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar is very large, measuring about 50x5x7 inches (WxHxD) and weighing virtually 41 kilos. It sports activities a complete of 13 speaker drivers—six 4-inch long-throw, cellulose-sandwich cone woofers, 5 1-inch aluminum-dome tweeters (two of which fireplace to the edges at an angle), and two upfiring 3.5-inch full-range drivers powered by a complete of 500 watts. The frequency response is claimed to increase from 30Hz to 20kHz (-3dB).
A complete of 13 drivers embody 9 that fireplace ahead, two that fireplace to the edges at an angle, and two that fireplace upward (not seen right here as a result of their grilles haven’t been eliminated on this picture).
So, how does a single soundbar—even such a big one—simulate the impact of a 5.1.4 speaker system? In this case, it makes use of all these drivers and a few critical DSP to direct the encompass and overhead channels to the room’s partitions and ceiling, the place they’re mirrored towards the listening space. According to Sennheiser, the impact is greatest if the partitions and ceiling are not more than 5 meters (about 16 toes) from the soundbar; in any other case, the mirrored sound could be noticeably delayed.
To accomplish this feat of virtualization, the Ambeo Soundbar have to be calibrated to the room by which it is going to be used. In addition to the soundbar itself, the package deal features a 28-inch-tall, free-standing calibration microphone hooked up to its personal heavy base and a protracted cable that connects to the entrance of the soundbar. To calibrate the unit, you place the mic so its prime is at ear peak within the listening place and maintain the Ambeo button on the distant or the highest of the unit. The soundbar performs a collection of sweeping tones after which calibrates the DSP based mostly on what the microphone picks up from reflections within the room.
Physical inputs on the again embody three HDMI 2.0a ports (18Gbps), one ethernet port, one Toslink optical port, and one pair of RCA analog-audio jacks in addition to a 2.5mm microphone enter on the entrance for the calibration mic. It additionally offers a number of wi-fi inputs, together with Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac). Finally, it has Google Chromecast inbuilt, and it may possibly be a part of a UPnP media community. Outputs embody one HDMI 2.1 port with eARC and a subwoofer pre-out with an RCA connector. A USB port helps service and firmware updates however not media playback from storage units.
SennheiserThe soundbar’s rear-panel connections embody (L-R): stereo analog-audio enter, subwoofer line output, Toslink digital-audio enter, three HDMI 2.0a inputs, one HDMI 2.1 output with eARC, ethernet port, USB port for service and firmware updates, and AC energy receptacle. An built-in cable tie retains the cables tidy.
The Ambeo Soundbar can decode a variety of audio codecs, together with nearly all types of Dolby (together with Dolby Atmos) and DTS (together with DTS:X and DTS 96/24). Other supported codecs embody DSD (the format used with SACD discs) and MPEG-H, a comparatively new codec supposed to be used with next-generation TV broadcasting by way of ATSC 3.0. It may upmix stereo and 5.1 content material into a completely immersive soundfield.
You can have interaction the Ambeo virtualization with three depth ranges (Light, Standard, Boost), and you’ll reduce or increase 4 bands of EQ by as much as ±10dB. Of course, you may disable it altogether as effectively. The soundbar additionally presents 5 preset sound modes: Movie, Music, News, Sports, and Neutral. In addition, it presents a Night mode that compresses the dynamic vary so you may hear every thing with out having to crank it up and probably disturb others attempting to sleep within the subsequent room.
If the audio is in one of many Dolby codecs, the Ambeo Soundbar can make the most of Dolby Virtualizer, by which case the Ambeo 3D audio impact is disabled. It additionally presents Dolby Dynamic Range Control (DRC) with three totally different settings (Auto, Normal, Heavy) and dialog normalization. If the audio a DTS bitstream, you may set DRC to any worth from 0 to 100 p.c and increase dialog as much as 6dB. These and most different controls are discovered within the Sennheiser Smart Control app (extra in a second).
Of course, you may place the soundbar on a credenza or different floor, and it comes with protecting toes you may set up if you want. You may wall-mount it with an optionally available {hardware} equipment. Keep in thoughts, nevertheless, that it’s 5 inches tall, so the underside of the TV must be no less than that far above the floor the place the soundbar sits.
SennheiserThe controls on prime of the soundbar embody (L-R): mute, quantity up, quantity down, Ambeo on/off, multifunction, supply choice, and energy on/off. The NFC antenna is situated between the supply and energy buttons. If you don’t have an NFC-capable system, you provoke Bluetooth pairing by holding the multifunction and Source buttons.
Ambeo person interface
The entrance of the soundbar sports activities an OLED show with an ambient-light sensor and standing LED within the heart. An LED-illuminated Ambeo badge on the right-hand facet of the cupboard lights up when the virtualization is engaged. Fortunately, you may management the brightness of the show and Ambeo indicator utilizing the Smart Control app.
On the highest of the soundbar are a number of fundamental management buttons, together with energy on/off, supply choice, Ambeo on/off, quantity up/down, and mute. A multifunction button enables you to management playback of music information—press as soon as to play or pause, press twice to skip to the following observe, press 3 times to skip to the earlier observe. Pressing the multifunction and supply buttons collectively for 2 seconds places the soundbar in Bluetooth-pairing mode. If the system helps NFC pairing, you may merely maintain the system near the NFC emblem on the soundbar and they’re going to pair robotically.
The slender distant is blessedly easy, with solely 14 well-separated buttons. Naturally, there are buttons for energy on/off button, Ambeo on/off, and mute on/off in addition to the identical multifunction button as discovered on the unit itself. The supply up/down and quantity up/down buttons are barely contoured (up is convex, down is concave), making them very simple to seek out by really feel. The 5 sound modes and night time mode have their very own devoted buttons, which is nice, although all of them really feel the identical, and with out illumination, it’s a must to memorize the place they’re to alter modes at midnight.
SennheiserThe distant is small and easy, with well-separated buttons which can be simple to seek out by really feel. I want the mode buttons on the backside have been illuminated; it’s troublesome to recollect which is which at midnight.
As you would possibly count on, Sennheiser’s Smart Control app presents essentially the most management choices. Of course, you may energy the soundbar on and off, management the amount, choose inputs and sound modes, and interact and disengage the Ambeo impact and Night mode. In addition, the app lets you choose the energy of the Ambeo impact and regulate the 4-band EQ in addition to rename the inputs. You may management the brightness of the show and Ambeo LED manually or set it to robotically regulate in line with the quantity of ambient mild within the room. As talked about earlier, the Dolby and DTS DRC and dialog controls can be found within the app as effectively. Even higher, you may specify that your settings are remembered for every enter in addition to whether or not or not the soundbar performs audible cues for numerous actions.
Overall, the app is designed fairly effectively. The fundamental controls are discovered on the house display screen, whereas the Ambeo energy and EQ controls are two ranges into the Acoustical Settings; they are often adjusted and saved individually for every sound mode, which could be very good. All different controls are discovered within the Device Settings, that are organized pretty intuitively.
Scott Wilkinson / IDGSennheiser’s Smart Control app presents a number of management over the Ambeo Soundbar, together with fundamental settings on the house display screen (left), totally different ranges of virtualization and a 4-band EQ, and extra system settings than can slot in a single display screen.
Ambeo efficiency
I positioned the Ambeo Soundbar on a small desk in entrance of my Sony 65A1E OLED TV; fortuitously, the desk is simply low sufficient so the soundbar didn’t block any of the display screen once I was seated in my regular chair. The room is nearly solely rectangular with commonplace drywall, although there’s an open closet to the suitable of the seating space, and one of many tools racks is in opposition to the wall subsequent to the closet. There are some cabinets of Blu-rays to the left of the seating space.
Next, I arrange the calibration microphone at ear peak in my chair, related it to the soundbar, and ran the calibration routine. It performs a set of sweeping check tones, after which the DSP processes these measurements. As I listened to the sweeps, I used to be notably impressed with the low-frequency output.
Unfortunately, the calibration failed, even after repeated makes an attempt. A Sennheiser rep steered that I cycle the AC energy by unplugging the unit for 15 minutes, then plugging it again in and attempting once more. Sadly, that didn’t work, in order that they despatched me one other calibration microphone, which labored the primary time.
I related three supply units to the HDMI inputs—a Dish Hopper 3 satellite tv for pc receiver, a Roku Ultra 4K streamer, and an Oppo UDP-203 UHD Blu-ray participant—utilizing 18Gbps cables. I additionally related the soundbar’s HDMI output to the calibrated HDMI enter on the TV.
SennheiserThe Sennheiser Ambeo will be wall mounted beneath your TV utilizing an optionally available equipment.
Each time I turned on the soundbar, it switched to the HDMI TV (eARC) enter. Unfortunately, I can discover no management within the app that allows you to specify which enter it ought to choose at energy up. According to Sennheiser, the soundbar ought to robotically choose the latest lively enter, however even once I powered up one of many supply units final, the soundbar’s enter remained on HDMI TV, so I needed to manually change to the specified enter each time. I want the app included a setting that allows you to specify one thing like “stay on the input selected at last power down” or “always select HDMI X when powering up.”
Another operational drawback was that the app misplaced its connection to the soundbar after my cellphone went to sleep. When I woke it up and went to the app, it was now not related, and I needed to manually reconnect, which bought tiresome after some time.
I began my formal analysis by taking part in the 5.1.4 check tones—pink noise, truly—from the Dolby Atmos demo Blu-ray. Of course, the entrance LCR channels got here from the place they have been speculated to, however the encompass and overhead channels have been additionally in entrance of me. The encompass channels have been farther to the edges than the entrance LR channels, however they didn’t seem to come back from the edges of the room. The overhead channels gave the impression to be coming from the upfiring audio system within the soundbar, not from the ceiling.
The helicopter and 747 takeoff demos from the Dolby Atmos disc sounded about the identical—solely in entrance of me with some width and peak within the soundstage. The rainstorm demo, nevertheless, was far more efficient; the sound of the rain truly gave the impression to be coming from overhead, particularly the upper frequencies.
I in contrast the Ambeo impact with Dolby Virtualization through the rainstorm demo, and located that Ambeo was far more efficient. Dolby Virtualization rendered the sound extra within the entrance of the room with a considerably smaller soundstage.
Next, I performed a few of the quick Atmos demos with video. In all circumstances, overhead sounds with excessive frequencies appeared to come back from overhead, and the width of the soundstage was excellent, although I heard nothing from the place precise encompass audio system could be. The Horizon demo features a aircraft flying over from again to entrance, however your complete sound got here from the entrance. On the plus facet, low frequencies have been notably spectacular.
SennheiserThe peak of your ceiling, the form of your room, and the furnishings contained in the room will all have an effect on the Ambeo’s efficiency.
Of the musical choices on the demo disc, I particularly just like the Atmos mixture of “Bailando” by Enrique Inglesias. As rendered by the Ambeo Soundbar, the soundstage was fairly large with some overhead high-frequency sounds, and the bass sounded nice. Likewise, the soundstage on Cappella SF’s recording of “Dance,” from Invocation and Dance by David Conte, prolonged effectively past the soundbar’s bodily cupboard with some high-frequency percussion overhead however not so far as the edges of the room subsequent to me.