Sennheiser - Ambeo Soundbar

The Sennheiser is amazing. Was blown away by their “live” sound vs the Sonos Arc.

Forget Sony. The question that really arises is Sonos Arc Ultra or Ambeo Plus? I have the opportunity to listen to both (I have the arc ultra + era300 in surround at home). The ambeo is better than the arc ultra in bar alone and in a small room, however impossible to add surround, and that clearly makes the difference! That's why I went to Sonos and I don't regret it at all!

I’ve had the sennheiser ambeo, Bose smart ultra, and the Samsung q800, in that order. First two were returned for connectivity issues with my newish Samsung tv. The q800 has been great (the ambeo probably had the best surround but only if it connected). Q symphony is amazing. With the first two bars, you could clearly tell the sound was coming from below the TV… q symphony fixes that completely. And the subwoofer is amazing.

I have the arc ultra and sounds great with the bar alone. I plan to add a sub later on. I also tested out the Ambeo Plus bar alone and it sounds quite rich in clarity. I was close to buying it instead.

Definitely haven't seen any other soundbars that use a crossover of 150hz or higher. The majority are set between 60-100hz. Sonos arc on its own plays down to 55hz, the ultra goes down to 45hz. Ambeo plus will do 55hz, Ambeo max 30hz. Bravia 8/9 55hz, Bravia quads 50hz. Bose bars will do 50hz, Hisense bars 50hz etc. The lowest one of the lot is the Devialet Dione which does 24hz and one of the bars you could potentially get away without a subwoofer, although a separate one will always be miles better. Ideally you wouldn't want to go above 120hz on a subwoofer as it starts to become too localised when you go above it. Obviously running dual subs or more will help correct this which 150hz then wouldn't be a problem. Anything much higher though are you are going to end up getting sounds coming out of the subs which ideally should be coming out of the soundbar/speakers instead. Placement is also key and can make all the difference, so get on those knees and do the sub crawl if you don't have any room correction software / software built directly into the subs themselves 😅

I have the bigger brother of the Mini and it does provide a high degree of clarity. One of the reasons I bought it was the fact that I can add a third party subwoofer. Also, note that the surround effect isn't as encompassing as a full fledged 5.1.2/7.1.4 system. This'll work best in a smaller room that doesn't have vaulted ceilings.

Gotta be the Arc Ultra or the Ambeo if that's what you're looking for. Arc Ultra gets pretty low - i think 40hz by itself.

The ambeo sounds better than the beam but the ambeo doesn’t have rear speakers and that’s why the beam and 100s will sound better!

Ambeo plus is an excellent bar but it doesn’t have the option for future rear speakers just so you know. If you’re okay with that, then it’s close between it and the arc ultra, but you can add a aftermarket sub in the future and it also has dts:x which Sonos doesn’t. Probably a better choice but it’s close. Ambeo makes good soundbars so good luck. I think it comes with a 2 year warranty instead of the usual one year warranty that most come with, but I could be wrong. Still a solid choice

Hey folks, curious about this soundbar. I currently have an Ambeo, as it seemed the best at the time, and my living room is very limiting in terms of space and placement. I cannot really install individual speakers, and even the space for the soundbar is quite limited. I've seen some mixed feedback on XIO vs Ambeo, and I'm not convinced it's worth the switch. I was hoping to revive the living space by better quality music reproduction. One grudge I have with Ambeo is that sometimes it freezes and doesn't allow streaming until I unplug from mains and back. I use Kef reference 1 in my office/listening room, and I find them some of the best, so I'm a bit drawn to the brand. With movies I almost always listen on minimal volume not to disturb my kids sleeping, so I don't realize the potential of Ambeo. Do you think switching ambeo to XIO could bring some benefits, especially for stereo music?

I went to the local hifi store and had a chat about this with the owner. He bluntly said that Ambeo is hard to beat, the devialet in his opinion is worse, but he didn't get the chance to listen to XIO. So I made up my mind to keep Ambeo until I move to a place with a well sized living room that accommodates proper speakers:)

The Ambeo is not tiny at all. You can also add any sub you want if you want more bass.

Q990D is the most affordable option among the high end soundbars. I would say go for it, and your room size is likely not too small for a soundbar system like that (as soundbars are mostly designed for smaller spaces). I have had $2500 soundbar systems like the Ambeo and Sony Quad with my good ol’ LG C1. It’s not uncommon for sound systems to be more expensive than the TV (though for me the TV was more expensive since it’s an 83’’)