
Samsung
Q990F
Value for movies and easy setup, but music falls flat.

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Ambeo plus or max and you can use any sub you want. Had mine with an SVS and the sound was fantastic.
I owned the plus not the max. But the plus was great so max should be awesome.
Well, there's not much space between the cabinet and the televisionset. So, not much choose. Could you place it on the wall, just so you have a little more space, then i can recommend the Sennheiser Ambeo Max. Wonderful sound.
Sennheiser ambeo max. I have had mine for 5 years and I absolutely love it. Paired with an svs subwoofer. I think it sounds amazing.
Buy a used ambeo max pro from Amazon for 1500. That’s what I did 3 years ago and it’s been great
Ambeo max is 40% off at 1700 I have one and have no regrets, need to get a sub tho
You're not alone. I got mine last week and it is very underwhelming. It's still a decent system for what it is but I think if you've experienced better you'll have a hard time adjusting to this. Most people who get it haven't necessarily (or maybe they just have a much smaller room where imo this could shine a lot more). I had an ambeo max in my other place and set this one up in my current one for a while and it's not been great. I do plan on treating my room a bit more but yeah rears are underwhelming and overall surround feels okay. No real wow factor. The ambeo max even without rears blows this out of the water no contest. But given the price range this one is in, it's still decent for what it offers.
Ambeo Max. Hands down
I'll be the dissenting opinion. I have an ambeo max back in my primary place and recently picked up a q990f for a different living room. The first thing me and my family noticed was that dialogue felt a bit muffled out of the box. Now part of this I'm pretty sure is due to the lack of any treatment in our room but overtime it didn't change much. A few settings here or there can be adjusted to help a smidge. It's not bad at all and I've enjoyed most media I've watched through this. But it's very easy to pick up on if you're coming from better systems and it can be a touch annoying in some cases. I don't think it's as bad as the reviewer makes it out to be for sure as dialogue is usually fine but it's not as good as several people are saying in this thread.
I was on my 3rd Sennheiser Ambeo, all of them bit the dust; First one had audio dropping out and crackling, second one had a literal puff of smoke when the center channel went out, and most recent one was failed boot loader message scrolling on the front display (inoperable). Factoring in the cost to replace and the experience I’ve had since I bought the original one in 2019, I didn’t want another one.
Just the issues I mentioned above, mostly. The first 2 I had creaked quite a bit in use (the chassis) but the 3rd not so much, and I didn’t have connectivity issues for HDMI, sub, or airplay. The HDMI ins are old (not 2.1) for the Ambeo, and the most annoying regular issue was it would freeze up every 2-3 weeks requiring a hard restart. Since there is no switch that physically cuts the power and the power cable is hard to access on the Ambeo, it was easiest to reach behind the tv stand to physically unplug and plug back in.

Samsung
Q990F
Value for movies and easy setup, but music falls flat.

Sonos
Beam (Gen 2)
Compact value, but virtual Atmos and app issues.

Sonos
Arc Ultra
Immersive Atmos and bass, but pricey and poor for music.

Samsung
HW-Q990D
Powerful, immersive value, but poor music and buggy software.

Samsung
Q930F
Strong value for movies, but music and HDMI 2.0 limit.

Ranked #1
Sonos - Beam (Gen 2)

Ranked #1
Samsung - Q990F

Ranked #1
Sonos - Arc Ultra

Ranked #1
Sonos - Playbar

Ranked #1
Sonos - Arc Ultra