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.
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.
Man I want to test out the dragon and the Shockwafe wireless so bad! But I've heard the Klipsch! That bar sounded REALLY good, but not clearly better than arc ultra. The Klipsch sub was definitely better than the sonos sub. But those surrounds are a joke. Truly disappointing that they launched such a good soundbar and such good subs w/ dual sub support, but gave absolutely no love to the surrounds. Rear surrounds is where Sonos pulls miles ahead because they aren't using little rear surround satellites like a lot of soundbar systems, but they're using the full wifi home speakers.
I've actually owned the sennheiser Ambeo max for a bit and while the sound is leaps and bounds better then most bars, you're fooling yourself if you think it's *better* than a system with GOOD dedicated rears. Anyone who says that is basing it off YouTube reviewers and has never heard it for themselves lol plus if you think sonos app issues are bad, I wouldn't touch Sennheiser bars with a footlong stick. SO many bugs and issues and even straight up hardware failures.
LOL I was thinking the same thing 😂😂 Always haters of every product though so nothing new. For what it's worth I have 17 Sonos products in my house and have virtually no issues.
I've never tested Bose out in my own room, so I can't compare. I have tested other flagship systems from LG, JBL, Onn, Vizio, and Samsung over the last 3 years.
My main Sonos setup is an arc ultra w/ dual subs and era 300s as rears, and it's absolutely unbelievable. Destroys everything else I tested. My second setup is a beam gen 2 w/ sub mini and era 100s, and I even prefer the way that sounds overall, especially for music.
Both these options have no DTS and no passthrough, so if the app does play nicely for you I don't think Bose has done enough to dethrone Sonos here. I guess that due to way less drivers in the main bar and no confirmed dual sub support yet.
At some point I hope I can test it out for myself, so if you are in the market that's what I suggest you do!
You may consider the Nakamichi shockwafe wireless, as it doesn't just support dual subs but *comes with it*, based off reviews has a better main bar than most every competitor, and great rear surrounds. And all for cheaper than both WITH DTS and pass through!
Top Soundbars on Reddit
1
Samsung
Q990F
77% positive of 600 users
Value for movies and easy setup, but music falls flat.
adamtc4
