Sennheiser - Ambeo Soundbar | Mini

He mentioned he didn’t want a sub. But I did order an open box sennheiser ambeo mini for 350ish plus the ambeo sub totaled about 1k. Come in tomorrow and plan to try it out for 60 days. My plan was to test this ambeo combo, Sonos beam + sub mini just under 1k and Klipsch flexus 200 + sub 100 for 600 for about 60 days and see which ones I like and return the other 2 before my 60 days

So far I do like the ambeo mini. I’ve watched a bit without the sub and gets deep enough and very clean. Even with the sub, it doesn’t get overwhelming or boomy but does have a rumble. I’ve watched a few episodes of American primeval without the sub and kept volume around 20%-35ish during the day. It’s pretty impressive and most likely to keep the soundbar and probably return the $600 sub. It definitely sounds better with it but not at that price point. If I can get it around 4-450ish, I’d grab it again. The soundbar alone, I would compare the clarity to the paired OG HomePods I have in another smaller room but this is louder, deeper and overall just better. It’s not like other soundbars where you have deeper bass and lose that clean sound. I’d imagine both soundbar and sub will get better over time once it breaks the break-in period. I was hoping to grab the Klipsch flexus 200 but it’s been out of stock. It’s bigger and cheaper but have read that it’s pretty boomy by itself. Not an expert with sound and I’ve only had it a few days so take it with a grain of salt.

Interested in this too, I've also been looking at the Bose Smart soundbar but leaning more towards the Sennheiser Ambeo mini, currently £329

I'll assume you're talking about the Beam 2 as similarly priced I have a small lounge and thin walls so don't want a sub, and don't really have the space for rear speakers, so don't need to buy into the whole Sonos speakers everywhere thing. Plus if I did that it would be cheaper to buy a proper receiver and speaker package From reviews the Ambeo has better sound than the Beam. I also don't have any Apple products so can't set up the trueplay on a Sonos which it needs to get the best out of it. But the main thing is the Beam doesn't have Bluetooth, which would be used from other devices, music from phone etc

You would have to check the soundbar specs before purchasing. You should do so no matter what to ensure compatibility with your equipment. I'm guessing you haven't purchased a soundbar yet. My Ambeo mini doesn't have one but my Sonos Beam does.

Best Buy just had the Sennheiser Ambeo mini on sale for $399, normally $799. Very good

If you don't need rears, Ambeo mini for a small to medium size room. I have had mine for 3 months without any issues.

I sold my Beam for an Ambeo mini, the mini is the bar better sounding bar and gets down to about 45HZ, so doesn't need a sub, unless you are a mass bass head. Lol. Also has 4 band EQ, so you can tweak the sound to suit your preference a lot more than Sonos.

Hi, I have the Ambeo Mini, cause it's in a smaller room. Sound will be room dependant' but keeping that in mind, here's my settings. I have the Ambeo mode set to medium, the middle tick box ticked. Sorry I am not at home now, so can't get the proper terminology. EQ, Foundation is set to ;-1DB, the second slider at ;;-0,5DB the third at 2DB and the forth slider at 0,5DB. This works for me and my specific room.

Stand alone Sennheiser Ambeo mini in the sun room and Q990D in the living room and both with a little EQ are quite good for music. At least to my ears and I am quite picky about sound.

Ambeo Mini, the bass is incredible on there even without a subwoofer

As someone who used to be an installer for GeekSquad, and went through numerous soundbars to find the one that works best for me, I never liked Samsung soundbars. Their competitors have better sound to my ears, even the standalone all-in-one options. With that said, I do understand why so many people went the Samsung route. It’s simply the best value PERIOD. This is very unfortunate for movie/music lovers and I hope the issues get resolved quickly. Edit: A couple of people have asked what I recommend. My recommendations will be from my own personal experiences having owned these soundbars for 6+ months. I’ll give pros & cons: My first recommendation would be the Sony Theater Quads, ESPECIALLY if paired with a Sony high end/OLED TV. What drew me to it was Sony’s Center Sync V2. I tested the Sony HT-A9’s when it first came out in 2021, and DID NOT like it. It sounded fine when watching movies through BluRay but not streaming. You had to turn it up quite a lot for it to come alive and even then it sounded distorted, thin, and the phantom center channel was just so weak. Couldn’t hear anything no matter what sound preset I had it on. Also it had sound drop outs regularly. Everything I didn’t like about the HT-A9’s was drastically approved upon with the Theater Quads. Convincing enough phantom center channel (even though I use center sync), and sounds great when streaming & watching BluRays. Only cons are the subwoofer options as they don’t get low enough for good clean bass, MSRP, and some people might not have the space to get the FL/FR speakers as far apart as recommended (8ft+). If you can find a good enough deal on these with a good return window, TRY THEM! Sennheiser Ambeo Max, Plus, & Mini. I put all of these in one category because of the Ambeo 3D technology baked into each one. It’s simply in a class of its own. You have to hear it in your environment to make you a believer. Atmos is very convincing & EQ is customizable. It’s simply in a class of its own. I love Sennheiser’s consumer division, especially before being sold to sonova hearing. Only cons are the center channel failure that’s been reported from some owners, heard that could possibly be fixed with a cooling fan, HDMI handshake issues, occasional disconnection, and again MSRP. Each one can be found heavily reduced in price open box at Best Buy, and second hand on EBay. I’ve experienced the disconnects, a simple power cycle always fixed it. I loved the sound enough to deal with that. Any Sonos 5.X.X/7.X.X configuration because before the app went to shit, they were honestly the most positively reviewed soundbar for good reason. For so many it just worked. One of the best soundbar subwoofers. Small customizable EQ, can be found second hand at reasonable prices, of course it’s within reason because of its resale value. Cons no DTS-HD support for BluRay movies. Good alternatives through word of mouth I haven’t tried: Klipsch new Flexus soundbars with different configurations, Polk Magnifi MAX AX, Bose Ultra Smart, and Nakamichi Dragon (way too expensive for a soundbar in my opinion though). There was much more I wanted to add in the text, I feel like this is already too long. And there are more lower end soundbars that I think that could be worth a try from LG, Vizio, TCL, etc. But like I said before Samsung definitely was the best value. Good luck, and I’m hoping for a good turnaround for you guys!

I recently experienced the sennheiser ambeo and sennheiser ambeo mini. Though above that price range they both are amazing.

I recently experienced the sennheiser ambeo and sennheiser ambeo mini. Though above that price range they both are amazing.

Expensive but worth it. He'll want a sub I'm sure.

Ambeo is the best! Great sound and it comes in 3 sizes Max, Plus and Mini. From Sennheiser! Oh yeah!

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

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 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!

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:)

If music is your main concern I’d recommend maybe a 2.1 system over a soundbar. If you really want a soundbar then Sonos arc ultra or a ambeo is probably better than the Samsung. Samsung would be a better choice for movies / tv but lack in the music area

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

Sennheiser Ambeo. Has largest speakers of any sound bar, giving out the best high quality full sound.

I used to have a 7.2 surround sound system. The ambeo is less surround but the audio quality is superior especially with dialogue. Wish they’d release rear speakers.

I first tried Ambeo, but I wanted rear speakers and sub so went with the Samsung flag ship; very good. But the Ambeo was ridiculously impressive as a bar alone. There is a high end coming out this year, but can’t remember which manufacturer. Also super interested in the Sony quad but haven’t listened to them

Strictly sound wise the Ambeo is miles ahead, I only got a demo in Best Buy but I got a demo and it definitely sounds amazing, better than the Beam 2 & even the Arc. However I have read a ton of issues with Sennheiser like HDMI-CEC issues, apparently overheating issues too, who knows what else. So that alone makes me unfortunately skip Sennheiser, hopefully they release a new soundbar soon cause I guarantee it's going to be amazing! If you are mainly a music listener and are okay with not having the ability to connect to the TV for a little while, I would recommend starting with the Era 100's + sub mini, then getting the Arc (or Arc ultra if you want) when you can afford it. I say this because I started with Sonos with my Beam 2 + Sub Mini setup. I eventually bought 1 Era 100 open box to test it and it sounded absolutely incredible! Few days later I grabbed a 2nd one and ran 2 Era 100's in stereo + Sub Mini. It was an absolutely amazing system for music!! And the fact that 2 Era 100's was the same price as the Beam 2, and had such a different and better sound was just shocking. With that discovery I started trying to find an Arc but I will admit I was nervous from my experience with the Beam. However it was definitely not disappointing and I felt worth the price (I got mine open box so it was a bit cheaper). It blew my mind how much better the difference between the Sonos Beam 2 and Arc. The Arc + Era 100's + Sub Mini was such a solid & balanced system. Or another route I would go is with Bose. I had the Bose Smart 600 (which is now the Bose Smart Soundbar) + BM700. This system was a little brighter, cleaner & more detailed than the Arc was. The subwoofer was a fuckin monster!! Very deep bass, extreme amount of power available. Hell I miss that set up to this day and that was over a year ago, but I made money off it since I bought everything open box and resold it for more. One last option I'd suggest looking into is the new Marshal Heston 120 + Heston Sub. It looks absolutely incredible and It's currently my pick for my next soundbar system if I end up choosing to upgrade from my Flexus Core system. I think it has humongous potential to be a top tier soundbar. I'm waiting for more reviews to come out (specifically NeverEnoughTech) before selling my setup and committing to that Marshal system, but it's more than likely going to happen. Sorry for writing a huge essay but I get very thorough with soundbar/speaker talk 😂

I have the Sony HT-A9 with the sub and it's been amazing. Had the sonos arc and one's as surrounds, and a sub; also tried Ambeo that shit is massive but excellent also. Ultimately went with the Sony since my partner wanted to be able to play Bluetooth occasionally and didn't wanna tinker with having to download sonos app, etc. I had a Samsung HW-Q950A too but ultimately resold it, and had intentions of trying Nakamichi but returned it unopened and stuck with HT-A9. Occasional glitches like once every 6 months if that so have to run the Optimizer stuff. I've loooved it! Going on 3 yrs now having mine. The price went down some, and just keep an eye on bestbuy open box for the sub, i got the SA-W5.