In May, we’ll see the true sound-king, Sennheiser, launch its first commercial soundbar called the Ambeo Soundbar. Although this might sound like the ideal time to get your credit card ready, wait until you find out what this piece of audio tech costs…
The Ambeo Soundbar will deliver virtual surround sound in a 5.1.4 configuration, using something the company calls a ‘ 3D spatial experience’. According to Sennheiser, it reads the size of a room and its reflective surfaces, and adapts the acoustics accordingly. We’ll need to get our hands on a testing unit to see exactly how this works.
On the internal side, the soundbar is made up of 13 drivers — six 4in woofers, five 1in tweeters, and two 3.5in top-firing speakers. It also has a microphone on board, and this is the thing that ‘reads’ and ‘measures’ the room and adjusts playback to properly place each speaker channel around you.
It’s also compatible with Dolby Atmos, and it supports streaming content over Bluetooth and Google Cast. You’ll also be able to control the soundbar’s settings from a mobile app appropriately called Sennheiser Smart Control.
Although we know the name from its studio-quality headphones, Sennheiser hasn’t really entered the consumer soundbar space before this, but we’re excited to see what the Ambeo offers. The only downside? It’s priced at $2,500 (around R36,000), which does place it in the only-for-deep-pockets category. Of course, debt might look more appealing once we’ve actually gotten to test out one of these babies. They should be coming in May. Our ears will be ready.
Source: Sennheiser
