Sennheiser AMBEO Mini Soundbar & Sub Review

The Sennheiser AMBEO Mini Soundbar and Sub are compact components that deliver big expansive sound. Whether playing music or movies, they punch far above their weight class in both size and price. For $1,400, you get a soundbar and wireless sub that’s easy to set up with a free app. Room calibration creates a completely convincing surround effect that includes support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

When soundbars first appeared, they were simple components with a collection of drivers and integrated amplifiers built into a slim and wide cabinet that fit below your flat panel. They were a great way to upgrade your TV sound without putting speakers all around the room. And they were often better than cheap home-theater-in-a-box products.

Today’s soundbars are more sophisticated with support for the latest object-oriented formats and the ability to simply hook up to your display with a single HDMI cable. Wireless tech means they can play music via Bluetooth or AirPlay and connect to an outboard subwoofer.

Sennheiser is a storied brand with a long list of quality audio products that sell for reasonable prices. They are firm supporters of a positive price/performance ratio. My review subject here is their new AMBEO Mini Soundbar with accompanying subwoofer. It’s a small and elegant solution for users looking for better sound without a lot of fuss. Let’s take a look.

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I don’t normally write about a product’s unboxing experience unless it’s annoying. But in the Sennheiser AMBEO Mini Soundbar’s case, I have to award major kudos. Not only is beautifully packaged and easy to extract, but there is also literally not an ounce of plastic anywhere. Aside from the thin film bits protecting the corners of the soundbar, it and the subwoofer are entirely protected by molded cardboard and paper wrap. You can thank Germany’s incredibly strict commercial packaging laws for this. It is truly a step in the right direction for our planet.

A few handy drawings on the inside of the boxes show what parts are where and how to get started with setup. Aside from the bar and sub, I found a gorgeous remote, a thick power cord, an HDMI cable, and well-written printed instructions for setup.

The AMBEO Mini Soundbar is just shy of 28 inches wide, so its moniker is appropriate. There are six cellulose cone drivers in total. Two four-inch woofers fire upwards and four 1.6” full-range cones fire forward and to the sides. All are active, each with its own Class D amplifier delivering 250 watts of total power.

The AMBEO Sub is relatively small with a single eight-inch cellulose cone driven by a 350-watt Class D amplifier. It wirelessly connects to AMBEO soundbars and includes a mono RCA input so you can use it with other components if you wish.

The AMBEO Soundbar’s physical appearance is one of premium style with a fabric grill that completely encircles the bar and wraps over the top. The top plate has a glowing status bar that shows volume level and other information by lighting up at different widths. Touch-sensitive controls include volume and source selection. The sub is a tall, squared cylinder with gently rounded corners. It’s easy to hide behind a couch and only needs to be near a power outlet. It activates automatically once paired with the soundbar and needs no further attention once installed.

The star here, at least in my opinion, is Sennheiser’s room correction which comes with the Smart Control app. The bar has four integrated far-field microphones for this, and the calibration takes about three minutes to complete. All you have to do is press start in the app and it runs hands-off. The app also lets you pick from different sound programs, update firmware, and connect the sub.

The AMBEO includes a very high-quality remote. It’s small but has more heft than you’d expect. It isn’t backlit but it has such a quality look and feel, that I’ll forgive that omission. With it, you can control volume, select a sound field effect, and change sources. As nice as it is, I found myself barely using it. My phone or watch was the volume and transport control while the app was handy for switching AMBEO programs.

Like most soundbars today, the AMBEO supports eARC for easy one-cable connection to compatible displays. Additional inputs are wireless and include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Spotify, Tidal, Alexa, and Chromecast. The sound programs are tailored for movies, music, news, and ambient or neutral presentations and have distinct and clear differences. More on that later.

Physical installation of the AMBEO Mini Soundbar and Sub was a simple matter. The bar and sub both need nearby power. If you’re connecting to a display, the included HDMI cable goes from the bar’s single input to the eARC port on your TV. I downloaded the Smart Control app, and it found the Soundbar right away. Of course, the first thing it did was to update the firmware. This took about 10 minutes and was the only hitch in the process. It froze once requiring an app restart. But after that, it never faltered. I connected the sub next, and it updated that firmware too, without issue.

I played a few tracks just to make sure everything was working before running the room correction. I ran it from the app but you can also start it by holding down the volume + and – buttons on the remote for three seconds. The app told me to sit quietly, and it would take about three minutes which it did. The bar and sub played sweeps, not unlike those I’ve heard from Audyssey and others. It wasn’t super loud which was refreshing. Once complete, I was able to try out a few demos in the app. I was frankly blown away by how much larger the sound bar seemed, and how convincing the surround effect was. One of the demos was encoded in Dolby Atmos and it played sounds that seemed to come from overhead.

AirPlay setup was seamless as well. I just clicked on it in the app settings, and it found my iPhone 12 without issue or delay. I was playing music within a minute. Volume can be controlled in the app, with the phone’s buttons, or from the remote. Honestly, as nice as the remote is, the app is the easiest way to manage everything.

Audio components like the AMBEO Mini Soundbar can do far more than just pair with a TV. There is no reason why it can’t be “the stereo.” In the age of streaming and wireless, there is little need for CD players or radios when everything can be streamed from the internet or a local music library. I use iTunes for all my listening these days. The majority of the music is lossless CD rips and since the AMBEO supports AirPlay, there is no loss in quality. The music streams over Wi-Fi with no compression.

The first question I asked the AMBEO was, “Can you rock?” To this end, I played tracks from Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape and Five Finger Death Punch’s American Capitalist. The answer is yes, to a point. Foo Fighters classic grunge sound is a perfect fit. The soundbar plays super clean and was loud enough to fill my 12 by 14-foot theater with crystal clear sound. Detail abounded in the highs and midrange. I would characterize the sound as somewhat British, it reminded me of B&W’s mid-priced speaker offerings. Bass was present but polite, more than enough for Foo Fighters but not quite the slam needed for Five Finger Death Punch. Their vocals and guitars sounded superb, but the punch-in- the-face style of their music wasn’t quite there. The AMBEO’s clarity maintained a good level of engagement but if you want ear-splitting metal, one of Sennheiser’s larger soundbars would likely be a better choice.

The Beatles’ Abbey Road was also ideally suited to the AMBEO. Vocals were crisp and full, with plenty of dynamic range. Clarity was equal in the loudest and softest parts of the music. Detail rendering never wavered at any volume. I could turn down the soundbar to a background level and still hear every nuance. The group’s classic Sixties British Guitar Distortion was especially tasty. I felt as though their amps were right in front of me and I could hear the grills rattling.

Turning to classical music, I went for a few bassoon selections from Judith LeClair, Sophie Dervaux, and Valeri Popov. Starting with Ms. LeClair, the longtime principal bassoon of the New York Philharmonic, has a sound that is tremendously bright and forward with a lot of audible partials. Her performance of Telemann’s Quartet in D is one of my favorites. The AMBEO put her sound behind the oboe and flute which is likely accurate for how the musicians sat on the stage but the soundbar was a little too good at rendering the liveliness of the space they were in. I tried the different AMBEO effects and found neutral worked best. It removed some of the reverb which put the instruments on a more even plane.

Sophie Dervaux, principal bassoon of the Vienna Philharmonic, has a much darker sound that is more of the European style. Her performance of Roger Boutry’s Interferences is bombastic in a good way. The piece pounds itself out like a tribal ritual. Dervaux captures its percussive feel and the AMBEO produced it faithfully.

In Valeri Popov’s performance of Gubaidulina’s Duo Sonata for Two Bassoons, his tone quality is somewhere between the American and European styles. In simple terms, he’s darker than LeClair and brighter than Dervaux. The extended techniques used in this piece were clearly rendered with flutter tonguing, multiphonics, and quarter tones coming to the fore.

For the full orchestral experience, I turned to the San Francisco Symphony’s Grammy-winning Mahler set and the Fifth Symphony. The AMBEO had no problem differentiating a stage full of instruments with strings up front, woodwinds in the center, and brass in the back. Clarity was the star yet again. And again, I wished for the larger soundbar. I could turn the volume up all the way without distortion and it was just loud enough for my moderately sized room.

To try out the AMBEO Soundbar with movies, I moved it into the living room and connected it to an LG OLED TV. The bar was connected to the TV’s HDMI eARC port, with the Apple TV and Oppo Ultra HD Blu- ray player hooked up to the TV.

Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part 1 is a great example of Dolby Atmos’ capabilities with almost non-stop action. The AMBEO sub was present throughout but a bit polite. It’s clear to be sure but it won’t quite shake the walls. It is very accurate though. I could easily hear subtle frequency changes; it was far from one-note. Dialog was crystal clear and firmly centered. The surround effects were frankly amazing. The envelope made it to the sides, behind, and even overhead. The AMBEO soundbar is one of the better examples I’ve heard for object-oriented audio. The only thing I wished for was more volume. My living room is a bit too large for the mini version of the AMBEO. But even at full volume, it remained distortion-free.

I also tried a few episodes of Star Wars: Rebels streamed from Disney+. The Dolby Digital soundtrack was very effective and again, the AMBEO rendered a completely convincing surround envelope. Bass was present and a definite enhancement, but I wished for a bit more. If I were to buy an AMBEO, I’d get the larger model and two of the subs. Like Mission Impossible, dialog, and frontal sounds were extremely clear and precisely placed.

During all my listening and viewing sessions, I tried the different AMBEO programs. They are on the app’s home screen as well as on the remote via dedicated keys. “Movie” was the best all-around choice. For TV content as well as rock and orchestra music, it provided the greatest sense of space. For more intimate music like the bassoon selections, “Music” or “Neutral” provided better focus and detail. “Adaptive” and “Music” sounded much the same to me, but your mileage may vary. It’s important to run the room correction every time you make a physical change to your room or the soundbar’s location. I also noted that each program allows you to tweak a four-band eq and set light, normal, or boost options which subtly alter the mid-bass frequencies.

I found out when I was nearly done with this review that the sub’s volume can be adjusted in the Smart Control app. I went back and listened to a few selections again to see if I could get more bass impact and I was mostly successful. I still recommend two subs for larger rooms but if you’re a basshead, there is more volume available. The sub plays without distortion even when turned all the way up.

The Sennheiser AMBEO Mini Soundbar and Sub “level up” your TV sound and is a capable audio system for less money than an AV receiver.

Aside from my wish for more volume and bass slam, the AMBEO Mini Soundbar and Sub proved themselves to be premium audio components for a reasonable price. They uphold Sennheiser’s principle of delivering a lot of performance and quality for the money. The setup is super easy with the Smart Control app and operation is equally convenient and free of drama. I just picked the AMBEO from my list of AirPlay devices and played music. Though a quality remote is included, it’s not necessary. Smart Control is one of the best apps I’ve used with any product. The AMBEO room correction is also extremely well done. It takes just a few minutes, and the result is completely believable surround and overhead sound. The bar is small but the sound is big. The sub is a must if you want good bass. It too is very clean and precise.

If you’re looking to uplevel your TV sound and buy a component that can serve all your audio needs, the Sennheiser AMBEO Mini Soundbar and Sub are definitely worth checking out.