Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus – Immersive 3D Surround Sound, Virtual 7.1.4 Speaker Setup, Built-In 4 Dual Subwoofers, Alexa Built-In And Dolby Atmos, 2 Years Warranty

Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus – 7.1.4 Immersive Soundbar with Built-In Subwoofers

The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus recreates a 7.1.4 home theatre from a single bar. Its AMBEO virtualisation technology, developed with the Fraunhofer IIS Institute, uses nine drivers in front, side and up-firing positions to place sound around and above the listener, and an automated self-calibration system measures the room and adapts the effect to the actual space rather than an idealised one.

The Plus is the more compact of Sennheiser’s two AMBEO bars, distinct from the larger original AMBEO Soundbar (often called the Max). It keeps the immersive format support and room calibration while fitting under most televisions at just over a metre wide and 6.3 kg. Two built-in 4-inch woofers mean it works as a complete system on its own, with the option of adding wireless AMBEO Subs later.

Key features

• AMBEO virtualisation recreating a 7.1.4 layout from one soundbar
• Nine drivers: seven 2-inch aluminium full-range drivers and two 4-inch cellulose woofers
• 400 W RMS total from nine Class D amplifiers
• Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, MPEG-H and 360 Reality Audio support
• Automated self-calibration using four built-in microphones
• HDMI eARC plus two HDMI inputs, optical and analogue inputs
• AirPlay 2, Chromecast built-in, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Bluetooth
• Alexa built in, with Google Home and Apple HomeKit compatibility

How the 7.1.4 effect is built

Three of the full-range drivers fire forward for the front left, right and centre channels, one at each end fires outward for the surround channels, and two fire upward, reflecting height effects from the ceiling. The two woofers handle the low-frequency channel. AMBEO processing combines these paths with the room measurements taken during calibration to position sounds in a three-dimensional field, and it can also upmix ordinary stereo content into that field. Three virtualisation levels (Light, Standard and Boost) let the listener choose how pronounced the effect should be, and voice enhancement and night modes adjust dialogue clarity and dynamic range for everyday television.

Formats, connections and streaming

The bar decodes the immersive formats used by film and music services: Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, MPEG-H and Sony 360 Reality Audio. Its HDMI output with eARC connects to the television for full-quality audio return, and two HDMI 2.0a inputs accept sources such as a disc player or games console directly. Optical and stereo RCA inputs cover older equipment, and a mono RCA subwoofer pre-out allows a wired sub. For music, the AMBEO OS platform provides AirPlay 2, Chromecast built-in, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, UPnP and Bluetooth, controlled through the Sennheiser Smart Control app, a web interface, the supplied remote or voice assistants.

Adding bass, and living with it

The built-in dual woofers give the Plus a rated response down to 38 Hz, respectable for a single bar. Where a room or a taste for film soundtracks demands more, up to four Sennheiser AMBEO Subs can be connected wirelessly and calibrated individually as a multi-sub array. The bar measures 1051 x 121 x 77 mm, so it sits on a TV stand or wall-mounts beneath a screen without the depth and weight of the larger AMBEO model. Firmware updates arrive through AMBEO OS, keeping format support and features current.

Who it suits

The AMBEO Soundbar Plus is aimed at viewers who want genuine immersive audio without running speaker cable or finding floor space for separate surround speakers: apartments, living rooms with clean layouts and bedrooms with large screens. It concentrates cost into processing, calibration and a complete driver array rather than a room full of boxes.

Set up with its calibration run in the actual room and connected over eARC, it delivers a convincing sense of height and surround movement for films, and a full streaming music system for everything else the television room is used for.