When a brand with the reputation of Sennheiser seriously enters the soundbar manufacturing market, you know that this product market is already at a very mature and well-established stage. Certainly, when we talk about the Sennheiser Ambeo MAX and Ambeo Plus, we are talking about top soundbars in the market, although there are differences between them and considerations to take into account before purchasing either, which I will discuss in this analysis and comparison.
Sennheiser Ambeo MAX
Launched in 2019, the Sennheiser Ambeo MAX has been the undisputed queen of soundbars for years. If you’ve had the chance to listen to it in a demo at a store where it’s on display, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The sound that emerges from this bar is truly astonishing, a truly tremendous and mind-blowing thing; undoubtedly, one of the most incredible audio products I’ve had the chance to hear.
Basically, Sennheiser manages with the Ambeo MAX to emulate the sound of a high-end Home Cinema with a single soundbar, and by this, I mean a completely immersive sound, with a sensation of sounds playing from behind, to the sides, and above your head, just with the sound projected from the bar in front of you. It’s an absolutely beastly engineering achievement.
It is true that to achieve this, they had to design the largest soundbar on the market, with dimensions of 126 cm wide, 17.1 cm deep, and 12.5 cm high. A granite behemoth that is intimidating just to see and imagine how bulky it must be when placed on the TV stand.
The reason for this enormous size is that Sennheiser has packed the Ambeo MAX with a plethora of transducers: 6 woofers, 5 tweeters, and two full-range aerial projection drivers. A total of 13 drivers powered by class D amplifiers in a 5.1.4 channel configuration.
In addition to the quality of the drivers and amplifiers that Sennheiser uses in this bar, the German brand has also excelled in the software department, with 3D sound virtualization that generates a greater surround effect even without the need for more speakers. Truly, the Ambeo MAX is the bar with the best surround sound without surround speakers on the market.
But in addition, the sound is high fidelity, with perfect clarity and balance across all frequencies, allowing you to turn up the volume to tremendous levels without noticing a hint of distortion, and with bass that is unusual for a system without a dedicated subwoofer. The Sennheiser Ambeo MAX reaches 30Hz, which is extraordinary for a soundbar without an external subwoofer. All of this – the power, clarity, breadth, and fidelity of the sound – make the Ambeo MAX the soundbar with the best sound, redundancy aside. It is that clear, emphatic, and indisputable.
Logically, this comes at a cost, and if the Sennheiser Ambeo MAX is the best-sounding soundbar, it is also one of the most expensive, with a prohibitive price for most. To say something good in this regard: the bass is so good with just the bar that it is not necessary to buy an external subwoofer, although Sennheiser sells it for those who want to further perfect the sound. The subwoofer in question is the Ambeo Sub: it has an 8″ port with class D amplification and a power of 350W. As you can imagine, the punch and depth of bass that this sub achieves is tremendous, but the price of the bar plus the subwoofer already reaches, in my view, exaggerated levels.
Moreover, I think the charm of the Sennheiser Ambeo MAX lies precisely in being able to enjoy such a good sound with just one soundbar. Despite its extremely high price, the superlative sound quality of this bar, without the need for subwoofers or surround speakers, is what makes me include it among my recommended soundbars, even knowing that 99.9% of those visiting this website will find fantastic alternatives in those recommendations with much more reasonable prices.
Additionally, the Sennheiser Ambeo MAX has a serious drawback, stemming from the time it was released to the market. It has two HDMI ports, one eARC output and another HDMI 2.0 input, which only supports 4K up to 60Hz refresh rate. This forces gamers to connect their consoles to the TV, using it as a HUB and connecting the TV and bar through the HDMI eARC.
On the other hand, the Sennheiser Ambeo MAX plays Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and the lesser-known MPEG-H format. It also decodes Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Reality Audio, has Bluetooth 5.0, and with its WiFi, it connects to the Sennheiser app (Android and iOS) and is compatible with Apple’s Airplay 2, Chromecast, Spotify, and Tidal Connect.
Sennheiser Ambeo Plus
Aware that, as extraordinary as it is, few people would be able to afford the purchase of an Ambeo MAX, Sennheiser launched the Ambeo Plus model in 2022, a more economical alternative with a reduction in features, but maintaining enough quality to be considered a high-end bar among the best on the market.
The Ambeo Plus is considerably more compact, measuring 105 cm wide, 7.7 cm high, and 12 cm deep. Even so, only two drivers are lost along the way, and the Ambeo Plus houses 9 drivers powered by their corresponding class D amplifiers: 7 full-range transducers and two 4-inch subwoofers for a 7.1.4 channel configuration and an RMS power of 400W.
The use of full-range drivers decreases the sound quality, and the sound fidelity in this Ambeo Plus is not at the same level as in the Ambeo MAX. Neither is the depth of the bass, and despite having a dual dedicated subwoofer, the Ambeo Plus only goes down to about 38 Hz, falling short of its bigger sister. However, the surround effect is still spectacular, and Sennheiser further improved the sound virtualization in this model, managing to generate two additional channels from a single speaker, hence the channel specification in this Ambeo Plus has two more channels.
In any case, the Ambeo Plus is a step below the fabulous sound quality of the Ambeo MAX, but we are still talking about a soundbar of great sound quality, both for movies and series as well as for music, and with the advantage of being a more compact and much more economical bar.
Additionally, it maintains compatibility with all the formats that the Ambeo MAX already decoded, such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and MPEG-H, and all the connections of that one, among which we count HDMI eARC 2.1, two HDMI 2.0a inputs, optical digital audio port, 3.5 mm analog audio, and even RCA connectors. As for wireless connections, we have Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi.
