TechFirst look: Sennheiser’s first soundbar

Masters of microphones and headphones, Sennheiser has now entered the soundbar market with a seriously impressive piece of kit. Only five prototypes of the new Ambeo exist and EDGAR had a sneak preview at a demo event in Dubai.

Three years in development, the surprisingly large Ambeo is worth the wait. “It’s been a long time coming so when it did arrive, it had to be ground-breaking,” says Heston Saldanha, Sennheiser’s Middle East chief.

Scenes from Everest and Game of Thrones, indie music by Darlingside, action from a Star Wars: Battlefront video game, as well as a rainstorm soundtrack boomed out of the Ambeo’s 13 drivers, filling the room to the left, right, front and upwards with luxurious, immersive, deep bass.

At one point we actually felt like we were next to Ser Davos in the middle of the Battle of Blackwater getting blown to bits by wildfire.

Rather like a good Premier League midfielder, the Ambeo is aware of the space around it. It comes with an external microphone which, when plugged into the Ambeo and the ‘calibrate’ button is pushed, measures the sound reflection vertically and horizontally, effectively gauging the size of the room it’s in and adjusting the frequency of the sound it needs to produce to fill the space. Clever stuff.

Sennheiser estimates the Ambeo will arrive in the Middle East at the end of summer with an approximate price tag of AED 10,000. If it puts you in the middle of an episode of Game of Thrones, the price tag could be worth it.