AMBEO Soundbar Max

Overview

AMBEO Soundbar Max is the large Sennheiser soundbar released in 2019; it was sold as the AMBEO Soundbar until Sennheiser renamed it in 2022, when the AMBEO Soundbar Plus arrived. It is 1265 mm wide, 135 mm high and 171 mm deep (including feet) and weighs about 18.5 kg. Sennheiser describes a brushed aluminium exterior. A wall mount (SB01-WM) is an optional accessory.

Sennheiser lists 13 drivers, 13 class D amplifiers and 500 W of total peak power: six 4-inch long-throw woofers, five 1-inch tweeters and two 3.5-inch top-facing full-range drivers. Sennheiser says the bar reaches 30 Hz without an extra subwoofer.

The TV connects over HDMI eARC. Three HDMI inputs, an optical input, a stereo RCA analog input, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 (with NFC pairing) are also on board, plus a subwoofer pre-out. Over the network it supports AirPlay 2, Chromecast built-in, Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect. The box includes the HDMI cable, a remote control with its battery, the room calibration microphone, the power cord and the manual.

You control it with the buttons on the bar, the included remote, the TV remote over HDMI CEC, or the Sennheiser Smart Control app for iOS and Android. It has no built-in voice assistant.

What the specs mean

• 5.1.4 speaker setup: five main channels, one subwoofer channel and four height channels. Sennheiser creates them with its AMBEO virtualization, developed with Fraunhofer, which uses reflections off the walls to place virtual speakers around the room instead of separate speakers. Sennheiser says its upmix turns stereo and 5.1 content into 3D sound.
• HDMI eARC: the enhanced Audio Return Channel sends the TV's sound to the soundbar over one HDMI cable, including high-bitrate formats such as Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos and uncompressed multichannel audio.
• HDMI passthrough: a console or streaming box can plug into one of the three HDMI inputs; the bar passes up to 4K at 60 Hz with Dolby Vision through to the TV, with HDCP 2.2 copy protection.
• Audio formats: Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, DTS:X, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES, DTS, MPEG-H 3D Audio, Sony 360 Reality Audio, LPCM 2ch and multichannel PCM.
• Room correction: the included calibration microphone plugs into the bar; Sennheiser says the calibration captures the room's characteristics and reflective surfaces and adapts the 3D sound to them.
• Expandability: the AMBEO Sub subwoofer connects to the Max with a cable through the subwoofer pre-out.