- Jan 15, 2025
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- 25
About a month ago I took delivery of a Samsung S95D along with a Panasonic UB820 blu ray player and I've been blown away by everything except the sound.
I always knew a soundbar would probably be required so I'm now in the market for, ideally, a soundbar only - no sub, no rear speakers and after a lot of reading (too much reading actually) this afternoon I went and demo'd the Sennheiser Ambeo Plus against the Sony Theatre Bar 9.
Using the same scenes from Top Gun Maverick for each bar, it was quite eye opening.
I was so disappointed with the Ambeo Plus - altho quite natural sounding there was virtually no bottom end at all, very bass light and how the Sennheiser website can describe it as having "...rumbling 38hz bass..." is absolutely beyond me.
The Sony Bar 9 had a lot more bottom end, in fact it was quite amazing actually, when the missiles hit to disable the enemy runaway you wonder if you'd ever need to add a sub.
The thing that has REALLY surprised me about both soundbars is that neither gave any sense of surround sound whatsoever...nor any kind of impression of sound coming from anywhere other than beneath the TV screen.
I fully appreciate that the only way to really achieve 'proper' surround sound is to have speakers behind your listening position but there has been acres written on the clever technology that sort of fools you into thinking you're immersed in sound - this was not my experience at all.
I could buy the Sony and probably be happy with the improvement in the general sound of my tv but £1000 is a lot of money just to do this , I think I'd feel a bit short changed in not experiencing anything approaching surround sound or even a wider soundstage.
Does anyone out there own either of these bars and run them on their own with no subs and rears (I appreciate rears aren't an option for the Ambeo)?
Did you find that after a while you had to at least add a sub?
I always knew a soundbar would probably be required so I'm now in the market for, ideally, a soundbar only - no sub, no rear speakers and after a lot of reading (too much reading actually) this afternoon I went and demo'd the Sennheiser Ambeo Plus against the Sony Theatre Bar 9.
Using the same scenes from Top Gun Maverick for each bar, it was quite eye opening.
I was so disappointed with the Ambeo Plus - altho quite natural sounding there was virtually no bottom end at all, very bass light and how the Sennheiser website can describe it as having "...rumbling 38hz bass..." is absolutely beyond me.
The Sony Bar 9 had a lot more bottom end, in fact it was quite amazing actually, when the missiles hit to disable the enemy runaway you wonder if you'd ever need to add a sub.
The thing that has REALLY surprised me about both soundbars is that neither gave any sense of surround sound whatsoever...nor any kind of impression of sound coming from anywhere other than beneath the TV screen.
I fully appreciate that the only way to really achieve 'proper' surround sound is to have speakers behind your listening position but there has been acres written on the clever technology that sort of fools you into thinking you're immersed in sound - this was not my experience at all.
I could buy the Sony and probably be happy with the improvement in the general sound of my tv but £1000 is a lot of money just to do this , I think I'd feel a bit short changed in not experiencing anything approaching surround sound or even a wider soundstage.
Does anyone out there own either of these bars and run them on their own with no subs and rears (I appreciate rears aren't an option for the Ambeo)?
Did you find that after a while you had to at least add a sub?
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