Sennheiser’s latest soundbar is half the size, and almost half the price of its premium predecessor

Sennheiser’s new Ambeo Soundbar Mini is the German audio model’s third and most inexpensive soundbar. At $799 (€799 / £699), it’s nonetheless an costly AV accent, however in the context of the firm’s unique $2,499.95 Ambeo Soundbar Max and $1,499.95 Ambeo Soundbar Plus, the Mini’s asking price almost seems to be almost entry-level as compared (almost).

The Ambeo Soundbar Mini maintains many of the core specs of Sennheiser’s earlier soundbars. It nonetheless helps a spread of 3D encompass sound codecs like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, 360 Reality Audio, and MPEG-H, it may nonetheless be paired with an completely extreme 4 Sennheiser Ambeo Subs, and it nonetheless helps a full array of streaming choices like Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, Chromecast built-in, and AirPlay 2.

But, as its price implies, the Ambeo Soundbar Mini has been paired again in comparison with its older siblings. For starters, Sennheiser advertises that the Mini is lower than half the cubic quantity of the Soundbar Plus at 70 x 10 x 6.5cm in dimension. That means there’s much less area for drivers (the Mini has simply six drivers — 4 full-range and two woofers — versus 9 in the Plus), and none of the full-range drivers face upwards to bounce audio off your ceiling and make it seem as if audio is coming from above you. Instead, it’s relying purely on virtualization tech for its height channels, variety of like the second-gen Sonos Beam.

Despite the lack of devoted up-firing drivers or the choice of shopping for and pairing exterior rear encompass audio system, Sennheiser says the Ambeo Soundbar Mini is succesful of virtualizing 7.1.4 channels of audio. It’s a daring declare that we’ll undoubtedly be placing to the take a look at in our forthcoming overview since we’ve discovered that even with the dearer Ambeo Soundbar Plus, there have been limits to the quantity of encompass sound the speaker might present from a single location.

Another compromise versus Sennheiser’s dearer soundbars is bodily connectivity. The Ambeo Soundbar Mini provides only a single HDMI eARC port for plugging in your TV, with no optical or aux inputs nor any HDMI passthrough. That means the soundbar is going to take up an HDMI port in your TV with out providing any further ports to exchange it, and it additionally means you’re at the mercy of the codecs that your TV is capable of move via or output.

Otherwise, the Ambeo Soundbar Mini helps a broad vary of wi-fi audio streaming choices. In addition to the companies listed above, you get help for Tidal Connect, and the soundbar has Alexa built-in for straight responding to voice instructions picked up by its microphones. Those similar microphones may also calibrate the soundbar to the room it’s positioned in, and the soundbar additionally has evening mode and voice enhancement audio choices.

Sennheiser’s Ambeo Soundbar Mini will go on sale on September 1st. Stay tuned for our full overview, coming quickly.