Sennheiser delivers a ‘wow’

It’s been a long time coming, but the most impressive demo we heard at IFA 2018 came from Sennheiser’s AMBEO soundbar. This leverages the company’s AMBEO multichannel/VR concept in a soundbar which has no separate subwoofer, using six 4-inch woofers and seven tweeters, including two up and two sideways for 5.1.4-channel delivery. The dem played Sennheiser’s own AMBEO recordings using an Atmos codec, plus a gobsmacking sound delivery of a soccer match recorded with Sennheiser’s 3D mikes, and a standard stereo track ‘upscaled’ to AMBEO very effectively. All were fine recordings to be sure, so it’ll be interesting how it sounds with real-world material. The word at IFA was to expect an early 2019 launch “in selected markets”, priced somewhere between 2000 and 2500 Euros. Not cheap, but on this performance, wow.

The other key launch at IFA was the first model in a new Momentum generation, the ‘True Wireless’ (we’re not sure why the current Momentum Wireless is untrue), using 7mm drivers and with codecs including AAC for Apple users and aptX and aptX

Low Latency for those

Android devices which support them.

They’re due here November at $499. en-au.sennheiser.com