REPRODUCED FROM W HATHI-FI?
Am beo Sub isa£599 optionaladdition ifyou stil have som e m oneyleftoverafterthe initialcostof entry. BUILD Hardware issom ething thatwe can often depend on Sennheiserto im pres uswith,and the Am beo isno exception.The soundbarissuprem elysolid and hasa quality finish al round.W ith a sm ooth plastic construction that weighs just 6.3kg,the Ambeo Plus is a much more svelte and m anoeuvrable soundbar com pared to its m ore cum bersom e sibling. At105cm long and justunder8cm in height,the Am beo Plus is also m uch shorterand narower than m ostothersoundbarsin itsclas ,including the SonyHT-A7000 and SonosArc.The Am beo is therefore notably com pactforitsclas ,m aking it a solid option if you’re working with a m ore confined set-up arangem ent. FEATURES Starting of with the port selection, you have eARC via an HDM I2.1 socket,two HDM I2.0 inputs, optical and RCA inputs, an ethernet connection and a USB socket for powering a stream ing stick. TheHDM Iinputsareasticking pointhere,astheir 2.0 certification means they can't support 4K/120Hz gam ing (VRR isn’t supported either). The Sony HT-A7000 does feature 4K/120Hz support, so it’s a frustrating om is ion from Sennheiser – especialy when you are already sacrificing one ofyour TV’s precious HDM I2.1 connectors for eARC. The Sennheiser at least trum ps the Sonos Arc here, as that soundbar doesn’t include any HDMI pasthrough connectors. The Sennheiser’s eARC connection is stil worth celebrating asitalowsforDolbyAtm osplayback in the higher-qualityTrue HD form at,although al curentstream ing services use the lower-bitrate Dolby Digital+ form atfordelivering theirDolby Atm os soundtracks. It’s not just Dolby codecs geting the love here though,asDTS:X,M PEG-H
and Sony360 RealityAudio are also alsupported.
W ireles connectivity is also on board the Am beo Plus, with Bluetooth 5.0 and wi-fi both playing integralpartsforthe SennheiserSm artControlapp. You’l be using this app a lotboth forinitialset-up and in dailyuse ofthe soundbar,so we recom m end taking the tim e to fam ilarise yourself with the various setings m enus. Thankfuly, the app is a breeze to use with plenty of helpful setings available to custom ise yourAm beo experience,and itssnappyresponse and generalconvenience m ean that we often reach for our phone before the dedicated rem ote that’sbundled with the soundbar. That’snotto discreditthe rem ote,however,asit'sa sturdy and responsive controler with appreciated easyac es to diferentsound presets. The Am beo Plusalso featuresa plethora ofwireles stream ing optionswhen itcom esto m usic services. Bluetooth isthe obviouscatch-al when itcom esto wireles stream ing to the device,butyou’lalso find Apple AirPlay2,SpotifyConnect,TidalConnectand Google Chromecast al built in. You’d be hard-pres ed to find a device or service that you can’thookup to the Am beo Plus,and we’re pleased to reportthatgeting m usicto playwireles lyon the Am beo is a seam les proces .In fact,Sennheiser gets bonus points forthe integrated m usic player
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