With the industry in the running for an increasingly
convincing technical result capable of keeping up with the times, more and more
"leavened" soundbars in terms of units that compose them come
together. Once synonymous with a single element to be stored below the screen,
elements such as the increasingly present subwoofer for low frequencies (below
30 Hz) were then added , in order to improve the fullness of the sound,
essential especially during watching and listening to films and TV series. bolts.answerhop
A soundbar certainly improves the sound of a TV, but as for
replacing a true multi-channel system, the situation changes radically.
However, there are exceptions, such as the Ambeo Sennheiser .
Top soundbar
The arrival of even more complex and difficult encodings
beyond Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio has further pushed the accelerator
of research, with the result of even 4-element soundbar projects, with the
inclusion of wireless satellites to support the rear front more. but also the
vertical channels for DTS: X and Dolby ATMOS. The only project divorced from
this philosophy, capable of making the best virtual multi speaker system pale,
is that of Ambeo, with a truly one-piece soundbar whose sound can be said to be
close to that of a real 5.1.4 channel home theater system. . tc-bolts.dyifo
The measurements are important, of 126.5 cm x 13.5 cm x 17.1
cm W x H x D, for a total weight of 18.5 kg. In all there are 13 drivers
including 6 cone woofers in 4 "long excursion cellulose sandwich. inches,
5 tweeters with 1 "aluminum dome, two of which are angularly positioned at
the sides, and 2 3.5" "full-range up-firing drivers. There are 500
Watt class D amplification and a response in declared frequency which extends
from 30 Hz to 20 kHz (-3dB).
As for the inputs, there are 3 HDMI 2.0a ports (full
bandwidth 18 Gbps), 1 Ethernet port, 1 Toslink optical port, a pair of RCA
analog audio jacks, in addition to the 2.5 mm input for the calibration
microphone. Wireless connections include Bluetooth 4.2 (NFC compatibility) and
dual-band 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, there is Google Chromecast built-in with UPnP
multimedia network opening.
For the output there is an HDMI 2.1 with eARC and RCA
pre-out for subwoofer (mono, max. 2V). The only absence felt is that of the USB
input, present here only for updates.
At the front, the soundbar has an OLED display with central
ambient light sensor and status LED, while the front right side features the
"Ambeo" logo that lights up when the DSP is in use, variable light
intensity via the app. On the top side there are buttons to access the basic
controls including power, input select, volume and mute. techqueer
The compatibility for codecs and audio streams is among the
most complete on the market : LPCM 2 / 5.1 / 7.1, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital
Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby ATMOS, DTS lossy, DTS-ES Discrete 6.1, DTS-ES Matrix
6.1, DTS 96/24, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS High Resolution, DTS: X, DSD, MPEG-H
(new codec intended for use with next generation TV broadcasts created by the
ATSC - Advanced Television Systems Committee).
In the presence of Dolby codec the Dolby Virtualizer can
come into play with automatic disabling of Ambeo 3D re-processing, while it is
possible to take advantage of the DRC - Dolby Dynamic Range Control (Heavy,
Auto, Normal) and dialogue normalization. This DRC can be set (range 0 - 100)
also in case of DTS codec. The degree of intervention of the DSP has 3 levels:
starting from the lowest Light, Standard and Boost but via the app you can act
on the four-band equalizer +/- 10dB.More immediate equalization via preset with
choice between Neutral, News, Sport, Film and Music or night listening with
dynamic range compression.
How does he feel?
Listening to such a giant is surprising from the first
moment, also because you are faced with a system that focuses as much on the
quality of the speakers as on their management through a sensible DSP that is
truly "tailor-made". What is not seen even on prestige soundbars is
the external microphone for auto calibration, available here, which leads to
refine Ambeo's ability and to offer the best possible stage in terms of
directionality and reflections. Of course, the expectations of a very effective
result tend to diminish in the absence of side walls and / or a very deep room
or with a very high ceiling: let's say no more than 4-5 meters away from the
listening point. construction-bolts.tockhop
The microphone, about 71 cm high and easily tiltable, must
be as close as possible to ear height, an operation to be performed only once
unless position changes. During the listening test at the historic Milanese Buscemi
Hi-Fi store, we immediately realized that we were dealing with a totally
different system from any other soundbar that boasts high-level performance.
Ambeo has top notch DSP processing, who developed it managed
to create a record soundstage even starting from a simple stereo sound. The
beauty obviously came when listening to truly multi-channel material, where
virtualization is no longer perceived as a compromise but with the possibility
of concrete listening surrounded by multiple channels.
It should be emphasized that this was possible due to the
relatively small room where the demo took place, with side walls and ceiling at
a short distance , only the one behind us was further away. In our case we have
witnessed in ATMOS the chase between the boats in Tomb Raider (2018), in which
Lara Croft does not let the kids who have just stolen her backpack escape.
The experience was characterized by aggression, dynamics,
separation of elements and the concrete perception of a "sound
embrace" that does not let go, enhancing effects and music. It's hard to
ask for more from a soundbar. bacobolts.yictic
