The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is a 5.1.4 setup with 13 speakers that delivers an impressive immersive experience for a standalone bar. This system has a unique 3D mode that helps sounds come from over and around you, without the need for wireless speakers. The bar gets very loud, but unfortunately, it's a bit on the bass-light side, especially with stereo content. On the other hand, it has a lot of inputs and supports pretty much every audio format.
Our Verdict
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is great for mixed usage. It has a unique 3D mode that greatly improves the surround performance, which is great for movies. Its overall sound profile is pretty accurate, but it's lacking a bit in the bass range. While the bar still produces a good amount of bass, it's audibly lower than other frequencies at the same volume, which gives it a disappointing feel on stereo bass-heavy content like some music genres. On the upside, it has a room correction feature that adapts to your room and the reproduction of voices in accurate and clear.
- Impressive immersive sound for a stand-alone bar.
- Good performance with surround content.
- Supports all audio formats.
- Well-built design.
- Very heavy.
- Disappointing bass performance, especially on stereo content.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is excellent for dialogue-focused TV shows. It has a good overall sound profile with accurate mid-range performance, resulting in an accurate reproduction of voices with content like audiobooks, podcasts, or voices in TV shows. It lacks a bit of bass, but this shouldn’t be too bad for this use. On the upside, the bar can get very loud and has a few features like a dialogue enhancement and a night mode for a better listening experience. You’re also able to stream content wirelessly via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and use its built-in Chromecast.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is good for music. Without AMBEO mode, the volume of the bass is much lower than with it on. However, it performs quite well for music genres that don’t have that much bass. Also, it has a room correction feature to tweak out its sound quality depending on your room. The soundstage is decent and the bar performs well at max volume, which is pretty loud.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is good for movies. When using the AMBEO 3D mode, it's quite impressive and offers an immersive listening experience with movies thanks to the high number of speakers and the support for Atmos content. It performs well with surround sound movies overall and you’ll have the impression that the objects are localized around and over you, which is impressive for a stand-alone bar.
Changelog
-
Updated Oct 24, 2025:
We referenced the KEF XIO in the Style - Bar box.
- Updated Jun 19, 2023: Converted to Test Bench 1.2. Updated the results for audio format support via ARC/eARC, HDMI In, and Optical. Added Video Passthrough to TV results as well.
- Updated Mar 01, 2023: Added cable lengths to In The Box.
- Updated Mar 01, 2023: Converted to Test Bench 1.1. With this update, we've added a Mounting test and added information aboutSubwoofer Output, Spotify Connect, and Microphone Mute.
Check Price
Popular Soundbar Comparisons
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is a very unique product. This stand-alone bar has 13 speakers and tries to do it all in a single 5.1.4 unit. It does a decent job with most content and gives an impressive and immersive listening experience when using the AMBEO mode. However, this is the biggest and heaviest bar we've reviewed so far, so it might be hard for some people to fit it in their home theater setup. See our recommendations for the best soundbars, the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, and the best soundbars 5.1.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX and the Sonos Arc are both very premium standalone bars. The Sennheiser reproduces a more extended low-bass thanks to its integrated subwoofer. It supports more wireless playback options, and unlike the Sonos, it offers a graphic EQ, presets, and a Full HDMI In port. However, the Sonos is better built with a better soundstage performance. Unlike the Sennheiser, it has bass and treble adjustments and built-in voice assistant support. You can also upgrade it to the Sonos Arc with Sub + One SL Speakers for better performance.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is better than the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus. The MAX is a bigger setup with a lot more rumble in the bass, which is great for action-packed movies and bass-heavy music genres. Both bars support many audio formats and offer similar sound enhancement features, but the MAX's large design brings a more cinematic sound, especially with Atmos content. However, it doesn't have built-in voice assistant support like the Plus.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX and the KEF XIO are both premium all-in-one soundbars. The KEF has a fuller-sounding bass, with more mid and high bass, although the Sennheiser does have a deeper low-frequency extension, so it can reproduce the lowest notes in a Hans Zimmer score, although they're not especially loud. That said, the boost in the KEF's high bass can muddy up voices, and the Sennheiser is more controlled throughout its frequency response. Still, the deciding factor may be that the Sennheiser is very large and heavy, so it might be tricky for most to place, while the KEF has a sleek, stylish design and doesn't take up much more space than a regular soundbar. On the other hand, the Sennheiser is usually a little cheaper.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX and the Devialet Dione are both very premium standalone bars with solid performances, but the Sennheiser is better overall. The Sennheiser doesn't offer as much boom in the bass as the Devialet out-of-the-box, but since it has more sound customization tools, you can easily adjust it to get a similar sound. It has a better surrounds performance, as well as support for more audio formats like DTS. There are also three HDMI In ports for passthrough, which the Devialet lacks. It's a bit larger than the Devialet, though, which isn't ideal for everyone.
Test Results
Your first impression of the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX will be its very large size. It's covered with fabric on the front and the sides, which allows you to see the speakers underneath. Unfortunately, this can get dirty or damaged easily. The top is made of two metal grills on the sides and good-quality plastic in the middle. If you're interested in a smaller, more visually interesting all-in-one bar, check out the KEF XIO.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is very large and heavy. Not only will it not fit in between the legs of the stand of a 55" TV, but most likely it'll obstruct the bottom view of the screen since it's quite tall. You'll be better off either wall-mounting both the bar and the TV or placing it in a separate table slightly lower than the TV table. The manufacturer has also released a smaller version of this bar called the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus if you're low on room.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX's build quality is good. The fabric that covers the front and sides is removable, so you can clean it when it gets dirty or keep it off if you prefer showing off the numerous speakers. It feels quite sturdy and robust, but it's also very heavy - around 50lbs. If you want a better built soundbar, check out the Sony HT-A7000.
Note: During our testing the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX got hot and started to smell bad after about only 10 minutes of operation. The smell resembled that of a burning plastic/wire and was rather distracting and alarming. Although we completed the tests without any more serious issues, the smell was still apparent at the end. We aren't sure if this was just on our bar or if this is normal and whether it'll create a problem in the future.
- Manual
- Room correction microphone (cable length: 17 ft / 5.2m)
- Power cable (6.5 ft / 2.0m)
- HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
- Remote
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX has a very good stereo frequency response. The Low-Frequency Extension does not extend as low as some soundbars with dedicated subs, like the Sony HT-ST5000 or the Vizio Elevate, which indicates that it has trouble accurately reproducing deep thump and rumble. However, this soundbar still has a good bass performance, but it's audibly lower than the other frequencies at the same volume. The overall sound profile is still fairly neutral but is on the brighter side due to the slightly disappointing bass performance.
When listening to the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX, the stereo soundstage is decent. The bar is pretty big, and the stereo soundstage is about the width of the bar. On the upside, the soundstage is focused rather than diffused, which is good because objects seem to be coming from a more accurate pinpoint location instead of a general area. The soundstage when using the AMBEO 3D mode is quite impressive and performs well with surround content.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX can get very loud, which is great for a large room or a crowded environment. It performs well at max volume, but there are a bit of pumping and compression artifacts when pushing it to its limits, but only in the bass range. Other than that, the bar performs well across the rest of the range.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX's THD performance is great. At a normal listening volume, there’s a very low amount of THD, which means you get a very accurate, pure, and clean sound. Also, there isn't a big jump in THD when pushing the bar to its maximum volume, which is great. Most people shouldn’t hear any harmonic distortion with real-life content on this bar.
Due to its impressive amount of speakers and the 5.1.4 configuration, the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX has a dedicated center channel, which results in a more clear and accurate audio reproduction of the dialogue in movies. For surround content, we recommend using the AMBEO 3D mode, otherwise, the bar downmixes everything to 2.0.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX has a good performance with surround content when using the AMBEO 3D mode. Content comes out from the side-firing speakers on the bar and provides good overall performance. It has an impressive performance for a phantom localization and sounds seem to be coming from above you, behind you and on the sides, but this won't feel as real as a discrete surround like with tower speakers.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX uses up-firing drivers built into the bar itself to ricochet sound off the ceiling and back down towards you, creating the illusion of height. It does a good job simulating an immersive sound, and with its AMBEO 3D Mode on, you feel like sound is coming from above you and around you. However, compared to more premium bars, it struggles to replicate sounds that are supposed to come from behind you. There's also a noticeable lack of bass, especially in action-packed scenes.
The Atmos performance of the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX didn't change significantly after updating it to firmware version 1.0.237, which you can see here.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX has a sub-par amount of sound enhancement features, but it does have the most important ones. It has a Room Correction feature, which means that when using the included microphone, the soundbar will apply some sound corrections depending on your room. It also has a dialogue enhancement feature with the ‘News’ sound mode, which makes voices clearer and easier to understand. There’s also a full parametric EQ to customize the sound to your liking and the AMBEO 3D mode is truly impressive for surround content.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX has a full set of physical inputs and can easily play the role of a hub between your TV and other devices like game consoles, PCs, Blu-ray players, etc. This bar has also the option to connect to an external subwoofer through the 'SW PRE OUT' port.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX supports eARC. This extended version of ARC allows it to support not only surround sound format, but also the most advanced object-based surround signals, and high-quality lossless formats. These formats are available on streaming platforms like Netflix and many Blu-ray discs, offering you the most advanced sound experience.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX supports the most advanced sound formats via Full HDMI In. You can playback surround sound and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos, or lossless formats like PCM 5.1. Most of these formats are found on movies either through a streaming platform or a Blu-ray.
Using the Optical Audio In, you can enjoy surround sound in Dolby Digital or DTS formats with the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX. Content with these audio formats is usually available from streaming channels and Blu-ray discs.
If you use the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX as a hub, it will passthrough chroma 4:4:4 from your PC or console to your TV. This means that text will look very clear on your 4k TV.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX can connect to most modern devices using Bluetooth and can connect to your Wi-Fi, where you can cast content to it. You can also get support for Apple AirPlay 2 once you update the bar to firmware version 1.0.237. If you listen to a lot of music from streaming services like Spotify and Tidal, you can also connect to the bar over Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX's interface consists of a set of controls at the top and a screen in the lower middle of the front face. The screen is very nice and clear and is one the best of all the bars we've tested so far.
The control buttons on top of the bar are quite self-explanatory. The 'dot' button is a multi-function button, that controls media playback, and when pressed at the same time as the 'SOURCE' it acts as a Bluetooth pairing button. The button marked 'AMBEO' enables the Ambeo feature which must be enabled for the bar to act a 5.1.4. Otherwise, the bar downmixes the formats to 2.0.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX's remote control has a nice size and can control most features of the bar, but not all. It too has an 'AMBEO' button that's necessary for advanced audio format playback, like object-based Dolby Atmos. You'll also find some preset buttons that can serve you well since you only have access to the EQ from the Sennheiser Smart Control app.
For a soundbar with built-in voice assistant support, check out the Bose Smart Soundbar 900.