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Top of the range Atmos soundbars - any experience?

antcollinet

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I'm converting a small room to a small (two seater) cinema. About 2.5m x 3m

I want to have some sort of aproximation to Atmos, and notice that the top of the range soundbars from the likes of Samsung and LG have multiple speakers (including in the rears) firing in all sorts of directions, together with a small sub, and claim to give the expected hemisphere of sound. (EG Samsung HW-Q990B at about £1300)

I have experience of 7.1 using conventional AVR/speakers, but with such a small room there is not a lot of space for many speakers. Not to mention the aprox. £2500+ I'd need for a full 7.1.4 system.

However, I have no idea of how these soundbar/systems perform. Music not a necessity - I can keep my current 2.0 system for that. Decent movie soundtrack surround is what is needed, though I realise bass might be limited with a small 8 inch sub.

I'll be getting a demo in the next couple of weeks, but that will be in-store, so would value any real world experience any of you may have.

Thanks.
 

JeffS7444

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No particular experience about Atmos from sound bars per se, but experience with Atmos to date has not yielded a dramatic "hemisphere of sound", and in fact, output from the height speakers tends to be very low. But what I have noticed is a good sense of sounds emanating from various points in space not confined to the speaker enclosures. My impression is that the lack of height channel output may not be a technical issue so much as an aesthetic decision by the persons creating the audio mix. Perhaps "a little goes a long way" when it comes to those channels.
 

JSmith

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Sammy actually make some of the better soundbars... Sonos as well. Rtings publish measurements, however the soundbar results appear to now be behind a paywall.

There seem to be some good BF discounts on this model;

I'm sure this may have had something to do with the improvment, as their SB's were average years ago;


JSmith
 

kekus

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I'm in the same boat, slightly bigger room (4x4.5m).

For music I already have a 2.1 with vintage amp, and happy with the sound for stereo.
Would've really liked to add Atmos AVR+ extra speakers but to be honest prices for 9 channels (5.1.4) and even just 7 (5.1.2) but with Pre-outs are ridiculous right now, and don't expect they will lower any time soon.

So I just ordered a Samsung Q930b + Firestick 4k (total ~560 USD converted) yesterday, just for Atmos movies + music from Tidal. Should all arrive today, will update on opinions (I don't have any previous Home theater experience).
 

Somafunk

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No experience of top of the range sound bars or atmos but I’ve recently bought a mate a Philips ambilight tv with Dolby atmos and a Sonos Beam 2 atmos sound bar as an early Xmas present, prob the cheapest way into the atmos scene and it’s genuinely seriously impressive to listen to, I think a more expensive Sonos set up with rear speakers and a sub would be pretty bloody amazing but you’d have to demo for yourself.
 
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DJBonoBobo

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I don't know them, but the Sennheiser Ambeo soundbars have received good reviews, too.
 

ban25

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I used to have both a full Sonos system (Arc + 2 x Fives + 2 x Sub) and a Bluesound system (SOUNDBAR+, Flex 2i, Pulse 2i) and I can honestly say that both were very disappointing. These companies advertising the ability to play Atmos out of a small centrally located soundbar is just a gimmick. With the Arc, there is simply no sense of separation to the channels at all, and the bounced height channels are just marketing. Ironically, if you peruse the Sonos forums or subreddit, you'll find that one of the most common feature requests is the ability to add discrete L + R channels to the Arc (via either Sonos Ones or Fives).

As for the Bluesound Soundbar, it has the same lack of separation that you find with the Arc, but it also adds a pretty nasty 50ms processing delay on all audio input. This can't be bypassed, so if you can't delay the video playback to match (which is impossible with an interactive media like video games), then you are SOL.

There's another problem, these active solutions like Sonos in particular are constantly revving the software and frequently changing the EQ and introducing bugs. In the past year, they introduced two serious bugs starting with revision 14.6 that caused the wireless sub and surround components to disconnect from the Arc soundbar. This lead me to ultimately replace my entire Sonos HT with my current setup.

If I disabled every speaker in my current HT setup except the center (KEF R2c), I'm confident it would still outperform the Sonos Arc and provide a wider soundstage. For your use case, I'd go with a simple 2.1 or maybe 4.1 solution using something like the KEF R3 or Q150.
 

NiagaraPete

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I'm not recommending but Naim did have something that may not be horrible.
 

Vacceo

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No particular experience about Atmos from sound bars per se, but experience with Atmos to date has not yielded a dramatic "hemisphere of sound", and in fact, output from the height speakers tends to be very low. But what I have noticed is a good sense of sounds emanating from various points in space not confined to the speaker enclosures. My impression is that the lack of height channel output may not be a technical issue so much as an aesthetic decision by the persons creating the audio mix. Perhaps "a little goes a long way" when it comes to those channels.
In my experience, where Atmos and DTS X trully shine is with videogames. God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn on PC are quite nice to be played with height speakers.

Like you, I´m not sure how that translates to soundbars, but for more conventional systems, it is a delight.
 

AdamG

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It’s a sound bar. With a bunch of small little drivers beaming sound reflections around the room. I have yet to hear one that sounded coherent and did not create a reflected sound jumble of incoherent noise. But, it can be a step up from just using the tv speakers.

As a compromise, would it be possible to use something that has wireless rear speakers? (Example linked)

 

Mnyb

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I’m always slightly sceptical about claims of surround sound without actual surround speaker, similar claims has been round before atmos , but some of the more exclusive “sound bars” includes a wireless sub and rear speakers to ?

Otherwise it sounds like virtual 4wd on the front wheels to me :)
 
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antcollinet

antcollinet

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It’s a sound bar. With a bunch of small little drivers beaming sound reflections around the room. I have yet to hear one that sounded coherent and did not create a reflected sound jumble of incoherent noise. But, it can be a step up from just using the tv speakers.

As a compromise, would it be possible to use something that has wireless rear speakers? (Example linked)

The one I'm looking at has a pair of wireless rears (with forward, side and upward firing drivers each) and a wireless "sub".


However, I've also worked out that by swapping kit around, and buying another pair of satellite speakers, I can set up 7.1 surround with little expense and probably better sound.

The soundbar will have to perform really well in the demo to stand a chance.
 

kekus

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Having received the Q930b, I would also go for 7.1 with speakers.
The soundbar is good for Atmos movies, but I think most of the credit goes to the rear speakers (not much height info so far tbh), and for stereo music it doesn't hold a candle to a 2.1 system.

What has impressed me was Atmos music through Tidal->Fire stick 4k, even on the soundbar it really fills the room and sounds much better than headphone Atmos on Iphone.
I can only imagine how good it would sound with a proper speaker system, so I think I'm going to save my money for a 7.1.4 receiver next year :)
 

voodooless

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Okay, so went crazy and bought a top-of-the-range soundbar :facepalm:

I've long contemplated adding more speakers to go from 3.1 to 5.x.x, setting them up hidden as much as possible, buying a new AVR/P, and making it fit in the existing cabinet, getting wiring to the places I want, etc, etc. All in all, this will be very time-consuming and my better half would still not like the end result. Not to mention the monetary investment with all this.

So a compromise had to be found! After some reading, I decided to audition the Sennheiser Ambeo Max last week. I was very much surprised by the immersion you get with this system in the demo room, which was far from ideal in shape. They said they did this on purpose because previously they had it in a "good room", and got too many complaints that it didn't sound as good at home. Now it's the other way around. Since the price was much better than list, I decided to take the thing home and test it out. I can always return it if I don't like it.

So, put the thing down, hooked up the sub, did the room correction, and had a go! I did have some small surrounds added to my current system for a while, but placement sucked, and they never sounded very good. Quite frankly, the Ambeo did a very convincing job replacing them indeed! It's really a very good system with surround content, and also does a good enough job with music as well. I still think I need to tweak a bit to get the most out of it, but for a first setup, it is really astonishing. The Ambeo processing really does something special. Currently, I seem to have misplaced my UMIK, so I can't verify the room correction results. As soon as I have it again, I'll do some measurements and see exactly what the EQ controls and sound modes of the thing do, and what further tweaking is needed. It will also need a bit better placement of the TV and bar, which I'll do in the coming weeks as well.

And yes, this thing will go loud! With about the same area as 2x 6.5" and plenty of tweeters, it can produce quite some volume. And the sub will do the rest ;). Out of pocket, this thing basically cost me nothing. The LRC it repaces will fetch be about the same as I paid for it :)
 
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ZolaIII

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Try with Rtings soundbars ranking (if they are shown) table towards what are your preferences regarding rating (key's) and then reading actual reviews and measurements. Buy from where you can ship them back with minimal loose for you if you are not satisfied.
 
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antcollinet

antcollinet

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Okay, so went crazy and bought a top-of-the-range soundbar :facepalm:

I've long contemplated adding more speakers to go from 3.1 to 5.x.x, setting them up hidden as much as possible, buying a new AVR/P, and making it fit in the existing cabinet, getting wiring to the places I want, etc, etc. All in all, this will be very time-consuming and my better half would still not like the end result. Not to mention the monetary investment with all this.

So a compromise had to be found! After some reading, I decided to audition the Sennheiser Ambeo Max last week. I was very much surprised by the emersion you get with this system in the demo room, which was far from ideal in shape. They said they did this on purpose because previously they had it in a "good room", and got too many complaints that it didn't sound as good at home. Now it's the other way around. Since the price was much better than list, I decided to take the thing home and test it out. I can always return it if I don't like it.

So, put the thing down, hooked up the sub, did the room correction, and had a go! I did have some small surrounds added to my current system for a while, but placement sucked, and they never sounded very good. Quite frankly, the Ambeo did a very convincing job replacing them indeed! It's really a very good system with surround content, and also does a good enough job with music as well. I still think I need to tweak a bit to get the most out of it, but for a first setup, it is really astonishing. The Ambeo processing really does something special. Currently, I seem to have misplaced my UMIK, so I can't verify the room correction results. As soon as I have it again, I'll do some measurements and see exactly what the EQ controls and sound modes of the thing do, and what further tweaking is needed. It will also need a bit better placement of the TV and bar, which I'll do in the coming weeks as well.

And yes, this thing will go loud! With about the same area as 2x 6.5" and plenty of tweeters, it can produce quite some volume. And the sub will do the rest ;). Out of pocket, this thing basically cost me nothing. The LRC it repaces will fetch be about the same as I paid for it :)
Interesting.

Did you compare this against some of those with wireless surround/upfiring speakers such as the Samsung I mentioned above.
 

thewas

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Okay, so went crazy and bought a top-of-the-range soundbar :facepalm:

I've long contemplated adding more speakers to go from 3.1 to 5.x.x, setting them up hidden as much as possible, buying a new AVR/P, and making it fit in the existing cabinet, getting wiring to the places I want, etc, etc. All in all, this will be very time-consuming and my better half would still not like the end result. Not to mention the monetary investment with all this.

So a compromise had to be found! After some reading, I decided to audition the Sennheiser Ambeo Max last week. I was very much surprised by the emersion you get with this system in the demo room, which was far from ideal in shape. They said they did this on purpose because previously they had it in a "good room", and got too many complaints that it didn't sound as good at home. Now it's the other way around. Since the price was much better than list, I decided to take the thing home and test it out. I can always return it if I don't like it.

So, put the thing down, hooked up the sub, did the room correction, and had a go! I did have some small surrounds added to my current system for a while, but placement sucked, and they never sounded very good. Quite frankly, the Ambeo did a very convincing job replacing them indeed! It's really a very good system with surround content, and also does a good enough job with music as well. I still think I need to tweak a bit to get the most out of it, but for a first setup, it is really astonishing. The Ambeo processing really does something special. Currently, I seem to have misplaced my UMIK, so I can't verify the room correction results. As soon as I have it again, I'll do some measurements and see exactly what the EQ controls and sound modes of the thing do, and what further tweaking is needed. It will also need a bit better placement of the TV and bar, which I'll do in the coming weeks as well.

And yes, this thing will go loud! With about the same area as 2x 6.5" and plenty of tweeters, it can produce quite some volume. And the sub will do the rest ;). Out of pocket, this thing basically cost me nothing. The LRC it repaces will fetch be about the same as I paid for it :)
I can fully confirm that the original Ambeo (which was later renamed Max when a smaller one was released) is really good, had the luck to listen to it at a demo in the Neumann studio monitor headquarters few years ago.

I personally use since some years a Yamaha YSP-5100 (without Atmos) which uses beamsteering together with a sub as I got them used for a fraction of the Ambeo price and with some careful automatic measurement based adjustments can also sound quite good.
 
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voodooless

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Did you compare this against some of those with wireless surround/upfiring speakers such as the Samsung I mentioned above.
No, I explicitly only wanted only a soundbar, no other speakers. I'm pretty sure the Q990B will be a bit more immersive because it has actual rear speakers. It will not be as good for music though. Also, the distortion of the Ambeo is presumably better. The Ambeo also has a subwoofer output, so I can hook up my existing sub, or multiple with a MiniDSP, so I'm not limited to the 8" Samsung sub.
 
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voodooless

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I personally use since some years a Yamaha YSP-5100 (without Atmos) which uses beamsteering together with a sub as I got them used for a fraction of the Ambeo price and with some careful automatic measurement based adjustments can also sound quite good.
I've looked at the YSP-5600 for a bit, but by now, it's not the newest model anymore and by now it seems like an abandoned technology. I do think it's really cool tech though.

I even contemplated creating my own soundbar ;) It would take up too much time, however, and I have too many other projects at home to finish, so knowing myself this would probably become another never-ending thing... Maybe some time...
 
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DJBonoBobo

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No, I explicitly only wanted only a soundbar, no other speakers. I'm pretty sure the Q990B will be a bit more immersive because it has actual rear speakers. It will not be as good for music though. Also, the distortion of the Ambeo is presumably better. The Ambeo also has a subwoofer output, so I can hook up my existing sub, or multiple with a MiniDSP, so I'm not limited to the 8" Samsung sub.
Did you compare the Max with the smaller brother Ambeo Plus? The Max is too big for me, but i am considering the Plus for the TV and background music listening. I wonder how it compares to my current KH120 secondary setup for this use case (filling the whole room with background music, no fixed LP).
 
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