Sennheiser Ambeo Mini

Sennheiser's smallest soundbar is a sonic swing and a miss

Dolby Atmos Soundbar £699 whf.cm/AmbeoMini

Sennheiser’s Ambeo lineup has been a benchmark of premium soundbars since it launched in 2019. The Soundbar Max, its original super-sized soundbar, has sat steadfastly on our Awards list since then, while last year’s Soundbar Plus model was a stellar five-star soundbar that threatened to unseat Sony’s excellent HT-A7000.

The baby of the Ambeo range sits below the Soundbar Plus (£1299) and the Soundbar Max (£2199), but this Mini variant faces tough competition. It’s in an awkward position between two Award-winning Sonos Dolby Atmos soundbars – the Arc (£899, though it’s frequently discounted to around the £700 mark) and the Beam Gen 2 (£449). As an additional cost, the Mini can also be connected to up to four Ambeo Subs (£599 each).

The Mini is roughly the same length as a baguette, and is a much more style-conscious soundbar than the Beam, with its sharp angled lines and monochromatic matt black and mesh exterior.

The top of the soundbar is entirely covered in a matt-plastic panel, with no speaker grilles, as the Mini has no dedicated upward-firing drivers. Instead, you will find a small LED-light status bar, as well as capacitive touch buttons for volume, source input and muting the four on-board microphones. On the rear of the bar is a power input, a single HDMI eARC connection and a USB port.

Dolby Atmos support is delivered via the higher-quality Dolby True HD format via HDMI eARC. The Mini also supports DTS:X, MPEG-H and Sony 360 Reality Audio immersive audio codecs. But, as there are no upward-firing drivers, the Mini takes the “phantom speaker” route using clever digital processing to deliver immersive sound around the listener and that trademark Atmos overhead sound.