Those of you who eagerly pre-ordered the new Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus for $1,500 will have to muster a little extra patience — the smaller and more affordable version of the excellent Ambeo Soundbar Max soundbar has been hit by an unexpected delay. The 7.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar was originally supposed to begin shipping on September 22. But that date has come and gone and there’s no word on when Ambeo Soundbar Plus orders will start making their way to customers.
Digital Trends learned of the delay when we reached out to Sennheiser’s U.S. public relations agency to get a sense of when the company was planning to ship out review units. After all, we’re as eager as you are to put the new Ambeo family member through its paces and see how it compares to similar Dolby Atmos-capable soundbars from Sony, Bose, and Sonos.
In response, we were told that there would be a delay due to a hardware-related technical issue. The representative also provided us with the following statement.
“We have identified an unforeseen issue leading to a product parameter not meeting our stringent quality standards,” said Maximilian Voigt, Sennheiser’s product manager for consumer speakers. “In the interest of the best user experience, we have decided to postpone delivery of the Soundbar Plus until this isolated matter is resolved and all our high-quality standards are met.”
That’s going to come as a disappointment to those who were hoping to have a new soundbar in their homes in time for the colder fall weather. Still, it’s hard to criticize a company that has identified a problem with its product and is determined to fix it instead of shipping an inferior speaker. It’s not unusual for a soundbar to ship without its final firmware, or even with some promised features unavailable until a future date, but clearly, whatever this problem is, Sennheiser’s engineering team does not think it can be rectified with software.
Voigt said that the company will provide an updated delivery date as soon as possible, and promises that pre-order customers will find that the speaker that eventually shows up at their doorsteps will have been worth the wait.
We’ll keep you posted on how this situation progresses as we get updates from Sennheiser.
