Audio Professional A48 Multi Room Ground Standing Energetic Speaker Evaluate vs  Sennheiser AMBEO – Is it a soundbar killer?

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I reviewed the Audio Professional C5 MKII again in December. It’s a very good multiroom speaker that I feel makes a superb various to Sonos merchandise if you would like one thing a bit extra aesthetic than a black field. 

Throughout the evaluation, I turned conscious of the spectacular vary of audio system out there from the model. I famous the weird omission of a soundbar throughout the vary. As an alternative, Audio Professional has opted to go down a extra conventional design route and has a number of TV audio system in both bookshelf or floor-standing codecs.

It’s an attention-grabbing selection as a result of there was a development for fancy encompass sound codecs lately. There are a rising variety of premium soundbars that declare to attain issues like Dolby Atmos encompass sound utilizing a mess of audio system to replicate the sound round your room.

Subsequently a 2.0 system just like the Audio Professional A48 floor-standing audio system might not sound as interesting because the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus with its 7.1.4 speaker configuration.

Nonetheless, all of it is dependent upon the place your priorities are. The AMBEO is inevitably higher at encompass sound, however it could’t actually compete with pure sound high quality when every speaker on the A48 has two 5.25″ woofers and a devoted tweeter.

Specification / Options

Design

Being floor-standing audio system, these are bodily giant and take up a a lot bigger house than a soundbar would.

Every speaker would not weigh fairly as a lot as I might have thought. They’re lighter and smaller than my Monitor Audio audio system.

The audio system themselves are about as enticing as a pair of floor-standing audio system could be. You’ve gotten a selection of both black or white. I like my audio system black, however it could have been good if there have been extra color choices, equivalent to wooden.

One draw back you’ve got in comparison with a soundbar is the thick cable that connects the powered speaker to the passive. For many TV setups, this should not be an excessive amount of of a problem as you’ll be able to run the cable behind any furnishings, however you’ll have to take into account cable administration if you would like issues to look neat. On a optimistic observe, that is loads much less cable administration than a passive speaker system.

I might have favored a USB enter, permitting me to make use of these with my PC immediately. As an alternative, I had to make use of the FiiO K5 Professional and RCA cables, although I may have used optical.

For TV setups, you’ll be able to simply use the HDMI ARC port. Chances are you’ll observe that this isn’t eARC, however that is not actually wanted since you do not want the bandwidth that high-bitrate encompass sound audio requires. The old school optical TOSLINK has sufficient bandwidth for uncompressed 5.1 (and beneath).

In Use / Sound High quality

For testing, I used them in my major TV room, the place I’ve the Monitor Audio Silver 6 floor-standing audio system (plus centre, surrounds, and a huge Monoprice Monolith 12 subwoofer) paired up with a Yamaha RX-V685 AV receiver. On this setting, I switched my system to 2.0 for a fairer comparability.

I additionally examined it towards my outdated Bose SoundTouch 300 (which had an RRP of £600) and the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus. The Audio Professional A48 is being marketed as a soundbar killer, and it’s equally priced to the AMBEO Soundbar Plus, so that they make an excellent comparability.

There was no comparability to my Bose SoundTouch 300. It’s a good improve to TV audio system, however it would not have any fancy encompass sound when utilized by itself, so the efficiency is poor in comparison with two giant floor-standing audio system. The Bose actually wants the companion subwoofer if you would like it to supply the pleasant low frequencies which can be wanted for a lot of films or gaming.

The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus is a unique beast. That is the primary soundbar I’ve tried the place I felt I could possibly be pleased with a soundbar vs a devoted encompass speaker.

Personally, I would purchase the AMBEO over the A48, purely as a result of I watch a number of films with encompass sound.

Nonetheless, pretty much as good as I discover the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus general, it actually cannot compete with a pair of huge floor-standing audio system in the case of the general sound high quality. The Sennheiser has a lot of small audio system to supply encompass and bodily cannot match something too massive inside it. The A48 has all its efficiency condensed into the big woofers and tweeter per speaker.

In case you are not that bothered about encompass sound, the A48 is healthier. It is considerably higher for music, however I additionally desire it for TV and gaming (I’m not that bothered about encompass sound for video games).

Acoustically, these are very good, bridging the hole between your typical lively speaker and a passive system. There’s a richness to the bass you will not discover on any soundbar. There isn’t any harshness to the highs, and I discover vocal, each in music and TV, glorious.

I would say my Monitor Audio audio system are higher, however they’re larger and require an AV receiver to drive them. You’d doubtless be spending greater than £1200 for a 2.0 system on this situation.

These can be a part of a multi-room system, and you will get a devoted subwoofer for them. So you’ve got some improve choices and options that an AV receiver and passive audio system might lack. 

Clearly, one of many massive promoting factors for Audio Professional is the multi-room performance and music streaming. I wouldn’t say it’s fairly pretty much as good as Sonos, however it’s shut sufficient. You’ve gotten a big selection of music companies, together with Spotify, Tiday, Amazon Music and extra. YouTube Music isn’t inbuilt, however Chromecast is, so you’ll be able to stream that manner. Equally, with Spotify, it makes use of Spotify Join, so you have to use the Spotify app to entry your music.

Worth and Different Choices

The Audio Professional A48 are priced at £1200 for the pair, and there may be the extra inexpensive A38 for £900.

You’ll be able to enhance efficiency by pairing the audio system with a subwoofer. There’s a selection of the SW-5 at £280 or the SW-10 at £360.

There are usually not many lively floor-standing audio system in the marketplace, and none that I’m conscious of at this worth level. The Q Energetic 400 at £2300 or the KEF LS60 wi-fi ground standing audio system at over £5k are the one choices I can discover.

The KEF LSX II at £1100 or Dali Oberon 1 C at £950 are the closest choices I can discover at an analogous worth level. They’re lively bookshelf audio system with HDMI ARC, however they aren’t fairly as highly effective because the Audio Professional A48.

The Sonos Arc plus Sub Mini would set you again about £1330 and that is more likely to be one of the best various if you would like the multi-room options. This has the benefit of superior encompass sound with Dolby Atmos help. I’ve not tried the combo of Arc and sub, however I do not assume the Arc can compete with the general sound high quality, quantity or wealthy bass that the Audio Professional A48 can obtain.

You then have a selection of premium encompass sound soundbars, which embrace:

• Sony HT-A7000 7.1.2ch Dolby Atmos/ DTS:X Soundbar @ £1300
• Samsung HW-Q990B 11.1.4ch Cinematic Soundbar with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X @ £1300
• Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus 7.1.4 Channel Dolby Atmos Soundbar @ £1300

Alternatively, in the event you don’t thoughts the faff of separates and cables, you’d be greatest to get passive audio system and an amplifier. Pricing can simply transcend £1200. The Yamaha RX-V6A AV receiver is £700, it could provide the flexibility to broaden to a 7.2 system, together with Dolby Atmos, and it helps HDMI 2.1 4K/120Hz. The Monitor Audio Bronze 500 at £600 would take you to £100, plus you’d want cables and so forth.

General

The Audio Professional A48 audio system are very good. Describing them as a soundbar killer may be a stretch, however they’re a superb various speaker with few competing audio system and none at this worth level.

If you don’t need the faff of a lot of wires, and worth common sound high quality over encompass sound efficiency, then these actually are a soundbar killer.

Final replace on 2023-02-18 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photographs from Amazon Product Promoting API