Sennheiser is no stranger to the world of high-end audio, and they’ve been making microphones as well as headphones for decades and decades. Many of you might know Sennheiser for the Momentum range of headphones, or perhaps something more higher-end like the HD800. No matter what Sennheiser means to you however, it almost always means excellent sound. With their latest announcement, made during CES 2016, Sennheiser is looking to change how we listen to sound in movie theaters, on our smartphones and while immersed visually using virtual reality headsets.
Amber is their latest and greatest advancement in immersive audio, and goes above 5.1 surround sound, and even 9.1 to be classified as fully 3D audio. Co-CEOs of the company Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser said that Ambero will “transform the listening experience for users across a broad range of applications, from virtual reality gaming to audio recording and broadcasting.” Sennheiser have of course been involved in surround sound applications before, and were instrumental with their 9.1 surround sound format. From here on out, anything from Sennheiser that is deemed to be 3D audio will be branded with the new Ambeo trademark.
What’s interesting about Ambeo for us is not so much the implications it will have for movies and theaters, but more so the application for virtual reality. During CES 2016, Sennheiser have partnered with Soulpix, to show off Ambeo in a virtual reality game called EDEN. Speaking about Ambeo for virtual reality, Dr. Andreas Sennheiser said that “the Sennheiser 3D sound rendering engine used in EDEN allows a smooth transition between real-life sounds and virtual audio sources.”
Whether or not this new technology makes its way to mobile in a big way is, right now, unclear. However, considering that Sennheiser’s competitors Dolby have been using their virtual surround sound technology in smartphones and tablets for some time, we’re sure Sennheiser are keen to forge partnerships with device manufacturers. CES 2016 seems the start of something for Sennheiser, but with the likes of Dolby’s Atmos platform starting to take off, is the German giant too late already? Only time will tell, but it’s exciting to think of 3D audio from Sennheiser heading to Android smartphones and tablets in the next year or so.