Sennheiser, who was punting on their new small Ambeo Soundbar Plus to drive sales running into the last quarter are facing major shipping delays with retailers now questioning whether there are bigger problems in the design and manufacture of the $2,500 bar which is half the price of their top end model.
The smaller and more affordable version of the German Companies larger Ambeo Soundbar Max was expected to be a top seller especially for specialist audio dealers.
The 7.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar was originally supposed to begin shipping on September 22 with Sennheiser PR in Germany recently telling ChannelNews that the new bar will be shipped this year.
This week Sennheiser issued a new statement claiming, “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.”
The decision to fix the new German Companies latest product offering instead of shipping an inferior speaker was made by the new management team now running Sennheiser family sold its consumer audio division to Swiss-based medical hearing company called Sonova Holding AG, which specialises in hearing aids and cochlear implants.
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.
