Sennheiser AMBEO® SmartHeadset Hack 1.04 + Redeem Codes

I have been wanting a good solution that would give me the ability to make binaural recordings from my iPhone or iPad for a while now. The Ambeo Smart headset has given me this amazing, and I might venture to say underrated, ability. In an earlier review of the Smart Headset app I stated that I would update this review if I received a headset and since I have, here are my findings.

First, I’m happy to say that the app is just about fully accessible to a VoiceOver user. Using VoiceOver, you can set up your Preferences for the Smart Slider and the rocker, and enable or disable voice prompts. You are even able to choose EQ presets for the headset. Unfortunately, the QuickStart guide still does not read with VoiceOver, and there doesn’t seem to be a way for a voiceover user to set a custom EQ curve. Hopefully these issues will be fixed in a future update. Moving away from accessibility, I wish the app made it possible to Force the headset to use a specific microphone. For example, it would be nice if I could use the headset for an app that supports stereo audio for VOIP (such as TeamTalk) but tell the headset to use the telephone microphone so that I’m not constantly transmitting binaural audio to the people I’m talking to. But still, if you’re reading this review and are looking to buy the Ambeo Smart Headset, or you already own one, regardless of your ability to see the screen, I highly recommend you install this app for it onto your iOS devices.

The Ambeo Smart Headset, especially the binaural microphones, definitely lives up to the Sennheiser name. The audio quality and binaural 3D effect is incredible...but with one flaw. There is currently no way to adjust the volume level from the mics, which causes high-volume recordings such as rock bands, marching bands, and loud environmental noises to distort and become unusable. The recording level switch in the Apogee app doesn’t appear to make any difference whatsoever, no matter which recording app I use. I sincerely hope that Sennheiser and Apogee can put their very smart heads together and solve this problem. Otherwise, I fear, the smart headset will become just another novelty.

These things are great for ambient recordings and possibly some acoustic music. They give an awesome realistic 3D environment. However that is not the reason I purchased them. I deal with live music as a profession and I wanted a fast easy way to capture concert clips on my phone for social media etc. the problem is that at any modern concert I have tried them at. From Elton John, Pink, Chvrches etc they have been a miserable failure. They have a setting for louder environments but that is not enough of a pad to keep the mics from severely overloading to unlistenable levels. I don’t know if sennheiser can create a software update to reduce the gain structure further but my fear is its the mic capsules being overloaded themselves. They are not for recording live modern music. And they should not be marketed as such until they figure out how to keep the massive distortion out of the signal chain. And yes the levels in the iPhone recorder were not clipping. It’s all straight from the headset.

Configuring the buttons to “open camera” doesn’t work.

After updating to the latest app, I'm still getting iphone crashes when attempting to record for the first time. For example, after plugging in the headset and then hitting the "record" button in Voice Memos, or any other app, my iPhone completely crashes. Once it restarts, the headset seems to work fine again. This is 100 percent reproducible in my case.
Also, it would be great if the app allowed me to choose my own app for recording. The ones suggested are either no longer supported or behave poorly on iOs14.

So amazing to have a product like this on the market. Putting spatial audio within everyone’s reach is very exciting. You need the Sennheiser Smart Headset to use the app.
Good work Apogee and Sennheiser!

Once I updated to the newest app revision, it forced my headset to update firmware; which has now failed 10+ times. Reinstalled the app and it has continued to fail, thus leaving me completely unable to use any features of the headset, other than them being regular headphones.

These mics sound great when they’re not getting overloaded! The reduce level setting resets every time you disconnect the headset also. Makes these unusable for concerts.

This app is accessible and usable. The Ambeo smart headset works very well with the app.

Shure Motiv’s app works with this and records 3d just fine, as does the built-in camera and what-not, but when launching this app and plugging it in, it doesn’t detect the headset through the USB-C adapter. Sure would be nice if this would work.