Says a lot! – Ultimea Nova S50 Dolby Atmos Soundbar test
Ever since BlitzWolf's subwoofer soundbar disappeared from the range, I've been hunting for another usable piece. Of course, something that is affordable, and of course something that has a subwoofer.
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A new brand called Ultimea has appeared on Banggood and they have no less than 7 soundbars. Four of them have subwoofers, and even the most expensive ones (2 types) are quite affordable, coming in at under $130. I asked my Banggood contact if he would be willing to send me one. It was not. Three weeks later, he wrote to me asking if I would like to try one of them, called Tapio V. Yes, but I was already annoyed and said no.
Well, I'm not too offensive, that's not why I said no, but because I'm prejudiced. Once upon a time, I had a soundbar with a similar layout, and it was so bad that I don't even want to think about it. It's certainly not the Tapio V, but I was more attracted by a slightly more expensive but much more interesting piece, the Nova S50!
The Nova S50 is a 2.1 system, which means that there is a central unit that must be placed under the TV and there is a subwoofer that can be placed anywhere in the room as long as the cable reaches it. In the manufacturer's pictures, the central unit is quite deceiving, because it looks so big, but if you carefully read the specifications, it turns out to be very small. But very much. Very very! This is one of the reasons why I became interested in it, because I had no idea how such a small set would yield the knowledge that the manufacturer promises.
I note one thing that is not described anywhere, the wattage. In other words, how many watts is the whole package (the subwoofer itself is 40 watts). There is a lot of silence about this, we get all kinds of data about sound pressure and such, but nothing about performance. Shall I say it's suspicious? Well, that's it, it's quite suspicious, but I can't be dissuaded from my plan with so much nonsense, I was excited, I wanted to try it!
Well, let's see what made this stuff so exciting!
The first thing is the size, since the size of the soundbar is only 40 x 3,8 x 7,6 cm. In other words, it's a tiny little box in which two active speakers were packed, not too big in terms of size. I wonder how to get enough sound out of this?
The subwoofer is not a giant either, its total size is 27 x 11,5 x 27 cm, i. The exact dimensions of the speakers are given, the soundbar uses 2 1,2" x 3,8" drivers, which also shows that they are flat and elongated radiators. A 5,25-inch speaker was placed in the subwoofer, which is quite a decent size. It is also important that there is also a reflex opening at the front of the subwoofer, which faces us, i.e. towards the room.
Additional technical data looks like the maximum sound pressure >103 dB, the signal-to-noise ratio >87 dB, distortion below 1 percent, frequency range 48 Hz-18 Khz. You can already guess from this last data that we are not talking about a Hi-Fi product, that is, just by browsing the data plate it becomes clear that the set is not the best choice for music.
What else?
We get three pre-programmed EQ modes, these are music, game and cinema modes. We get bass emphasis in 3 stages, this sonorous BASS MX technology was named. The manufacturer has written next to the subwoofer that it is specialized speaker diaphragm material for a clear sound, but has not revealed what this special material is.
Finally, there are two very important things, one is the HDMI eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) support, which in short means that we can transmit the sound via the HDMI cable while maintaining its original resolution. Essentially, we get a larger bandwidth with eARC equipment, which allows more data for surround sound to pass through and transfer faster.
Another essential capability is Dolby Atmos support, which of course requires the aforementioned eARC support. This is a 3D sound technology that, according to unanimous opinions, produces a more real, lifelike and natural soundstage. In other words, in our case, the set will be able to play the sounds not in stereo, but shifted in space, in front of us, behind us, next to us.
Of course, it won't be perfect with a small soundbar, but for that reason alone I was very curious to see what KICSIKE would be like live.
The fact that it arrived yesterday shows how curious I was, and I'm already writing an article about it today. So I threw everything aside and started it up!
The installation itself is not crazy anyway. We get a fucking (but really) remote control, the soundbar, the subwoofer, two wall brackets for the soundbar, a jack cable, an optical cable, an HDMI cable, and of course a power supply. So you have everything, you just need to take care of two AAA batteries, which are not included in the package.
You can already guess from the number of cables that the small soundbar has quite a lot of holes on its back where you can string a string. From left to right, an AUX, an optical, an HDMI, a USB await us. In addition, only the output of the subwoofer and the power connector remain.
Obviously, if your TV supports it, then eARC will be the best connection method, but you don't have to worry if you only have Bluetooth, there's no problem with that. I forgot, the Bluetooth is 5.3, so there will be essentially no delay between the sound and the picture.
The test has come!
First of all, I sent him some music while I was still upstairs in my office, War of the Worlds, where, as you know, the first few minutes belong to Richard Burton's organ, and specifically I peed my ankles and it sounded so good. At least while the narration was going on, because when the music started, the experience was nowhere near peeing.
Then I tried it with all kinds of music, electronic, pop, rock, usually Dire Straits for the vocals, a bit of Depeche Mode (because I like it), Yello, for the electronic sound, Motörhead to have bass. So there was everything.
The result? such a "it was better” I also had a feeling. It is worth varying the three pre-programmed EQs, because one is better for one music and the other for another. The film setting is roughly dynamic, you have to take it off the bass there. The player setting is duller, and the music is only good if I turn on the max bass. Let's say I didn't try the tone control on my phone, maybe it would have been even better.
Then I made the biggest mistake, I pulled the subwoofer off the soundbar.
Well, what the little box released is quite extreme. Okay, the box is tiny, the air space inside is tiny, the speakers are tiny, so I don't even know why I thought it would be listenable on its own. Well, it's not. This tiny box can produce a little mid-range and quite a lot of highs, but of course no crumbly bass. For this, you definitely need the subwoofer, because together with it, things somehow clear up and no longer hurt the ears.
What should also be mentioned is that there is a little background noise, hissing, on the Bluetooth connection. At a high volume, you can hear it well in the breaks between songs, at a lower volume, especially when something is being played, nothing is perceptible.
So, a little embarrassed, I took the package down to the living room, plugged it into the TV and turned it on.
The movies could come. And then I experienced a miracle. The small box and the subwoofer were magical. I mean, me. I just sat there wondering how this could be. The sound filled the room nicely. There was neither too much depth nor too little, it was just right. I didn't feel the sound of the soundbar resembling a Sokol radio. It all came together into a round whole.
Okay, let's not get too carried away, it's still a sub-$100 thing, so we're not going to Bang & Olufsen heights, but still, I was really surprised by what I experienced. You see, nothing was overdone. The story isn't about putting too much depth into it so we don't hear how shitty it sounds. No, really not.
The sound is dynamic and fills the room quite well. Let's say there won't be as much spatial effect as if the rear radiators were in the corner of the room and on the wall behind us, but we still get a sense of space, if only a breath.
That being said, I have to say that the Dolby Atmos support is more marketing than a true surround experience. You know, modern phones also have the Dolby Atmos marking, but this is approx. it only means that they can play the Dolby Atmos signal stream, but don't even dream of a surround effect.
In other words, this Atmos is good, but it doesn't disturb a lot of water, since the small speakers sitting very close to each other will not make us believe that the explosion went off behind us or that the train is approaching us from the right rear. I'm not even talking about the fact that in order to enjoy Dolby Atmos, you need a device that has eARC HDMI and can output a Dolby Atmos signal stream. These are still quite rare.
Of course, the testing didn't stop there, I also compared its sound with BlitzWolf's SAR3 package, one of the biggest hits of recent times, which on paper is a much stronger 2.1 system.
Unsurprisingly, the difference came out more when listening to music, in which case the SAR3's fuller middle came in handy. But to be honest, there was less difference here than I expected beforehand. And maybe even less for movies.
The Nova S50 took up the gauntlet, in my opinion, its subwoofer is the one that sounds more serious than the SAR3's solution. Clearer, more pleasant, warmer sounds come out of it, and even though the diaphragm of the active speaker is similar in size, the reflex opening also moved the air better.
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| BlitzWolf SAR3 | Ultimea Nova S50 |
I did another test where I compared the frequency range played by the soundbars, although only with a Bluetooth connection, which is not perfect, the cable might have been better. Of course, it's not lab quality anyway, just the microphone of my phone and the software running on it, and the speakers were simply on the table. In other words, this test was good for comparing the two packages, because the frequency range is definitely somewhat wider than what was measured.
The point is that this measurement was only good enough for me to see that the difference between the SAR3 and the S50 is really minimal. A more significant difference, visible to the eye and perceptible to the ear, was in the case of deeper sounds. But this also only became apparent while studying the graph, listening to them, maybe the SAR3 sounds slightly warmer, but the difference is not decisive.
So the main thing I want to get out of all this is that the Ultimea Nova S50 is a soundbar with a subwoofer. Not very good for anything else. It can also be used if you want to listen to music, but if you want to watch a movie, it really shows what it can do. So, as a soundbar, which was designed to be in front of or under the TV, and to replace the annoying sound of flat-screen TVs with something much better, it's perfectly fine.
It's really surprising what they were able to get out of the central small box and the subwoofer next to it. I would say that he knows better than the sound of the flat-screen TV, but let's face it, that wouldn't be a big adventure in itself. It's more about how much better he can do. Well, very much, we get a completely different, almost cinematic experience from it.
There is one thing that I definitely wanted to draw attention to, because I think it is important. Manufacturers usually recommend other audio equipment for computers and TVs, but the Ultimea Nova S50, due to its size, is good both here and there. Because of its capabilities, I don't think anyone will regret putting it under a monitor, anyway, we consume more and more content online, including from a computer, so why not?
The Ultimea Nova S50 is thus a 2-in-1 device, a TV and computer soundbar at the same time!
At the end, one more positive, which shows that Ultimea is not the typical noname company. The manufacturer has made it possible for the firmware of the soundbars to be updated via USB. And if you made it possible, who uses the thing. While I am constantly writing this article, I have added new experiences, a new firmware arrived, which I installed.
Conclusion?
I pretty much wrote everything down. Of course, you shouldn't expect miracles from something that costs $120, but I was very impressed by the Ultimea Nova S50. He didn't really cheat, he gives what he promised. It's also obvious why the manufacturer didn't write a watt value for the soundbar, I think that value would put off the purchase for all customers, but now I'm saying that it would also lead the focus astray, because this package is only one, the two units may be evaluated using them together.
What's interesting about it is that no matter how flimsy the central box looks, it does its job. It doesn't give much direction to the sound, but still, somehow you will feel like you are in the center of the action, even if this feeling is not very pronounced or overwhelming.
So who can I recommend this package to?
From the above, it was obvious that those who want to play games or watch TV and movies without leaving the sound to their TV/projector. Also for those for whom traditional soundbars are too big, high, or hang in front of the infrared sensor, and because of this they cannot control their TV with a remote control. Also for those who for some reason don't have enough space to place a large, normal-sized soundbar under their TV.
If you are one of them and you think in this category around 100 dollars, then feel free to buy it, I don't think you will be disappointed!
Okay, then the price and availability can come! If you order it, it will be delivered to you from a Czech warehouse, and the price is Bg6dd7c6 using a coupon code, it will be HUF 44 by clicking on the following link:
