Tom’s Guide Verdict
For just 99, its hard to believe a speaker has Dolby Atmos.
The budget soundbar is good for TV, but true movie aficionados may find themselves disappointed.
Unfortunately thats the case with the Majority Elias soundbar.
Thats not to say the Elias is an inherently terrible soundbar.
Just dont expect the Elias to meet the grandiose expectations made by its manufacturer.
The Dolby performance was lacking, and the bass is almost nonexistent.
For an immersive home cinema or TV experience, the Elias is lacking.
Ill go through everything in this Majority Elias soundbar review.
The RRP of 99 places the Elias as one of the cheapest Dolby Atmos soundbars.
In fact, our best budget Dolby Atmos soundbar, theYamaha True X Bar 40A, is 549.
Its sleek and monochromatic, with buttons on the top side.
These on-bar buttons control volume, power, and mode.
If you want to control treble, bass, and more, youll need to use the remote.
The Elias is a 2-channel soundbar with up-firing speakers.
2-channelsoundssuper high-tech, but its actually the most basic form of soundbar.
2-channel means it has two speakers: one on the left, and one on the right.
For that, youd want a central speaker and separate channel speakers.
Up-firing speakers reflect sound off the ceiling to provide a surround sound experience.
However, these speakers will never be able to do the legwork of a multi-channel multi-speaker setup.
My actual house was the problem with the up-firing speakers, as I discussed in the previous section.
I connected the Elias to my Toshiba LCD Color TV.
From there, I turned on the Elias using the provided remote and it automatically switched to ARC.
you could also connect to the Elias using optical, aux, USB-A flash drive, and Bluetooth.
The soundbar does not come with an optical cable or aux.
There are a range of listening configs on the remote: movie, music, news, and 3D.
3D is the Dolby Atmos mode, but I didnt notice much of a surround sound experience.
3D was audibly the superior listening mode, but it was not full surround.
I will discuss the sound quality further in the sound quality section below.
Thats not to say the Eliass sound quality is awful for TV.
While watching The Traitors I was actually quite impressed with the sound.
However, music and action movies fared less well.
Movies
I found Borat and Inside Out 2 sounded the best through the Elias soundbar.
Inside Out 2 is obviously made for children, so the voice actors will be enunciating their words properly.
The bass was tinny during fight scenes, yet also overshadowed dialogue.
I was able to understand everything the actors said.
The Elias isnt terrible for audibility, but it struggles with overpowering OSTs.
To test the Dolby Atmos, I watched Bohemian Rhapsody onDisney+ Premium.
From the 20th Century Fox intro alone, I was disappointed.
The guitar sounded stretched and pinchy, like the Elias was struggling to translate the sound.
I was actually surprised that something managed to make Queen sound lackluster.
Thats a talent in and of itself, in my opinion.
I would not recommend this soundbar for serious movie lovers.
TV & News
I watched The Traitors (U.K.) and BBC News on News mode.
News mode softened the treble, which meant less sibilant hissing during speech.
I kept the Elias in this mode while watching The Traitors and the results surprised me.
I didnt notice the soundtrack was affected negatively, and speech sounded softer, yet still audible.
For such an affordable soundbar, the TV playback actually impressed me.
If youonlywatch TV series on thebest streaming serviceslike Netflix, I think this would be a good budget option.
Music
After completing my TV testing, I wanted to check out the Eliass Music mode.
I connected my iPhone 11 using Bluetooth, which was instant, and set the soundbar to Music.
Let me tell you, there was no bass to be found anywhere.
Its an occupational hazard for a speaker without a woofer.
I listened to a lower vocal track Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Red Right Hand.
In contrast, this string-led instrumental sounded much better than Caves deep tenor voice, which was almost unintelligible.
In general, Caves catalog of tracks sounded flat, tinny, and uninspiring.
Majority Elias soundbar review: How does it compare?
While I wouldnt claim the Elias is one of thebest cheap soundbars, itll do in a pinch.
The bass is poor and some dialogue was muddled in loud scenes.
I would recommend this for a starter soundbaronlyfor users who watch reality TV or series.
True movie aficionados, or those wanting to build a home cinema system, would be very disappointed.
But then again, are TV viewers fussed about a soundbar in the first place?
I wouldnt have thought so.
