The Dolby Atmos performance is remarkably good for the price, although thats where much of the positives end.
The bass peaks and muffles even at medium volumes, and the treble has a tendency to pinch.
Dolby Atmos, a range of connectivity options and its less than $130?
In fairness, the Ultimea Nova S50 doessomethings pretty well, but others… not so much.
However, the sound quality flounders in bombastic action blockbusters, and musicals are tinny and lackluster.
But it could be a worthy sacrifice for the space-saving 15-inch size and money-saving $129 price.
Is the Ultimea Nova S50 a worthy TV companion?
Find out in this Ultimea Nova S50 soundbar and subwoofer review.
The soundbar is just 15 inches long and the subwoofer is only 10 inches tall.
Things were not as they appeared, however; but well get to that later.
Unlike the Sony HT-S100Fs utilitarian appearance, the Nova S50 looks cheap in a bad way.
Performance aside, the actual soundbar itself is prettymehto look at.
Although its remarkably tiny, it has abrupt angular edges and a plastic mesh casing.
It looks cheap, because, well, it is.
Unlike the Sony HT-S100Fs utilitarian appearance, the Nova S50 looks cheap in abadway.
The Nova S50 comes with a remote.
However, the play/pause button on the remote doesnt work to actually pause the TV.
Im not sure what its there for at all, as it didnt pause the audio either.
It did work to change bass volume, and soundbar volume, just not pausing.
The subwoofer isnt wireless, unlike the Polk Signa S4 or the JBL Bar 1300X.
I connected the subwoofer to the soundbar with the provided thin wire, which is prone to getting tangled.
It automatically booted up when I turned on the TV thanks to the eARC connection.
In terms of features, there arent actually that many.
Ill discuss the Nova S50s Dolby Atmos performance in the Sound quality section below.
The Nova S50 has three EQ configs: Movie, Game, and Music.
Each EQ adjusts different frequencies: Movie is bassier with a lower dynamic range in the higher frequencies.
Game reduces bass massively, and also background noise in turn.
Movies
As with all my soundbar reviews, I watched Top Gun: Maverick on movie mode.
In the opening scene, the bass peaked during jet engine takeoff and while Danger Zone was playing.
The audio pinched, like it was being stretched and pulled upwards.
This happened throughout the scenes dialogue, and then again in the violin notes in the soundtrack.
Although this wasnt all the time, it happened enough to make me wince.
After Top Gun: Maverick, I played The Wild Robot.
The dialogue was clear, with none of the haziness I experienced before.
The Dolby Atmos performance was also surprisingly good, which Ill go into below.
Finally, I watched La La Land on Blu-Ray.
I wanted to test the musical genre in both Movie and Music EQs.
However, the sound was generally decent considering the price.
After watching La La Land in Movie mode, I switched to Music mode for direct comparison.
Music mode, however, is incredibly poor.
Music mode seemed to heighten every tinniness issue that Movie mode did its best to alleviate.
I can only recommend Movie mode for optimal playback.
The 360 sound decoding on the Nova S50 can never be true Dolby Atmos.
As the goose character moved across the water, I could feel the splashing moving across the room.
However, I was still pleasantly surprised with the Nova S50s Dolby Atmos performance.
In The Wild Robot, there are plenty of swimming scenes that really excel with a good soundbar.
Theres another moment where three bullying geese encircle the main character.
Cunk on Earth is a documentary series with a pretty stellar soundtrack, all things considered.
Inside Man is a grippy crime drama that starts with a scene on a subway train.
In general, the dialogue was better via the soundbar than the TV speakers, butsoincrementally.
It was bassier moments like soundtracks and action sequences that shone.
Music
Music mode is incredibly poor its basically a one-way ticket to Tinny City.
As I stated above, the Music mode is incredibly poor.
Id stick to Movie mode, as its the only EQ setting with actual bass.
The bass crackled in the kick drum and the nuance of the treble was lost.
I lowered the bass to -2, which just made the track tinny.
Next, I played Royals by Lorde.
However, that doesnt make the Nova S50s surround soundtrueAtmos.
Considering this speaker is just 2 channels, I was really surprised by how good it sounded.
