ULTIMEA 16-inch Compact Soundbar, 50W Mini Sound Bar for TV
ULTIMEA 16-inch Compact Soundbar, 50W Mini Sound Bar for TV, PC Soundbar with Built-in DSP, 3 EQ Modes, 105dB, Wireless Bluetooth 5.0, Remote Control, Optical, RCA Cable Included
Easy Setup and Universal Compatibility
The multiple wired and wireless connected ways let it can connect to different devices.
Easy, one-cable setup with any TV/Computer via optical, USB, or AUX-in.
Convenient display makes settings easy to understand and disappears when not in use.
| Dimensions: | 41 x 10.1 x 7 cm; 1.45 Kilograms |
| Manufacture: | ULTIMEA |
| Dimensions: | 41 x 10.1 x 7 cm; 1.45 Kilograms |
| Origin: | China |
Works great on a small kitchen TV. Just plugged in the optical cable and power adaptor. Set the TV sound setting to optical out and you are up and running. Sound quality is quite good for a unit at this price. It also has a few eq. pre-sets that are quite effective. Well worth the money.
The ULTIMEA 16inch soundbar packs a sound that’s above its price. True, there are better soundbars out there but probably not at this price. The soundbar is well packaged in a good looking product box and it occured to me that it would also make a good gift as it looks nice and has a ‘good weight’ which smacks of a decent quality device.
With the soundbar you get a nicely made wireless remote control (which requires two AAA batteries, not supplied), a stereo phono to mini-jack cable, a digital/optical audio cable, a UK 3-pin power plug, a couple of screws in case you want to fix the soundbar somewhere, and a brief but adequate user manual.
Operationally it’s all pretty straight forward. There are basically three types of connection available to you: an audio stereo mini-jack input socket (AUX on the display), an optical fibre audio socket, a USB socket (for playing MP3s from a memory stick etc.) and of course Bluetooth. I was primarily testing it using the AUX and the USB inputs.
Apart from the controls on the wireless remote control there are basic function buttons on the right-hand side end of the soundbar. When in standby mode a red LED glows steadily from behind the black mesh front speaker grille, and when turned on the function being used (input, EQ, Bass+ etc) will light up for a while and then all the LEDs turn off unless you press a button to re-activate the display. I like that operational characteristic as I generally think that a soundbar should be ‘heard’ and not ‘seen’. The LED display is behind the mesh front and so isn’t wonderfully clear but that’s not an issue, just an observation.
The volume level goes up to 32 and if you are feeding the soundbar with a reasonable audio signal the volume level is surprisingly loud, and I didn’t notice any issues with distortion at the higher levels. The Bass+ adds a bit of ‘oomph’ and I even liked the 3D effect (and normally I don’t). There are only three/four basic EQ modes (Music, Movie, Game and News). “News” is horrible and I can’t see anyone using that. The image of the remote on the Amazon product page had slightly differently labelled buttons. Mine didn’t have “Bass” & “Bass+”… just Bass+. I would have preferred more ‘user control’ over the EQ settings but the default ones aren’t too bad. If there was a Bass & Treble with up-&-down amounts controllable by the remote control then that would have been nice but I have to keep reminding myself that this is a budget priced soundbar!
I was very pleased with the USB stick handling. Just pop in a USB stick loaded with MP3s and you have an instant MP3 player. That’s a nice touch.
Overall I think that this soundbar is very good for the money and it looks rather posh too. I think it’s probably better as a soundbar for a computer monitor rather than a lounge TV but actually if your TV room isn’t huge it’d probably be fine. I am going to use it underneath my 27″ monitor in my office, or I might use it under the 27” monitor that is on my computer desk. The soundbar fits underneath the monitors very nicely, is discrete and gives me a decent solid sound for that purpose.