Attempts to turn my living room into a cinema were largely successful. After trying out a couple of projectors, I decided to use Ultimea Nova C40 (review). With the picture sorted, it was time to take a closer look at the sound setup. As luck would have it, ULTIMEA emailed me about their ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom, and let’s face it, would you really pass on Dolby Atmos-certified 7.1 sound?
Review Summary
ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom brings Dolby Atmos sound in a 7.1 configuration to your living room. With easy cable management and an impressive subwoofer, this set can transform your living room into a cinema.
Pros:
- compact, yet powerful
- eARC HDMI ports
- great value for money
Cons:
- not suitable for projectors
- Dolby Atmos is available only via HDMI
4/5
You can get yours from the Ultimea Store Get $40.00 off with code D80BOOM40
ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom
It’s always hard to tell the size of the speakers from pictures alone. I covered soundbars in the past, but I could never tell the actual size of the speaker from the photos alone, so I was really curious to find out how big the speakers would be (not that the size matters). It all came in a surprisingly compact box, which took some manpower to plant on my desk in the TechDrop:
With a half-length (is that a thing?) soundbar, 4 satellite speakers, and an absolute beast of a subwoofer, it was time to find out how messy the installation would be. Cables in 7.1 setups can make or break the convenience of use.
ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom keeps the setup simple! At the centre of the installation, the soundbar is powered by mains and connects to two front satellite speakers (each with a 3m audio cable). The subwoofer links wirelessly with the soundbar, making it easy to deploy it at the back. It’s powered by mains and, just like the soundbar, connects to 2 rear satellite speakers (this time with 6m audio leads). The satellite speakers are of a decent size and heft and come with feet and small brackets that make it possible to wall mount them.
Overall, the installation is quick and easy, and there are fewer cables to manage than I’d expect. With speakers in place, it was time to have some fun!
To Atmos or not to Atmos!
The soundbar comes with the most common input options: a 3.5mm jack, TOSS link, and eARC for HDMI pass-through. Additionally, the ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom comes with the ability to read music from USB and offers Bluetooth 5.3. To direct the sound, the IR remote is provided with lots of buttons to adjust the input, sound quality, and such.
If you own a TV, you’ll feel at home, but as a smart projector owner, I’m in a pickle! The audio input is in the front of the setup, my projector lives at the very other end of the room.
While searching for creative ways to connect my projector to the ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom, I discovered that the TOSS link can’t carry Atmos sound, and if you want to take advantage of the certification, you must use HDMI. This introduces a new problem to overcome, where if you have a smart TV/Projector, you cannot export Dolby Atmos sound from its smart apps. The only way to try it out is to have a Dolby Atmos device outputting the sound into the soundbar and then to your target display device via eARC.
I’ll try that, but I suspect that the hassle of this setup will make me question my choices.
Sound impressions
Knowing the upcoming hassles, I decided to plug my 5m audio cable into the projector and try it out without all the fancy features to see how ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom would handle stereo and what kind of post-processing magic it does to make it better.
Thanks to a rather impressive (in size) sub, the sound is punchy (especially if you crank up the bass). The separation of speakers from the soundbar allows the sound to “breathe” a little, resulting in high-frequency sounds not being drowned out by the mids. With enough EQ adjustment on the remote, you’ll find the sound profile matching your preference without any problem.
Overall, the ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom punches way above its size and price. It’s nice to see this, despite the market being saturated with mediocre soundbars.
From stereo to Dolby Atmos
The lazy person in me used a 3.5mm jack for the stereo sound. It’s easy and built-in channel upmixing, and some clever processing makes the sound surprisingly rich and enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, this is still far from a true surround sound, but it does a good enough impression to wow all the guests having a cinema evening at mine.
Going surround
It wouldn’t be a decent review without going through the hassle of actually trying Dolby Atmos-certified demos on the ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom. For that, I needed to connect my laptop, set up Dolby Atmos, and export the sound via the HDMI port into the HDMI-in port on the soundbar.
After trying a couple of demos, I can confirm that there is a noticeable difference between stereo and Atmos sound, but not as head-turning as I would expect. I could tell the direction of the sound in a game demo, but with music and video demos, the difference between stereo and Dolby Atmos wasn’t as pronounced.
To be fair, considering how enjoyable the ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom is in a stereo setting, the not-so-impressive jump in sound quality could be attributed to how well it performed with built-in sound processing. Audiophile, I’m not, and something tells me that high-end consumers wouldn’t look at budget audio anyway.
Cursed Bluetooth?
There are very few devices that provide a low-latency Bluetooth audio connection. It’s usually reserved for devices with a dedicated “gaming” mode, and you are expected to endure a delay, which makes it impossible to enjoy anything but music/podcast content. I didn’t have much hope for ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom, as this is not my first soundbar rodeo.
After pairing this to my projector and trying to run the cinema without a 3.5mm cable stretched between the soundbar and the projector, I was pleasantly surprised that I had no latency issues! It looks like, if all I want is a stereo sound, I can ditch the 3.5mm jack and enjoy wireless connection over Bluetooth.
Low-latency sound wasn’t the only Bluetooth-related surprise. If you look up the Ultimea app, you will find a simple Bluetooth app that allows you to control inputs, volume and presets. This is also a useful way to check if the ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom is receiving Dolby Atmos-verified sound.
Final thoughts
Other than Atmos-related shenanigans, there is very little to complain about. ULTIMEA Poseidon D80 Boom brings good sound quality and incredible value considering its very pocket-friendly price. At £219, you’d struggle to find cinema audio that offers great value. Pair this with the Ultimea Nova C40 projector, and you’ll have an inexpensive cinema in your house that will outperform most TVs in terms of immersive experience. Either that or my friends are far too easily impressed! Let me know your thoughts and home cinema hacks (including best film snack ideas) in this Reddit thread.
🆓📈💵 – See the transparency note for details.
