Majority Elias Soundbar review: big, flawed sound

A great sound system can elevate your binge-watching experience to new, unprecedented heights, so one of the best TV soundbars can seem incredibly promising. With the promise of upfiring Atmos speakers to create a spatial soundstage, for its budget price, the Majority Elias soundbar seems like a compelling choice for even the most devoted of audiophiles to experience a fuller, more immerse sound, but does it live up to expectations?

I've had the Majority Elias soundbar for testing, pairing it with a variety of films, games and television shows to get to grips with just how it holds up compared to its competition, and while there is plenty to enjoy, it's certainly not without its faults.

Regardless, the Elias's broad range of connectivity, and its size that projects sound widely throughout the room ae certainly commendable, especially for its low price.

Being a wired speaker, my testing was reserved for both my television and monitor setup, so naturally there's no testing of waterproofing during this review: the Majority Elias is made strictly for indoors, and isn't built for the potential thrills and spills of a cinema-going experience.

Please note: All prices are correct at the time of writing. Prices, stock and deals are subject to change without notice.

Majority Elias soundbar: overpromise, under-deliver

Majority's affordable range of speakers and soundbars has been the cornerstone of home cinema setups for several years, so there's a degree of competency I expected from the Elias, despite its lower price point. Out of the box, I was quickly impressed with the overall design and weight of the soundbar itself, its metal grille coats the entirety of the design, with LEDs that shine through to indicate what output is being used currently.

Once plugged in and turned on, connecting is simple: it uses Bluetooth version 5.3, which feels speedy and responsive from the get-go. Suppose you've positioned the Majority Elias on a wall mount. In that case, you can use its remote to toggle through connectivity options, with bass, treble and preset features, which you can manually adjust.

Certainly worth noting, the remote is fairly flimsy in design compared to the speaker itself, feeling essentially weightless in hand. With my tiled flooring, I'd certainly want to take caution in dropping it, as any hard impact is sure to cause fairly catastrophic damage to the remote itself.

After powering up the speaker, and being quite familiar with the strong reception it's received from customers, I must say I felt quite disappointed with the quality of the Majority Elias. Being an avid music listener, from the moment I received the speaker, I raced to Spotify to try out my go-to tracks and found myself disappointed at the unfortunately tinny, white-noise-filled sound of the Majority Elias.

The Majority Elias's '3D Mode' proved similarly, if not more flawed in audio quality, adding to the speaker's almost distant sound that never succeeded in capturing my awe. I found that using 'Music' mode for everything, films and television shows included, was a surefire way of achieving somewhat compelling sound, but it's certainly not a speaker I'd reserve for an awe-inspiring film marathon.

The speaker's size and weight would typically indicate an element of strong bass, especially considering the staggering 160W of power, but I found the bass to just be standard on the Elias, even when cranked up fully on its settings.

Blasting music from The Prodigy to test its potential, I found the overall volume to be certainly impressive, it's a very loud speaker, but even at higher volumes, the bass was not all that exciting.

For those in search of a cheap, loud soundbar with not a whole lot of thrills, the Majority Elias serves its purpose well, and with some adjusting with treble and bass, it serves well as a budget soundbar. But for audiophiles, the distorted sound might prove too much to consider it as your dedicated sound system.

What's good on the Majority Elias?

The overall design and build quality of the soundbar itself is superb, with an attractive design that looks subtle and feels sturdy. Its size is particularly large, so when you're watching films or gaming, you get a good directional sound thanks to its multiple channels.

Having the power to manually control the Elias's bass and treble, along with four preset modes is fantastic, having that additional degree of control over the soundbar is bound to keep film buffs happy, myself included.

I've also enjoyed the sheer loudness of the speaker itself, which is almost hard to bear after a certain threshold. My smaller living room and desk space were quickly filled by the Majority Elias's Dolby Atmossound, its 160W output certainly doesn't pull its punches in this regard.

What's okay about the Majority Elias?

The remote control itself, whilst incredibly useful and well laid out for precise control, does feel flimsy to use. It has a hollow build quality to it that's disappointing to use, despite its otherwise appealing design.

The buttons on the Elias itself also feel a little cheaper in quality compared to the soundbar itself. Should you lose your soundbar remote, which is likely thanks to its size, there are no options to adjust or use presets on the soundbar itself. But the main features are there to use with ease, so it's difficult to criticise the soundbar too much for this slight oversight.

Any negatives to the Majority Elias?

The major negatives surrounding the Majority Elias is, without question, the lacklustre sound quality, which has a tinny, slightly unpleasant sound which slightly improves at higher volumes.

Yes, the Elias has a handful of modes to cycle through, but the majority of them don't offer any major improvements to the sound. '3D Mode in particular, which is supposed to create an immersive, directional soundscape, has that room-filling quality, but it fills the room with what is disappointing sound.

Detail is lost, and any richness to classic songs across genres doesn't really shine, which is a real shame considering the bargain that this soundbar is presented as.

After hours of listening, primarily whilst bingewatching shows on Netflix, I quickly experienced repeated audio cutting, which seemed particularly odd as the soundbar itself was positioned directly adjacent to my PC. This repeated cutting, along with audio syncing issues could only be solved by completely switching off the Elias itself for a short time, which seemed to sort the problem.

Speaking of Bluetooth, I also found the range of the Elias to be much smaller than expected. Bluetooth 5.3 is supposed to be incredibly strong, connecting to devices from a great distance. However, while testing with my phone, a Google Pixel 8, just moving into the next room about 6-7 metres away, I experienced complete loss of audio streaming.

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Who tested it?

Ryan Houghton is a digital content writer and reviewer for What's The Best, covering technology such as phones, speakers, e-readers, televisions and much more for your reading pleasure. Ryan has written about a wide range of audio technology for over two years, and his love of music, films, television and gaming allowed him to really put the Majority Elias to the test.

How it was tested

I tested the Majority Elias soundbar for two-to-three weeks, using it for hours each day as my primary audio output on my PC. Using it to stream music on Spotify, and to use during games such as Elden Ring and a variety of Netflix shows.

I tested the Elias by trying out each unique preset, as well as manually adjusting the bass and treble to fine-tune the speaker itself.

In testing the Bluetooth capabilities of the Elias, I put some distance between my connected device and the soundbar, just to get an idea of the true range of the soundbar's connectivity.

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Ryan Houghton is a commercial content writer for What’s The Best, known best for his expertise in gaming, with a particular soft spot for PC gaming, audio tech, televisions and smartphones.

Diligently writing for What’s The Best for almost two years, there are very few tech products Ryan hasn’t had his hands on to review; televisions, headphones, folding phones and even LEGO, if it’s nerdy, he’ll be there.

His well-versed history as one of the resident techies at What’s The Best has kept him keen to uncover the very best deals, savings and offers for those in need of a cracking deal to upgrade their setup.

In his downtime, Ryan most likely has his nose buried in a fantasy book, or his eyes glued to a screen whilst playing a tough-as-nails Soulslike or leisurely RPG, indulging in most forms of escapism where possible.

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