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I tried a shockingly affordable 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos surround soundbar — and it's instantly addictive

January 09, 2026 • 5 min read • views
I tried a shockingly affordable 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos surround soundbar — and it's instantly addictive
  1. Televisions
  2. Soundbars
I tried a shockingly affordable 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos surround soundbar — and it's instantly addictive Features By Matt Bolton published 9 January 2026

Real side surrounds and huge bass for smaller spaces

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The Ultimea Skywave X100 Dual at CES 2026 on the show floor (Image credit: Future) Share Share by:
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We know Ultimea well for its super-affordable soundbars, which bring improved audio and even solid surround sound for super-cheap prices. We rate the Ultimea Poseidon D50 among the best soundbars on a budget, for example.

But the company also leans towards the high-end sometimes, and I got very interested by the unusual new soundbar system it teased for CES 2026, so I tracked it down at the show.

The Skywave X100 Dual is a 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos system, which is a very unusual system to get in a single home solution – and it's doubly unusual because the setup uses four satellite speakers with a soundbar at the front to deliver all these channels, plus two beefy subwoofers. The main competitor in this way is the Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6.

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The Ultimea Skywave X100 Dual at CES 2026 on the show floor

(Image credit: Future)

Ultimea's booth at CES was playing Top Gun: Maverick's bombing and air defense scene on the system, which was perfect for me – we regularly use this exact scene for testing surround sound, and I've highlighted it as being one of the best Dolby Atmos movies to see what your system at home can do.

So I sat on a sofa, with two speakers at the sides behind me, two immediately to my left and right, and the soundbar and subs in front by the TV – and the surround effects are easily the most convincing I've ever heard for a soundbar system.

Elite soundbar setups like the Samsung HW-Q990F do a fantastic job of bouncing sound around the room to simulate side speakers, but there is no substitute for having an actual speaker firing directly to the side.

The connection between the front and rear speakers is immediately clearly better than my elaborate home Sonos surround system – missiles blast from the screen, snake right past my ear, and then whip behind me.

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The Ultimea Skywave X100 Dual at CES 2026 on the show floor, showing the two subs and a soundbar

(Image credit: Future)

And the impact of the dual subs is obviously massive as well – non-directional bass just fills the space, gripping your ribcage when it wants your attention.

My only area of concern based on this demo is the soundbar at the front. I wasn't getting the same scale of width from it during my time there, but I think that may be partly just due to how the booth was set up. The sofa was quite far from the soundbar, but with the surround speakers right next to the sofa, the soundbar may have been interfered with more by sounds from the rest of the expo.

And at the same time, there was a solid wall to my left that the soundbar could use to bounce audio off, but nothing to my right at all. It's not really the environment it's designed to operate in, so I'll reserve judgment on that aspect.

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The Ultimea Skywave X100 Dual at CES 2026 on the show floor

(Image credit: Future)

What I can say for sure is that, as someone who's used to a four-box soundbar system (soundbar, rears, sub), switching to this seven-box system has me absolutely hooked and wanting to try it out more with more movies.

And one of the best parts of this system is that I could have it at home, even in my small living room. No big home theater space is needed – the satellite speakers are all super-slim, and the soundbar is just regular-sized.

It supports DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, has 2,000 watts of total power, and has 4K 120Hz HDMI passthrough for good measure. This could be THE home theater setup for those of us desperate for real surround sound in a small space.

Now, the Skywave X100 Dual doesn't come anywhere near as cheap as the company's other soundbars… and yet, it's still kind of a bargain in the grand scheme of things.

It will cost $2,200 full price when it hits retail, which I think is pretty reasonable for something with this many speaker boxes, and it'll probably get discounts during Black Friday.

However, it's actually going to launch with huge discounts too. It will launch on Kickstarter on March 12th, 2026, and will be available for just $899 at an 'Insider Price', or for $999 as a 'Super Early Bird Price'. We never recommend products when they're in the Kickstarter phase only, and obviously, I'm FAR from giving this a full review, but if you, like me, are a home theater nut with limited space, I think it's worth keeping a close eye on this.

Samsung HW-Q800D square The best soundbars for all budgetsOur top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

➡️ Read our full guide to the best soundbars1. Best overall:Samsung HW-Q800F2. Best budget:Sony HT-S20003. Best premium all-in-one:Klipsch Flexus Core 3004. Best Dolby Atmos surround system:Samsung HW-Q990F

TechRadar is extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI. You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

TOPICS Dolby Atmos Sonos Samsung CES CATEGORIES Home Theater Matt BoltonMatt BoltonSocial Links NavigationManaging Editor, Entertainment

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Entertainment, meaning he's in charge of persuading our team of writers and reviewers to watch the latest TV shows and movies on gorgeous TVs and listen to fantastic speakers and headphones. It's a tough task, as you can imagine. Matt has over a decade of experience in tech publishing, and previously ran the TV & audio coverage for our colleagues at T3.com, and before that he edited T3 magazine. During his career, he's also contributed to places as varied as Creative Bloq, PC Gamer, PetsRadar, MacLife, and Edge. TV and movie nerdism is his speciality, and he goes to the cinema three times a week. He's always happy to explain the virtues of Dolby Vision over a drink, but he might need to use props, like he's explaining the offside rule.

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