Majority Bowfell Halo Atmos review

The name of this Majority system might invoke visions of angelic figures or an off-brand Bond villain, but seeing the soundbar package in the flesh will set you straight pretty quickly.

Featuring one of the most compact designs we have had in our test room and boasting Dolby Atmos support, it’s a tempting proposition on paper.

And, even though the budget soundbar market has been hotting up in the past year, the Bowfell Halo Atmos still stands out as something unusual.

Price

The Majority Bowfell Halo Atmos is not only the cheapest Dolby Atmos system we’ve ever tested, but the cheapest Dolby Atmos soundbar we’ve tested, period, coming in at £169.

This converts to around $225 / AU$320 in the US and Australia respectively, but it’s not currently available in either region.

When looking at complete Dolby Atmos soundbar packages at a similar price, only the Hisense AX5125H comes close to matching this and is available for £249 / $350 (around AU$500). That model received a What Hi-Fi? Award last year, and we praised its cinematic weight and scale in our review.

If you don't mind doing without the dedicated surrounds, a subwoofer, and/or Dolby Atmos, your options at this level widen dramatically, with models such as the Sony HT-SF150, Creative Stage Pro and Sonos Ray all being strong choices.

Build

Comprising a main soundbar, two surrounds and a subwoofer, the Bowfell Halo Atmos is a complete Dolby Atmos package. That’s all packed into a mind-bogglingly small footprint, so much so that it looks almost like a toy replica of a larger system.

As a whole, the soundbar package weighs just 3.6kg so, suffice to say, it feels pretty cheap.

The soundbar alone measures 6.2 x 41 x 9cm (hwd) – that’s smaller than the average baguette. It's somewhat dwarfed by our 65-inch LG C6 TV, and will look much more at home beneath a 32- or 43-inch model.

The surrounds are incredibly compact – just a little bigger than the average clenched fist. The subwoofer also boasts a compact design at just 32cm tall, with an inconspicuous black plastic coating and a five-inch driver.

On the top of the bar is a panel where you can change the power, volume and input. Rather surprisingly for such a budget model, we have a dot matrix display at the front of the bar that flags input, volume and EQ adjustments.

Set-up is fairly simple, as the main surround speaker connects to the other via a cable. There’s no wire connecting to the main soundbar, so there's no cable running from the front to the back of the room.

While you may prefer a completely wired surround experience, at this price, we wouldn’t expect more.

Majority’s remote control for the bar is oddly quite bulky, especially compared to the rest of the package.

From here, you can control volume, power, input, toggle between EQ modes and adjust the bass and treble levels. These EQ modes consist of Music, Movie, News and Sport, although these are counter-intuitively labelled numerically on the display.

Features

Under the hood of the soundbar you will find three front-facing drivers. The subwoofer features one down-facing driver and the surrounds include one front-facing driver each. That adds up to a 5.1-channel system.

The Halo Atmos offers Dolby Atmos support, but there’s no DTS:X or DTS-HD Master Audio on the cards. As there are no up-firing drivers, these Atmos effects are virtualised.

It does offer Bluetooth 5.3 but, as you would expect from such a budget model, there is no wi-fi connection. You can use most other smart devices to stream music from the likes of Tidal, Apple Music, Qobuz and Spotify.

Connectivity is understandably quite limited. Around the back of the main soundbar you will find an HDMI eARC socket, a USB, an aux and an optical port.

Sound

It’s fair to say our expectations were fairly low for the cheap and tiny Majority system, but we are quickly and pleasantly surprised by its sound.

We opt for the Movie mode (‘EQ2’ on the display), but are at first greeted with a rather dominating bass that distracts from the rest of the sound. For that reason, we bump it down a few notches to help with integration.

Once we have scaled it back, the system delivers a deep and relatively tuneful bass that gives movies a sense of excitement.

We start off at the deep end with our go-to bass stress test as a futuristic ship weaves around buildings in chapter two of Blade Runner 2049, accompanied by a tonally varied soundtrack.

While the soundbar does not have the punch to give each beat an impactful entrance, it is still reasonably controlled in its delivery and can go impressively deep considering the subwoofer’s small stature.

What’s more, it doesn’t distort the bass – we have seen more expensive models make this mistake. This strong bass results in a loud delivery, so the dynamics feel a bit stunted.

The Blade Runner 2049 scene should start off moodily, but the Majority system goes in all guns blazing at the expense of the subtle atmospherics. It also lacks the extra extension to deliver the dynamic climb to the dramatic crescendo.

Even if you turn down the volume, it still doesn't have the expressive dynamics we are looking for.

Turning to its performance with vocals, they are certainly clear and intelligible, which will be an improvement on most TVs’ audio, especially with the smaller models with which the Majority will likely be partnered.

Watching Wicked, as Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba launches into an electric rendition of The Wizard And I, her voice is brought to the front of the track and means you won’t miss a word. The vocals lack warmth and expression though, making them come across as somewhat artificial.

The lower midrange is a particular area of inadequacy for the Majority, meaning some deeper voices feel a little inconsistent, with something of a gap felt in those frequencies.

Having dedicated satellite speakers of course gives you an element of surround sound that you can’t get from single bar set-ups, but their compact design limits their effectiveness. While they do at times draw the ear with a neat surround effect, their audio is quite localised and doesn’t tie in terribly effectively with the sound from the main bar.

When watching Top Gun: Maverick, for example, when a jet flies from right to left, the soundbar does a respectable job of placing the sound and tracking it across the screen, but there is a noticeable gap between the soundbar and the surround speakers.

That isn’t to say their presence in the system isn’t a net positive, but don’t go expecting a fully immersive surround field.

On that subject, the Majority system’s Dolby Atmos chops are also rather limited. You get some sense of height effects, but only to a little above ear height. If you’re expecting to hear helicopters hovering overhead and fighter planes sweeping across your ceiling, you will be disappointed.

In Thunderbolts, when a squad of soldiers gun down the hapless Bob, the gunshots remain pretty glued to the TV screen without much of a surround sound effect. That’s a shame if you want that extra immersion, but that’s perhaps too much to ask at this price and size.

Compared to the slightly cheaper Creative Stage Pro, the Majority model is clearly the more immersive of the two. Its deep bass and ‘true’ (if limited) surround sound make for a more cinematic experience. The Creative, however, counters with a much more natural-sounding vocal performance and a more precise soundfield. It’s primarily a choice between scale and authenticity.

The Majority does not perform nearly as well with music as it does with movies.

Playing Harry Styles’ American Girls in Music mode with the bass knocked down again, the soundbar seems to be adding surround processing where there should be none.

The vocal track should sound direct and focused, but the soundbar spatially separates the harmonies in a forced and discombobulating manner: it sounds as though there is an uninvited choir of Harrys serenading us.

On the plus side, the subwoofer’s enthusiastic way with bass lends the track a good sense of pep and energy. But the Creative delivers a more natural and pleasant listening experience with the same track, offering a more crisp and better-organised rendition.

If you are looking for a system equally capable with music as with movies, your money would be better placed elsewhere.

But the Majority model delivers a surprisingly bassy and cinematic sound that, while limited, feels rather impressive for the price.

Verdict

For such a budget model, the Majority Bowfell Halo Atmos has massively exceeded our expectations. Its compact design will be a big draw for those working with a small space, as long as you don’t mind some pesky wires.

On top of that, its hard-working subwoofer makes a controlled impact and gives movies a good buzz of energy.

It’s certainly not a great choice if you are planning to use your soundbar for music, and the Atmos effect is limited, but this remains a cheap and convenient way to improve your TV’s audio quality and get a sense of cinematic surround sound.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Creative Stage Pro

Also consider the Hisense AX5125H

Read our Sony HT-SF150 review

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